# kaal:claim:5886342-010

**Claim.** When an encoded legal status or act is disputed, the code is read against the party who selected the programme or determined the manner of coding, because the other party had no influence over it; the Codex names this in dubio contra programmatorem.

**Type.** design  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- disputes over the interpretation of encoded legal statuses and acts

**Source quote.**

> interpreted in favour of the Party who has had no in-

**From.** Furrer Andreas, Wulf A. Kaal, Stephan D. Meyer, *Universal Digital Law Codex (UDLC)* (2025), Part A, Book V, Article 16 Interpretation of Codes, page 8

**Cite as.** Furrer Andreas, Wulf A. Kaal, Stephan D. Meyer, Universal Digital Law Codex (UDLC) (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5886342

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `dc456a1ce2ea4a356dbcb35dc900ec36be94b8c9b6da4a2c8c268d6301f66359` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Andreas%20et%20al.%20-%202025%20-%20Universal%20Digital%20Law%20Codex%20%28UDLC%29.pdf

**Failure mode.** coder controlled ambiguity  (family: information-asymmetry)

**Topics.** defi, open-source-and-code, risk-and-incentives, smart-contracts

**Keywords.** in-dubio-contra-programmatorem, coding, interpretation, risk-allocation, smart-contracts

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of the claim. Its sha256 is the content hash used for attestation.