Semantic code project: next steps

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Thoughts following call on 3 March 2021

Levels of meaning/audience

There are at least three layers of meaning, which equate with audiences: (a) business: what practically is the deal I have to do; (b) litigation: if worst came to worst what would a court say about this (c) risk monitoring, increasingly my machine/code. These layers translate more or less to:

• The termsheet: these are the cocktail napkin terms; merchants assume the particular articulation of things that “go without saying” can be left to the legal layer.
• The legal layer: written in legal text (which may be more or less legalese) but which is designed to articulate with sufficient clarity those things that ought to “go without saying”. Here the objective is not “to convince a judge” but to put quotidian matters beyond doubt so that there is no need to refer to a judge.