From Legal Sources to Programming Code: Automatic Individual Decisions in Public Administration and Computers under the Rule of Law

Abstract

Public administration in Norway and in many other countries has used computers for more than fifty-five years. It is normal and necessary. Of course, it is possible to imagine many more office buildings where thousands of men and women would do all the detailed processing of individual cases that are processed today by computers, but this alternative is not very realistic: Modern taxation systems, national social insurance schemes and management of many other welfare programs would not be feasible without the use of computers and the algorithmic law that is integrated in the software. Thus, the question is not if public administration should apply computer technology, but how this should be done. This chapter deals with important how-to questions.