Show HN: Codify, AI for transforming and reforming law

A developer released Codify, an AI tool that extracts searchable text, headings and sections from scanned legal documents and links each amendment to the exact provision it changes. The tool is demonstrated on an illustrative corpus of 900 acts, tracking a sample amendment that adds "including in accessible formats" to section 5(1) of a 14 May 1992 law, effective 1 June 2001, and offers machine translation into Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian and Indonesian with terminology notes and consistency audits. Codify labels its translations unofficial and non-binding, requiring jurist sign-off before use.

SurveyToo much law is still locked in scanned pages. ApproachA scanned page can be seen. Its text cannot be searched. ReadingCodify finds the text, headings and sections. ResolutionFind a section. Cite it. Check the original page. Nine hundred acts, once every citation can be followed. The clusters are subject areas, and the lines between them are what a graph makes visible.One tangle of overlapping instruments, as a consolidation would draw them together: a single current text, with the rest kept behind it. Illustrative corpus. One amendment. One exact destination. An illustrative amendment adds “including in accessible formats” to section 5 1 . The connection identifies both the affected provision and the instrument responsible for the change. In this illustration, the original wording dates from 14 May 1992. The accessible-formats amendment takes effect on 1 June 2001. A dated record preserves both versions and the instrument responsible for the change. See what an amendment changes.From the highlighted source law · illustrative amendment The amending instrument Public Access Amendment Act In section 5 1 , after “free of charge”, insert “, including in accessible formats”. Amending instruction → § 5 1 amends § 5 1 The affected provision Right of access to the official text Every person shall have the right of access to the official text of any law in force, in a form that is complete, current and free of charge, including in accessible formats. Public Access to Legislation Ordinance · § 5 1 The new words stay linked to the law that introduced them. The libraryOne readable law, kept in view as the collection grows. The collectionEvery law gets the same treatment. References connect them. The wholeTogether, the laws show how the state works, searchable with every source kept. The effectFollow the amendment. See the changed words. The domainsLaws cluster into subjects, found from their structure and their language. The tangleSeveral laws often govern the same thing. One textA lawmaker draws them into one text. A simpler statute book, and surer implementation. Illustrative translation One text. Every language. Translation notes Translating Consistency audit Source · Atlantis · English art 1 Translation notes amending instrument→instrument modificatifdefined term official text→النص الرسميdefined term in force→en vigorterm of art commencement→entrada en vigorfalse friend · not “comienzo” the Gazette→Ведомостиnamed entity shall→wajibdeontic convention the Minister→le ministrenamed entity register of legislation→سجل التشريعاتdefined term Working from 8 terms Arabic Zerzura 0%0 of 24 sections A · clean art 1المادة ١ French Ys 0%0 of 24 sections A · clean art 1Article 1 Spanish Quivira 0%0 of 24 sections B · advisory art 1Artículo 1 Russian Kitezh 0%0 of 24 sections A · clean art 1Статья 1 Indonesian Langkasuka 0%0 of 24 sections A · clean art 1Pasal 1 Numbers and sentinels · 100% Terminology · matches the notes Clauses · counts agree Unofficial machine translation. The original-language text is the sole binding version. Read whole. Terms first. The act is read whole and its terms fixed before a word is translated. The discipline of the UN’s translators, at machine speed. Section by section, in parallel. Article 1 stays Article 1 in every language. Each section is keyed to its number, so headings, numbering and citations survive. Audited and aligned. Checked for every number, term and clause. Unofficial until a jurist signs it off. The original text stays binding.