Dutch legal and technical terms used across RegelRecht, with English translations.
Dutch legal terminology used throughout RegelRecht, with English translations.
These are the values of regulatory_layer, the schema field naming the kind of legal instrument a file is. The layer fixes which identifier the file must carry, and it ranks candidates when several regulations implement the same open term.
Note that verordening names four different things in this list. An EU-verordening is directly applicable across the Union and outranks national law; a gemeentelijke verordening is local. The shared word is not a shared concept.
| Value | Dutch | English | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
GRONDWET | Grondwet | Constitution | Supreme law of the Netherlands |
WET | Wet | Act of Parliament | Formal legislation passed by the Staten-Generaal |
AMVB | Algemene Maatregel van Bestuur (AMvB) | Order in Council | General administrative order by the Crown, on the basis of a wet |
KONINKLIJK_BESLUIT | Koninklijk besluit (KB) | Royal decree | A decision of the Crown, used among other things to set entry into force |
MINISTERIELE_REGELING | Ministeriële regeling | Ministerial regulation | Regulation issued by a minister under a delegation |
BELEIDSREGEL | Beleidsregel | Policy rule | A rule on how a body uses a power it already has (Awb art. 1:3 lid 4). Binds the body, not the citizen directly |
EU_VERORDENING | EU-verordening | EU Regulation | Directly applicable in every member state, without transposition |
EU_RICHTLIJN | EU-richtlijn | EU Directive | Binding as to the result, transposed into national law by the member state |
VERDRAG | Verdrag | Treaty | International agreement binding on the Netherlands |
UITVOERINGSBELEID | Uitvoeringsbeleid | Implementation policy | Published practice of an executing body, below the level of a beleidsregel |
GEMEENTELIJKE_VERORDENING | Gemeentelijke verordening | Municipal ordinance | Local regulation by a municipality |
PROVINCIALE_VERORDENING | Provinciale verordening | Provincial ordinance | Regional regulation by a province |
WATERSCHAPS_VERORDENING | Waterschapsverordening | Water authority ordinance | Regulation by a waterschap, the regional water authority |
REDUCTIE | Reductie | Reduction | No regulation: a cell’s reduction over its own chronicle (RFC-022 §4). Kept with the cell, it alone reads the cell’s chronicle: decisions (source.decisions) and the facts it recorded (source.facts, RFC-051). It may fill an open term (implements), and does not act on law otherwise (no hooks, overrides, execution.produces or open_terms) (RFC-048) |
| Dutch | English | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Algemene wet bestuursrecht (Awb) | General Administrative Law Act | Framework law for government decision-making |
| Besluit | Decision | A written decision of an administrative body constituting a public-law act (Awb art. 1:3 lid 1) |
| Beschikking | Individual decision | A besluit that is not of general scope (Awb art. 1:3 lid 2). The scope, not the number of people affected, is what distinguishes it |
| Aanvraag | Application | A request for a decision from a government body |
| Bekendmaking | Notification | Making a decision known to the addressee (Awb art. 3:41). The bezwaar period runs from this moment, not from the decision itself |
| Bezwaar | Objection | First recourse, filed with the body that decided |
| Bezwaartermijn | Objection period | Six weeks from bekendmaking (Awb art. 6:7 and 6:8) |
| Beroep | Appeal | Court appeal against a decision on bezwaar |
| Belanghebbende | Interested party | A person whose interest is directly affected by a besluit (Awb art. 1:2) |
| Motivering | Statement of reasons | The obligation to state the grounds a decision rests on (Awb art. 3:46) |
The values of legal_character, the schema field saying what kind of thing an output is.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
BESCHIKKING | A besluit not of general scope (Awb art. 1:3 lid 2) |
BESLUIT_VAN_ALGEMENE_STREKKING | A besluit that is of general scope, addressed to an open group |
RECHTSPOSITIE | A legal position arising by operation of law, without a besluit and without an aanvraag (voting rights, majority, nationality) |
TOETS | An assessment against a norm that is not itself a decision |
WAARDEBEPALING | A determination of a value that other rules then use |
INFORMATIEF | Informative output, carrying no legal consequence of its own |
The values of decision_type, saying what kind of decision an output is within its legal character.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
TOEKENNING | Granting what was applied for |
AFWIJZING | Refusing what was applied for |
GOEDKEURING | Approval of an act by another body |
AANSLAG | A tax assessment |
ALGEMEEN_VERBINDEND_VOORSCHRIFT | A generally binding rule |
BELEIDSREGEL | A policy rule on the use of an existing power (Awb art. 1:3 lid 4) |
