Most law is not that complicated. It’s just badly organized, and really hard to find the information you need quickly - if at all.

In previous blog posts, we’ve covered this legal compliance challenge at length. You can read the full articles here:

• The compliance officer: The challenge of knowing, managing and assuring
• Do you know the 3 vital keys to legal compliance?
• How Libryo is redesigning the global regulatory mess.

Let’s recap the problem global compliance professionals face (the macro issues)

For multinationals in particular, there is a massive volume of law to process before knowing the applicable legislation faced. The quality of this legislation varies hugely from one country to the next. In the worst case scenario, you’ll be sifting through poor quality PDF documents in a language you don’t understand, trying to discern the regulations that apply to your business, from those you can ignore.

Population growth, the resulting strain on environments, political shifts and new technologies has contributed to an increase in global regulatory changes and the introduction of new legislation.

When high volume meets constant change, the result is a regulatory maze that is sure to get even the most astute compliance manager tearing out their hair.

The sobering reality is that this only really addresses the macro issues relating to your compliance challenge. Now let’s take a look at the micro issues - the you and your business context considerations.

Some of the micro considerations include:

• Your business activities for each operation
• The geographic location(s) your company operates in 
• The number of locations you operate in

Blend the macro issues with your unique micro context, and it quickly becomes evident that just knowing your applicable law is a very difficult and time-consuming function of compliance.

Case studies to ponder:

Imagine a global telecommunications incumbent that needs to know all the applicable legal obligations for thousands of cell phone masts and towers all over multiple countries - many different languages and legal systems.Think about how that differs from massive mining operations scattered across different jurisdictions where EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) legislation changes so frequently. Let’s be even more obscure and consider a toll road or pipeline that runs through multiple jurisdictions each with its own local regulations.

Think too about construction companies that only need to know their applicable legal obligations for the duration of their construction projects.

Know with certainty to manage with certainty

All these examples (and there are many, many more) are instances where knowing the applicable legislation for a given context is vital in order to be able to manage your compliance with certainty. You cannot manage with certainty if you don’t know your law with certainty.

So, the problem is not just about lots of law and the fact that the law changes, it’s about adding your context to the compliance problem.

Ultimately, all you really want to know is “what does the law require me to do?”

You need to know so that you can do.

But is knowing your law with certainty actually possible?

Yes.

The sweet spot is context-specific law that merges the latest technology with human compliance experts to build a genuinely useful tool, stripping out all the unnecessary regulations and delivering only what you need to know – here and now.

Click below to find out how Libryo can solve your global compliance problem.