Ulex: An Open Source Legal System

This talk would introduce Ulex, an open source legal system. At root, both computers and governments run on code—formal algorithms that make their subjects perform specific functions. Software runs computers whereas law runs governments, but they share certain fundamental features. They differ in this way, though: Computers have evolved much more rapidly than governments. the history of computer systems can thus teach us about the future of legal systems. Early computers ran a lot like governments do today: developers wrote a unique operating system for each new machine. The first major milestone came in 1970, when Bell Lab’s published UNIX, the first operating system written to run across computing platforms. Soon afterward, the spread of personal computers created a market for operating systems. The result: proprietary operating systems like Microsoft Windows and Apple’s OS X, and open source operating systems like GNU/Linux. Politicians have long stuck with a development model that computer scientists outgrew back in the days of shag carpets–each government writing and running its own legal code for its own territory. Only recently have a few innovative countries realized that they can reassure investors, and increase local economic growth, by setting aside special jurisdictions operating under law imported from elsewhere. Dubai has attracted investors to its International Financial Centre by borrowing common law principles from England and Wales, for instance, while the Honduran ZEDE program opens the door to adopting a wide variety of rule sets. Will governments also follow computers in running proprietary operating systems—the legal equivalent of a Windows or Apple OS X? Not likely; those operating systems relied on copyrights for their success, a device ill-suited for constraining governments. Instead, these special jurisdictions will probably seek out something akin to Linux, the open source operating system. Anybody can download Linux to run on their computer; anyone can access the source code and alter it to suit their particular needs. Yet no one controls Linux. Instead, a community like-minded users shapes it in a flexible, organic, and consensual process. What would a legal operating system built on the same principles look like? It would look a lot like Ulex, an open source legal system.

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