# Legislative Ingestion with LLM Use LLMs to help encode legislation in L4. **Audience:** Legal engineers, legislative drafters **Prerequisites:** [LLM Getting Started](/l4/tutorials/llm-integration/llm-getting-started.md), intermediate L4 knowledge **Time:** 30 minutes **Goal:** Learn a workflow for LLM-assisted legislation encoding --- ## The Challenge Converting legislation to L4 involves: 1. **Understanding** the legal text 2. **Identifying** types and rules 3. **Translating** to L4 syntax 4. **Verifying** the encoding LLMs can help with steps 1-3, but humans must verify step 4. --- ## The Workflow ``` ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 1. SEGMENT: Break legislation into chunks │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 2. EXTRACT: LLM identifies types & rules │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3. TRANSLATE: LLM generates L4 draft │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 4. VALIDATE: Human reviews & L4 type-checks │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 5. ITERATE: Fix issues, re-validate │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` --- ## Step 1: Segment the Legislation Break legislation into manageable chunks. Each chunk should be: - Self-contained (one concept) - Referenced by section/article number - Small enough for LLM context ### Example Legislation ``` Charities (Jersey) Law 2014 Article 2 - Interpretation In this Law – "charitable purpose" means any of the purposes specified in Schedule 1; "charity" means an entity that is established for charitable purposes only; "governor" means any person who is responsible for the control and management of the administration of a registered charity; Article 5 - Charity test An entity meets the charity test if – (a) all of its purposes are charitable purposes; and (b) it satisfies the public benefit requirement. Article 7 - Public benefit (1) The public benefit requirement is that – (a) any benefit that may result from carrying out the purposes is a benefit to the public or a section of the public; and (b) any benefit to persons who are not members of the public but who have a material connection to the entity is not unduly favourable. ``` --- ## Step 2: Extract Structure with LLM ### Prompt for Type Extraction ``` You are analyzing legislation to extract data types for encoding in L4. Legislation text: """ Article 2 - Interpretation In this Law – "charitable purpose" means any of the purposes specified in Schedule 1; "charity" means an entity that is established for charitable purposes only; "governor" means any person who is responsible for the control and management of the administration of a registered charity; """ Extract all defined terms as types. For each type, identify: 1. Name of the type 2. Whether it's an enumeration (fixed list) or record (has fields) 3. The fields or variants 4. Any referenced types Output as JSON: ``` ### Expected LLM Response ```json { "types": [ { "name": "CharitablePurpose", "kind": "enumeration", "note": "Variants from Schedule 1 - not defined here", "reference": "Schedule 1" }, { "name": "Charity", "kind": "record", "fields": [ { "name": "purposes", "type": "LIST OF CharitablePurpose", "constraint": "charitable only" } ] }, { "name": "Governor", "kind": "record", "fields": [ { "name": "person", "type": "Person" }, { "name": "charity", "type": "RegisteredCharity" } ], "note": "responsible for control and management" } ] } ``` --- ## Step 3: Generate L4 Draft ### Prompt for L4 Generation ``` You are generating L4 code from legislative requirements. L4 syntax reference: - Types: DECLARE TypeName HAS field IS A FieldType - Enums: DECLARE TypeName IS ONE OF Variant1, Variant2 - Rules: DECIDE `rule name` IF condition1 AND condition2 Requirement: """ Article 5 - Charity test An entity meets the charity test if – (a) all of its purposes are charitable purposes; and (b) it satisfies the public benefit requirement. """ Types already defined: - Charity: has purposes (LIST OF Purpose) - Purpose: enumeration of charitable purposes Generate L4 code with: 1. Type declarations if needed 2. The main rule 3. Comments referencing the article ``` ### Expected LLM Response ```l4 -- Article 5: Charity test -- An entity meets the charity test if: -- (a) all of its purposes are charitable purposes; and -- (b) it satisfies the public benefit requirement. GIVEN entity IS A Charity GIVETH A BOOLEAN DECIDE `meets charity test` IF `all purposes are charitable` entity -- Art 5(a) AND `satisfies public benefit` entity -- Art 5(b) -- Art 5(a): All