Logical Analysis of Legislation Using Flow Diagrams

The Department of the Environment/Department of Transport (DOE/DTp) OR group uses flow diagrams to analyse legislation. Taking the bus deregulation sections of the 1985 Transport Act as the main example, this paper shows how a complex course of action prescribed in legal language may be simply represented by a series of yes/no questions. Traffic Area staff who implement the legislation have the diagrams as working guidelines to resolve their own, potentially conflicting, interpretations.