[For the entire collection see Zbl 0596.00021.]
In the formalization of rules of administrative, legislative or fiscal nature three different conceptual framworks come into mind, all of which can be recognized as representing relations. First there is the world of relational data bases. Then there is the world of inference rules, in particular Horn clauses. Finally there is the world of algebraic equalities and inequalities which contain a relational semantics from the perspective of algebraic geometry. These conceptual worlds are technologically supported by database systems, logic programming systems and equation solvers and spreadsheets.
The paper attempts to combine these three different perspectives in a unified framework, aimed at expressing regulatory information in a transparent way which can be audited by non-technicians. For this purpose we introduce a family of languages, called RL, which unifies the three flavours of relations. An outline of syntax and semantics is given and an indication is provided on how to extend the simplified version in the paper to a more extensive version which also will support modularization.