VOORBEREIDINGSBESLUIT | A preparatory decision taken ahead of a further one |
ANDERE_HANDELING | Another act that is not one of the above |
GEEN_BESLUIT | Not a decision at all; the article establishes a fact |
| Dutch | English | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bestuursorgaan | Administrative body | Any government body making decisions |
| Staten-Generaal | Parliament | Dutch legislature (Eerste + Tweede Kamer) |
| Tweede Kamer | House of Representatives | Lower house of Parliament |
| Eerste Kamer | Senate | Upper house of Parliament |
| Gemeente | Municipality | Local government |
| Belastingdienst | Tax Authority | National tax administration |
| SVB | Social Insurance Bank | Executes social insurance laws |
| UWV | Employee Insurance Agency | Executes employee insurance laws |
| Dienst Toeslagen | Benefits Administration | Executes the income-dependent benefit schemes, zorgtoeslag among them |
| Provincie | Province | Regional government, one layer above the municipality |
| Waterschap | Water authority | Regional body for water management, with its own regulatory power |
| Dutch | English | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Memorie van Toelichting (MvT) | Explanatory Memorandum | Legislative intent document accompanying a bill |
| Wetsvoorstel | Bill | Proposed legislation before Parliament |
| Staatsblad | Official Gazette | Where national legislation is formally published |
| Gemeenteblad | Municipal Gazette | Where municipal ordinances are formally published |
| Provincieblad | Provincial Gazette | Where provincial ordinances are formally published |
| Waterschapsblad | Water Authority Gazette | Where waterschap ordinances are formally published |
| Inwerkingtreding | Entry into force | Date a law becomes effective |
| Dutch | English | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Geldigheid | Validity | Period during which a law is in force |
| Peildatum | Reference date | Date at which conditions are evaluated |
| Terugwerkende kracht | Retroactive effect | Law applies to situations before its enactment |
| Term | Dutch | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Rulework | Regelwerk | One regulation as recorded in the law format: its legal text with the machine-executable interpretation beside it, identified by its $id. The whole rulework is written in the format; the legal text in it is a verbatim quotation that the format carries and does not interpret. Each dated YAML file is a version of the rulework, so a regulation that was amended once has one rulework with two versions. It need not be a statute: a ministerial regulation or a municipal ordinance gets a rulework too. The schema and the language are not a rulework. Neither is the legal source: wet and regeling keep naming what the legislature laid down. Several together form a stelsel van regelwerken. Older documents and the paper call it a law YAML, an executable specification or an encoding (RFC-044) |
| Corpus | Corpus | The git-versioned collection of ruleworks. A federated corpus spans more than one repository |
| Open term | Open term | The schema construct (open_terms) for a value an article leaves to be filled outside itself: by a regulation, under delegation or in co-government, or per case by the authority decided_per_case_by names. See Inversion of Control |
| Open norm | Open norm | A standard the law leaves vague on purpose, such as redelijkerwijs or in bijzondere gevallen, so that its content is decided case by case. Not the same thing as a delegated value, though the format records it in the same place: as an open term with decided_per_case_by. It is not a marking, because the language can express it. See RFC-031 |
| Implements | Gelet op | A regulation declaring which open terms of a law it fills. The schema field carries gelet_op, the citation the Dutch instrument opens with in its preamble. The preamble records the basis; the power itself comes from the article of the law |
| Cross-law reference | Verwijzing | A law reading an output of another law through a source block. See Cross-Law References |
| Parameter | Parameter | A value the caller supplies with the question, such as the bsn of the person it is about. See Law Format |
| Input | Invoer | A value an article needs but does not decide itself. It comes from another law through source, or from outside the corpus |
| Data source | Gegevensbron | Where an input with source: {} comes from: a register, the caller or the person, anything outside the corpus. The empty block says that no law in the corpus computes the value |
| Nullable | - | nullable: true on a parameter, input or output: absence (null) is a legitimate value of that field. Defaults to false, and the type checker and the engine hold a law to it. See Absent and unknown values |
