In Composing Contracts[0], Peyton Jones, Eber and Seward describe a framework for "programming" financial contracts, even allowing for external events[1] to influence the result (for example, actual stock prices) of the contract.

As a though exercise, could actual law (or, more specifically, Penal Law, Contract Laws, etc) be formalized in an analogous manner? I know contracts are not law per se, but the comparisons are easy to spot.

[0] https://www.cs.tufts.edu/~nr/cs257/archive/simon-peyton-jone...

[1] In the case of laws, external events could be the judge's opinion, for example