I draft contracts for a living (IAAL). The goal is always to draft a contract so that any reasonably competent judge or juror could understand the parties' intent. A lot of lawyers (most?) are terrible at this. They say things like "in the event that" instead of "if". They pepper their sentences with meaningless crap like "any and all" or "unless the parties otherwise agree" or "notwithstanding anything to the contrary elsewhere in this agreement" – all of which are utterly superfluous.
The problem is rarely that the lawyer is invoking legalistic concepts. Sure, you might find a few references to statutory laws here and there in a commercial contract, but 99% of a typical commercial contract should be a simple statement of what the parties expect from each other.
Also, non-lawyers tend to get confused by concepts like indemnities, warranties, and limits on liability. These things are dead simple in reality, but lawyers have a nasty habit of dressing them up in coded language. The emperor has no clothes. There are a few places where "magic words" are required by law, esp. around intellectual property rights, disclaimer of seller's warranties, etc. These are the exception, not the rule.
It can get very difficult to clearly express business terms, but it's JUST LIKE WRITING CODE! Case statements, if-then-else, etc. If more lawyers approached contracts like code, contracts would be better. The problem is that contracts only have to "parse" in court. Runtime for contracts is a breakdown in the relationship, and no one believes that the relationship will break down until it's too late. Those of us who approach the contract as something that needs to parse before the shit hits the fan have a different problem: everyone thinks we're overdoing it because they refuse to consider the downside potential.
I could go on forever about this topic.
Since I said IAAL, I must say this is informational only, isn't legal advice, and I don't represent the reader as their lawyer.
Meta note: It's not clear that your last name is Terretta but that's what I'm assuming. Also, saying "the email system most of us use" on your profile is really confusing.
> mapping out "given this scenario, x, y and z happen".
I've used scenario tables in some contracts. Each row is a scenario. For each scenario, there are columns for Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. (Some column entries for a given scenario might be blank.)
Having a contract validation test would be a worthy exercise for the party who didn't write the contract.
This sounds like a great service opportunity for startup/employee contract lawyers... if contracts are like code, then a parser (or maybe legal code pretty-printer) could easily allow a skilled professional to sift through code. Even easier if the contract is standard for a large company.
The problem is rarely that the lawyer is invoking legalistic concepts. Sure, you might find a few references to statutory laws here and there in a commercial contract, but 99% of a typical commercial contract should be a simple statement of what the parties expect from each other.
Also, non-lawyers tend to get confused by concepts like indemnities, warranties, and limits on liability. These things are dead simple in reality, but lawyers have a nasty habit of dressing them up in coded language. The emperor has no clothes. There are a few places where "magic words" are required by law, esp. around intellectual property rights, disclaimer of seller's warranties, etc. These are the exception, not the rule.
It can get very difficult to clearly express business terms, but it's JUST LIKE WRITING CODE! Case statements, if-then-else, etc. If more lawyers approached contracts like code, contracts would be better. The problem is that contracts only have to "parse" in court. Runtime for contracts is a breakdown in the relationship, and no one believes that the relationship will break down until it's too late. Those of us who approach the contract as something that needs to parse before the shit hits the fan have a different problem: everyone thinks we're overdoing it because they refuse to consider the downside potential.
I could go on forever about this topic.
Since I said IAAL, I must say this is informational only, isn't legal advice, and I don't represent the reader as their lawyer.