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About Think7 Canada 2025
Think7 brings together leading think tanks and research centres from around the world as part of the Group of Seven (G7). Based on abstracts, recommendations were selected for the T7 Canada , prior to the Canadian G7 in June 2025.
One of the selected policy briefs looked at Rules as Code.
Rules as Code and T7
The Rules as Code Policy Brief is titled Rules as Code for a more transparent and efficient global . The policy brief starts with some background information about Rules as Code (RaC), a framework section that compares written legislation to Rules as Code, and some summary information about different approaches and tools (e.g. and ).
The publication then moves onto the benefits of RaC for G7 leaders. The benefits it lists include:
- Better policy effectiveness
- Increased transparency in policy and legislation
- Service delivery innovation
- Faster and automatic rule updates
The policy brief also takes a high-level view of these benefits, highlighting primary beneficiaries and ranking each benefit in terms of likelihood (high or medium) and importance (high, medium and low).
The policy brief’s first recommendation is to establish a Regulatory Innovation Task Force (G7 RITF) “to investigate, pilot, and develop best practices for machine-executable legislation”.
The publication then suggests two actions for the task force:
- “Develop principles and requirements for digital legislation
- Evaluate RaC approaches, governance and technical challenges”
The document goes on to focus on key recommended initiatives for the G7 member nations. These initiatives include:
- A compendium of RaC best practices from around the world
- A G7 knowledge sharing workshop to discuss RaC examples as well as challenges
- Establish collaboration across G7 jurisdictions on RaC projects
Some other special actions the policy brief recommends are:
- Rules as Code hackathons (e.g. OpenFisca hackathons)
- Launch RaC incubators
- Support training initiatives
- Support RaC trials in trade and commercial policies, including cross-border use cases
Finally, the report lists challenges (and mitigations) before summarising next steps for the G7 in the RaC space. Challenges identified are:
- Dependency on proprietary systems
- Technical bottlenecks
- Interoperability issues due to different standards and frameworks
- Lack of scaling pilot projects to large-scale deployments
- Liability issues due to potential coding errors
- Correct interpretation of legal nuances
- A lack of buy-in from stakeholders
The policy brief ends by reiterating its recommendations as a way forward for G7 nations leveraging the power and benefits of Rules as Code.
About the authors
The authors include some of the heaviest hitters in the Rules as Code space! The authors are:
Jess , Senior Researcher, G7 Research Group, University of Toronto (Canada)
Patrick A. , Director of Policy Analytics, Mercatus Center, George Mason University (United States)
Meng Weng , Principal Research Fellow, Singapore Management University (Singapore)
Jason , Former Director of Rules as Code, Government of Canada (Canada)
Richard , Director, Richard Pope & Partners (United Kingdom)
Matti , Director of Cooperation, OpenFisca (France)
Tejas , Founder and Director, Rutgers Economic Lab (United States)
Vitor , Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford (United Kingdom)