RegelRecht

Appearance

Cross-Law References ​

Dutch laws reference each other constantly. The Healthcare Allowance Act (Zorgtoeslagwet) needs your income, which is defined by the AWIR. It needs your insurance status, which comes from the Zorgverzekeringswet. It needs your age, which comes from the BRP.

Rather than duplicating these definitions, each law declares what it needs from other laws. The engine follows these references automatically.

How it works ​

An article declares its inputs. When an input has a source block pointing to another law, the engine loads that law, executes it with the specified parameters, and feeds the result back.

yaml
# Zorgtoeslagwet, article 2 - needs income from the AWIR
input:
  - name: toetsingsinkomen
    type: amount
    source:
      regulation: algemene_wet_inkomensafhankelijke_regelingen
      output: toetsingsinkomen
      parameters:
        bsn: $bsn

The engine loads algemene_wet_inkomensafhankelijke_regelingen, executes it for the given BSN, gets the toetsingsinkomen output, and uses that value in the healthcare allowance calculation.

Chains of references ​

References can chain. The Zorgtoeslagwet references the AWIR, which might reference the Wet inkomstenbelasting, which references the BRP. The engine resolves the full chain, loading and executing each law as needed.

Results are cached: if two laws both need the same value from the BRP, it is computed once.

A real example ​

The Zorgtoeslagwet article 2 declares these cross-law inputs:

yaml
input:
  - name: leeftijd
    type: number
    source:
      regulation: wet_basisregistratie_personen
      output: leeftijd
      parameters:
        bsn: $bsn
        peildatum: $referencedate

  - name: is_verzekerde
    type: boolean
    source:
      regulation: zorgverzekeringswet
      output: is_verzekerd
      parameters:
        bsn: $bsn

  - name: toetsingsinkomen
    type: amount
    source:
      regulation: algemene_wet_inkomensafhankelijke_regelingen
      output: toetsingsinkomen
      parameters:
        bsn: $bsn

Each source block says: load this other law, pass it these parameters, and give me the named output.

Same-law references ​

Articles within the same law can also reference each other. When source has an output but no regulation, the engine looks within the current law:

yaml
# Zorgtoeslagwet, article 2 referencing article 4 (same law)
input:
  - name: standaardpremie
    type: amount
    source:
      output: standaardpremie

Circular reference detection ​

The engine detects circular references (law A needs law B which needs law A) and raises an error. A MAX_CROSS_LAW_DEPTH limit of 20 prevents runaway chains.

Further reading ​