Ensuring the transparency of automated administrative decisions

Transforming legislative texts into computer programs is essential for applying the law on a large scale, for example when calculating taxes or distributing welfare benefits.

However, this task is complex due to the often ambiguous and contextual nature of legal texts. CATALA has been designed to meet this challenge: a programming language specially developed to transcribe the law in a faithful and comprehensible way, ensuring accurate application of legal rules.

Denis Merigoux is the project manager for software infrastructures in support of public policy at Inria.

"The aim is not to formalize or put into code all the law, as that would make no sense, but we are interested in the law that is already executed automatically, such as the calculation of social benefits, taxes or unemployment",

"We really get lawyers and computer scientists working together, who exchange information live on the code that the computer scientist is writing, in order to make modifications to it in real time. Thanks to this approach, it becomes possible to guarantee that tax and social security rules are applied accurately and faithfully to the law, thus reducing the risk of error and reinforcing the transparency of automated administrative decisions."

Two proofs of concept for government agencies have already been issued:

• one for the Caisse Nationale des Allocations Familiales, which is currently carrying out studies on the future of the system calculating all social benefits in France,
• and a second for the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques, for the calculation of income tax.

By replacing the legacy IT systems used to calculate taxes and social security benefits, the language developed will ensure that the administration's algorithms apply the law as interpreted by the administration's legal departments, without distortion or approximation.

For the full article: CATALA translates law into code for a more reliable administration

Illustration: Steve Buissinne - Pixabay

Visit inria.fr