purposes must be charitable GIVEN entity IS A Charity GIVETH A BOOLEAN `all purposes are charitable` MEANS all (GIVEN p YIELD `is charitable purpose` p) (entity's purposes) -- Art 5(b): Public benefit requirement (see Art 7) GIVEN entity IS A Charity GIVETH A BOOLEAN ASSUME `satisfies public benefit` IS BOOLEAN -- Note: Full definition requires Article 7 encoding ``` --- ## Step 4: Validate and Refine ### Check Type Correctness Run the L4 type checker: ```bash l4 check charity-test.l4 # Or from a Haskell checkout cabal run l4 -- check charity-test.l4 ``` ### Common Issues | LLM Output | Problem | Fix | | ----------------------- | -------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | `purposes IS A Purpose` | Should be LIST | `purposes IS A LIST OF Purpose` | | Missing GIVETH | No return type | Add `GIVETH A BOOLEAN` | | `IF x = TRUE` | Redundant | Just `IF x` | | Wrong field access | Missing 's | `entity's purposes` not `entity purposes` | ### Human Review Checklist - [ ] Types match legislation definitions - [ ] Rules capture all conditions - [ ] Cross-references are correct - [ ] Edge cases are handled - [ ] Code compiles without errors --- ## Step 5: Iterate Feed validation errors back to LLM: ``` The L4 type checker found this error: Error: Type 'Purpose' not in scope Location: line 12 Current code: all (GIVEN p YIELD `is charitable purpose` p) (entity's purposes) Available types: - CharitablePurpose - Charity - Entity Fix the type name. ``` --- ## Complete Example ### Input Legislation ``` Article 19 - Disqualification of governors (1) A person is disqualified from acting as a governor of a charity if – (a) the person is an undischarged bankrupt; (b) the person has an unspent conviction for an offence involving dishonesty or deception; (c) the person is disqualified from acting as a company director; or (d) the person is subject to a disqualification order under Article 23. ``` ### LLM-Generated L4 (After Refinement) ```l4 § `Article 19 - Governor Disqualification` -- Types for disqualification grounds DECLARE DisqualificationGround IS ONE OF Bankruptcy -- Art 19(1)(a) UnspentConviction HAS offence IS A STRING -- Art 19(1)(b) DirectorDisqualification -- Art 19(1)(c) DisqualificationOrder HAS orderRef IS A STRING -- Art 19(1)(d) -- Person record for governors DECLARE Person HAS name IS A STRING isBankrupt IS A BOOLEAN convictions IS A LIST OF Conviction isDirectorDisqualified IS A BOOLEAN disqualificationOrders IS A LIST OF STRING DECLARE Conviction HAS offence IS A STRING isSpent IS A BOOLEAN involvesDishonesty IS A BOOLEAN -- Article 19(1)(a): Bankruptcy GIVEN person IS A Person GIVETH A BOOLEAN `is undischarged bankrupt` MEANS person's isBankrupt -- Article 19(1)(b): Unspent conviction for dishonesty GIVEN person IS A Person GIVETH A BOOLEAN `has disqualifying conviction` MEANS any (GIVEN c YIELD c's involvesDishonesty AND NOT c's isSpent ) (person's convictions) -- Article 19(1)(c): Director disqualification GIVEN person IS A Person GIVETH A BOOLEAN `is director disqualified` MEANS person's isDirectorDisqualified -- Article 19(1)(d): Disqualification order GIVEN person IS A Person GIVETH A BOOLEAN `has disqualification order` MEANS length (person's disqualificationOrders) > 0 -- Main rule: Article 19(1) GIVEN person IS A Person GIVETH A BOOLEAN DECIDE `is disqualified as governor` IF `is undischarged bankrupt` person -- (a) OR `has disqualifying conviction` person -- (b) OR `is director disqualified` person -- (c) OR `has disqualification order` person -- (d) ``` --- ## Best Practices ### 1. Chunk Size - One article/section per prompt - Include cross-references in context ### 2. Iterative Refinement - Start with types - Then rules - Then edge cases ### 3. Human-in-the-Loop - Always validate LLM output - Run type checker - Test with #EVAL/#TRACE ### 4. Version Control - Track both source legislation and L4 - Document which LLM/version used - Keep prompts for reproducibility --- ## Limitations - LLMs can hallucinate legal interpretations - Complex cross-references may be missed - Human expertise still essential - Output needs validation --- ## What You Learned - Workflow for LLM-assisted legislation encoding - Prompt design for type extraction - Prompt design for L4 generation - Validation and iteration --- ## Next Steps - [LLM Getting Started](/l4/tutorials/llm-integration/llm-getting-started.md) - Basics of LLM integration - [Advanced Course Module A1](/l4/courses/advanced/module-a1-regulatory.md) - Manual legislative encoding - Practice with real legislation from your jurisdiction