Rule: Every product must be tested on animals. Clear? Maybe not. Better define that bit of vocabulary ‘tested on animals’!

courtesy Sophie Hansen www.superiorbusinessanalysis.com  

“A passenger must not exit an aircraft while it is in flight.” Congratulations Chris Maple (MMG), winner of the 2012 RulesSayMustNot contest at the Business Rules Forum conference @BBC2012.

guest post by Cay Hasselmann ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The two oldest references on a business rule language I personally could find was in the British Library. One was on the building of the Pyramid in the Cheops Dynasty (2613-2498 BC), where 100,000 workers were involved for over 20 years. In some scrolls you will find what I would say are part of a basic rulebook.       The other is from China during the Chou Dynasty (1046–256 BC), which is a rulebook for government officials.

From Drafting Contracts: How and Why Lawyers Do What They Do, by Tina L. Stark, Aspen Publishers – Wolters Kluwers, 2007, p. 204, based in turn on The Language of the Law, David Mellinoff, Little, Brown & Co., 1963, Chapter 9. ~~~~~~~~~~~~  “The profusion of couplets and triplets [e.g., null and void] reflects the evolution of the English language. After the Normans invaded England in 1066, French slowly became the language used in English courts and contracts. It predominated from the mid-thirteenth century to the mid-fifteenth century. Not unexpectedly, the English came to resent the use of French and began once again to use English for legal matters. As the use of French began to wane, English lawyers were faced with a recurring problem. When they went to translate a French legal terms into an English legal term, they were often unsure whether the English word had the same connotation. The solution was obvious: Use both the French and the English word. For example, free and clear is actually a combination of the Old English word free and the French word clair. [Another example:] breaking and entering (Old English and Old French). Compounding this penchant for joining French and English synonyms was the English custom of joining synonyms, especially those that were alliterative and rhythmic.

• to have and to hold
• aid and abet
• part and parcel”