Purpose and objectives

The primary purpose of the Rules-as-Code (RaC) Guild is to foster open collaboration in the development, innovation, education, and promotion of practices related to transforming legal rules, including legislative and regulatory provisions, into machine-executable code. 

In pursuing this, we strive to unlock the full potential of RaC, aiming to guarantee consistent and fair application of rules, strengthen transparency and accountability, improve the speed and precision of compliance processes, and facilitate more effective policy development, along with numerous other advantages.

Domain - Computer-readable legal rules

The community focuses on the principles, methodologies and tools related to translating legal text into human-centred, machine-readable and executable code.

This might involve discussions about human-centred design, best practices, infrastructure, coding standards, and testing methods specific to RaC.

Community - Diverse set of stakeholders

Community-members - People or organisations who will use or be affected by these coded rules, providing feedback and real-world perspectives.

Policy makers/representatives - Individuals involved in creating or guiding public policies, ensuring the purpose and intent of the rules are preserved.

Legislation/regulatory drafters - drafting experts involved in creating, changing, reforming, publishing and translating policy instructions into legislation and regulation.

Legal professionals - Lawyers, regulators who provide the legal expertise and ensure the accuracy of coded rules.

Business/Rules analysts - Analysts who can help convert written policy and regulations into structured rules statements.

Designers - Service, UI, UX and content designers who can develop user-centric frontend interfaces.

IT professionals  - Solution architects, developers and platform engineers who can design systems, write code and set up and maintain platforms that can deliver Rules-as-Code applications and platforms.

Practice - Collaborative development and refinement

Shared tools - The community may develop or adapt tools specifically designed for RaC, ensuring consistency and accuracy.

Workshops - Regular workshops could be held to collaboratively draft code, test implementations, or address challenges.

Case studies - The community could review and learn from real-world implementations of RaC.

Documentation - Create and maintain comprehensive documentation detailing best practices, methodologies, and lessons learned.

Key activities and characteristics

Training and upskilling - Training sessions could be organised that will upskill members in new tools or methodologies related to RaC.

Knowledge sharing - A platform (e.g. Slack, Google docs) will be set up where members can ask questions, share experiences or discuss challenges.

Standardisation - Work towards establishing industry- or domain-specific standards for RaC to ensure consistency and interoperability.

Feedback loop - Develop mechanisms to get regular feedback from end-users and iterate on the coded rules accordingly.

Collaboration with institutions - Engage with academic institutions, government bodies and industry associations to gain insights, support and validation.

Potential challenges

Some of the challenges that the community needs to be mindful of include:

  • Capturing the nuances and intricacies of legal texts in code.
  • Interdisciplinary collaboration -  Ensuring smooth communication between legal professionals and developers, given the distinct jargons and thought processes of both fields.
  • A lack of examples/case studies to show RaC in action particularly as a public utility. 
  • Finding the best blend of technologies that will produce a user-focused outcome.

Values and principles / code of conduct

  • Transparency - All decisions, processes and discussions are open and accessible.
     
  • Respect - All members treat each other with kindness and respect, irrespective of their backgrounds or opinions
     
  • Meritocracy - Contributions are evaluated based on merit rather than the contributor's credentials
     
  • Give back - Learnings and technical developments are shared back with the community wherever possible
     
  • We are here for each other - We value the unique talents, backgrounds, identities and experiences of our members. It’s up to all of us to keep this community a friendly, welcoming, and inclusive place for everyone.
     
  • Technology agnostic - We are not dedicated to the promotion of any one RaC technology but are open to discussions and contributions on all and any RaC technologies.

Membership

Membership to the community is open to individuals, community/professional organisations, educational institutions, technology organisations and anyone else with an interest in RaC.

Membership will be withdrawn in the event of serious breach of the Values and principles / code of conduct as outlined in this Charter. The decision to withdraw membership can be taken by any individual RaC Guild steering committee member. 

You are considered an individual member when you are invited into and have an RaC Guild Slack user account.

Member organisations are ones that participate and have agreed to be listed on the RaC Guild web presence, and can be one or more of the categories: member organisation, technology, academic, etc.

Roles and responsibilities

Community manager

  • Role - Day-to-day operation of the Guild. Acts as the primary point of contact, moderates discussions and ensures the community remains active and engaged.

    The community manager is appointed by the members.

Community members

  • Active participants in the community.

Decision making

  • Decisions will be made collaboratively based on recommendations from the working groups.

Conflict resolution

In case of conflicts:

  1. Parties involved should first try to resolve the issue among themselves.
  2. If unresolved, seek mediation from the community manager or a neutral third party.
  3. As a last resort, conflicts can be raised to the broader community for discussion and resolution.
     

Changes to the Charter

This Charter may be updated or modified. Proposed changes will be discussed in the community, and a majority consensus by the RaC Guild Steering Committee is needed for the adoption of significant changes.

Contact and communication

Website: racguild.org/contact-us
Slack: racguild.slack.com