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How members of the public can use AI to read and understand legislation

By Chisom Obiudo

Have you ever opened an Act or regulation, read the first paragraph, and wondered whether the law was written for ordinary people at all? Legal texts can feel like a foreign language.

Sentences are often long, a single section may refer to several others, and familiar words can carry special legal meanings.

Yet legislation governs everyday matters such as work, business, public services, licences, property and personal rights. Members of the public should be able to understand the rules that affect them.

Generative AI can make the first reading less intimidating. It can break a section into smaller, more digestible parts, explain unfamiliar terms, and help the reader identify who must act, what must be done, the deadline, and what may happen if the law is not followed.

It should not replace the official text or advice from a qualified legal practitioner. Used carefully, however, it can serve as a practical legal-literacy coach.

Before AI can help a reader analyse a law, the reader should understand the document’s main parts.

First, understand the basic building blocks

Legislation is a general term for written laws. An Act, also called a statute, is a law passed by Parliament. Regulations provide the detailed rules needed to implement an Act.

A bylaw is a rule made by a local authority, such as a municipal council, for matters within its area of responsibility.

A statutory instrument is a broad term for an official legal document, such as regulation, rule, order or notice, issued under authority granted by an Act.

The long title is the formal opening sentence of an Act, setting out its broad purpose. The arrangement of sections is the list showing how the Act is organised. A Part brings together sections dealing with the same general subject. Each section addresses a particular rule or topic and is numbered for easy reference.

A section may be divided into subsections, usually numbered (1), (2), (3), and so on. For example, section 5(2) refers to subsection (2) of section 5. A Schedule usually appears at the end and may contain forms, lists, procedures, or other supporting details.

Once readers recognise these parts, they can move through the law in a logical order rather than opening a section and trying to understand it without the surrounding context.

Use a three-stage reading method

A structured reading method reduces confusion and gives the AI sufficient information to provide a useful explanation. The following three stages progress from finding the correct legal text to examining a particular section.

Start with the official law: Obtain the text from an official government website or gazette. Confirm its full title and year. Check whether it has been amended (changed) or repealed (no longer in force), and whether the relevant provisions have commenced (started operating as law). Give the AI the actual text instead of asking it to recreate the law from memory.
Read it in manageable portions: Start with the long title, which summarises the Act’s purpose. Next, review the arrangement of sections to see how the Act is organised, then read the definitions. To understand what a particular section means, paste it into the AI tool. If the section uses a defined term, refers to another section, or identifies circumstances in which its requirements do not apply, paste the related text as well. This helps the AI explain the section accurately and in context.
Ask clear, structured questions: Ask the AI tool to explain who the section applies to; what a person or institution must do, may do or must not do; whether there is a deadline; how the requirement is enforced; and what may happen if it is not followed. Then ask it to identify the exact wording and section numbers that support each explanation.

Together, these stages give the reader a repeatable way to approach legislation. The next step is to turn that method into a prompt that guides the AI through the same sequence every time.

Turn the AI into a legislation literacy coach

Copy and paste the prompt below into an AI tool such as Gemini, Claude or ChatGPT. Then upload the official legislation or paste the relevant extract you want to study. If the law is lengthy, provide only the relevant sections and label them clearly.

Legislation Literacy Coach Prompt :

You are a legislation literacy coach helping people without legal training learn how to read and analyse legislation. Walk me through the following method in plain language. Pause after each step to check whether I understand before you continue.

Step 1: Understand the document structure. Identify the long title, Parts, sections, subsections and Schedules, and briefly explain the purpose of each.

Step 2: Read the definitions first. Identify the defined terms that control how the extract must be understood.

Step 3: Explain what the law is intended to achieve, what it covers, who it applies to and any situations in which it does not apply.

Step 4: Find the sections that create the actual requirements or permissions. Identify who must act and what that person or institution must do, may do or must not do.

Step 5: Find consequences and enforcement. Identify offences, penalties, compliance duties and enforcement powers.

Step 6: Summarise the extract in plain language as practical rights, duties, deadlines and consequences.

Base every answer only on the text I provide. Give the relevant section number for each conclusion. If the extract does not answer a question, state what additional provision is needed instead of guessing. If anything is unclear, ask me a clarifying question before you continue.

The above prompt gives the AI a sequence to follow, but its value becomes clearer when we see the kind of explanation it should produce.

See the method in practice

Imagine a regulation states: ‘A licence holder must submit the annual return to the Registrar within 30 days of the end of the financial year. A person who fails to comply commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine.’ Rather than merely replacing difficult words with simpler ones, the AI should break the section into practical questions.

Who must act? The licence holder.

What must be done? Submit the annual return to the Registrar.

By when? Within 30 days after the financial year ends.

What happens if the requirement is not followed? Failure to comply is an offence and may result in a fine after conviction.

However, the explanation above is useful but incomplete. The reader should consult the definitions section to clarify what ‘licence holder’, annual return’ and ‘financial year’ mean under that law. The reader should then ask the AI tool to identify the section or Schedule that sets the amount of the fine and to determine whether any other section allows the deadline to be extended.

If the answer is not found in the text already provided, the reader can search the official legislation for terms such as ‘fine’, penalty’ or ‘extension’ and paste the relevant passages into the AI tool.

A section should not be read in isolation because other parts of the Act may define key terms, add to or limit what the section says, explain how it is enforced or provide details needed to understand its full meaning.

This example shows how AI can break a legal section into practical questions. It also shows that a clear explanation may still be incomplete if it doesn’t consider relevant definitions or related sections. The final step is therefore to check the AI’s explanation against the official legal text.

Use AI carefully and verify the answer

Verification is essential because an AI tool can misunderstand the text, overlook a related section or provide an answer that sounds convincing but is not supported by the law. The following checks keep the official legislation at the centre of the reading process.

Verify the source. Keep the official legislation open and compare each AI explanation with the original wording.

Check the basis of each answer. Ask for the section number and exact words supporting each explanation. If an answer cannot be traced to the text, do not rely on it.

Protect personal information. Remove names, identity numbers, addresses and other confidential details before uploading information about a personal matter into an AI tool.

Know when to seek advice. Use AI to improve your understanding of the law, not as a substitute for professional legal advice. Consult a qualified legal practitioner if a decision could affect your freedom, finances, employment, property, or immigration status, or if you must take legal action before a deadline.

These safeguards define the boundary between using AI to learn about the law and relying on advice about a legal problem.

Understanding the law empowers the public

You do not need to be a lawyer to make sense of legislation. Once you understand how an Act is organised, where to find related sections, and what questions to ask, the text becomes less intimidating. AI can help explain difficult sections and show how different parts of the law connect, but you must check every explanation against the official legal text. Used within these limits, AI can help you understand your rights and responsibilities and engage more confidently with the laws that affect you.