| Legal basis | Grondslag | legal_basis: the provision an element cites for itself, such as the article that creates a delegation on an open term, or the lid an action carries out. A trace reports it next to the place the engine actually was (RFC-039) |
| Produces | - | The annotation stating what an article yields in legal terms, its legal_character and decision_type. Hooks fire on it. See The produces annotation |
| Override | Lex specialis | overrides: a specific provision that replaces a value set by a general one, as article 69 Vreemdelingenwet 2000 sets a four-week objection period in departure from article 6:7 Awb. Declared by the overriding law alone. See Overrides |
| Marking | Markering | A construct the format cannot yet express, flagged on the article. Called untranslatables before schema v0.7.0. See Markings |
| Void | Bestaat geen aanspraak | An override stating that an output does not arise at all, rather than being replaced by a value. Not the same as an entitlement of zero, which is still a decision carrying legal remedies. See Voiding an output |
| Hook | Haak | Logic that fires at a stage of a procedure rather than on a direct request. See Hooks and Reactive Execution |
| Trace | Spoor | The tree showing how each value in an execution was computed, published as a {trace_version, root} document whose nodes carry an address and the provision they came from (RFC-039). See Traceability |
| Execution Receipt | Uitvoeringsbewijs | The sealed record of one execution: engine, schema, law version and hash, so the result can be reproduced. See Execution Provenance |
| Traject | Traject | A working context in the editor, with its own members, roles and branch, optionally backed by its own repository |
| Bevoegd gezag | Bevoegd gezag | The body competent to take a decision under a given article. See Competent Authority |
| Absent vs. unknown | Afwezig versus onbekend | A value that does not exist, against a value nobody has. The engine keeps them apart rather than treating both as empty |
| Collection | Verzameling | A group of values whose size is not known in advance, such as the medebewoners in a household. FOREACH iterates over one, filters it and can combine the results into one value. See Collections |
| Unit | Eenheid | type_spec.unit: what an amount is counted in (eurocent, days, a percentage). A label that never changes the value; the engine rejects a calculation that mixes units that do not fit (RFC-023). See Type Specifications |
| Type checking | Typecontrole | The static check that just validate and the engine’s loader run over a law’s expressions, against the types and nullability the law declares. A law that fails it cannot be loaded (RFC-037) |
| Scenario | Scenario | A case written in Gherkin: the facts, and the outcome a law should give on them. The engine that executes the law executes the scenario. See Scenarios |
| Execution-first | - | The validation method in which an interpretation is run against concrete cases, often from the Memorie van Toelichting, and corrected until the outcomes hold, instead of being analyzed in full before anything runs. See Execution-First Validation |
| Reverse validation | - | The check after generation that every element of a machine-readable article traces back to the legal text. Logic that cannot be grounded in the text is flagged as possibly invented. See the interpretation loop |
| Enrichment | Verrijking | The pipeline stage in which a language model drafts machine_readable sections for a harvested law. The program doing it is the enricher, and its output is a draft that automated checks and then people review. See Pipeline |
| WASM | - | WebAssembly. The engine compiled from the same code as the native build, to run in a browser. See Engine |
| Werkpakket | Werkpakket | A unit of work on the roadmap. Every pull request names the werkpakket it contributes to |
| Bucket A / Bucket B | - | The two BDD suites: law validation against the real corpus, and engine conformance against synthetic laws. See Testing |
| Term | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Awb | Algemene wet bestuursrecht | The general administrative law act |
| Awir | Algemene wet inkomensafhankelijke regelingen | The framework act for income-dependent benefit schemes |
| BWB | Basis Wettelijke Regelgeving | The national register of legislation, and the source the harvester reads |
| CVDR | Centrale Voorziening Decentrale Regelgeving | The register of decentralized (municipal, provincial, water authority) regulation |
| MvT | Memorie van Toelichting | The explanatory memorandum accompanying a bill |
| FSC | Federated Service Connectivity | The standard for service-to-service connections between government organizations |
| JAS | Juridisch Analyseschema | A legal analysis schema used in wetsanalyse |
An exploration into transparent, executable legislation, and one of the three projects in the starting selection of the Nederlandse Digitale Dienst.
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