Dear Interested Parties,
OASIS and the LegalDocML TC are pleased to announce that schemas Akoma Ntoso Version 3.1 are ready for public review.
The evolution of the Akoma Ntoso vocabulary from 2017 (version 3.0) to 2025 (version 3.1) reflects a process of incremental refinement and expansion aimed at improving the modeling capacity of legal and parliamentary documents. While the 2017 release already provided a stable and widely adopted framework for legislative and judicial texts, the 2025 release introduces a set of new elements, attributes, and structural models designed to broaden coverage and improve interoperability with external standards such as HTML.
The changes do not alter the overall architecture of Akoma Ntoso but extend it by adding new semantic containers, improving metadata granularity, refining content models, and supporting a wider variety of document traditions and practices.
The schemas eligible for comment can be found here.
1. New structural containers
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The 2025 version introduces several new high-level containers that expand the ability to represent complex document structures:
ï crossHeading
ï interstitial
ï schedule
ï subschedule
ï mediaContainer
ï regulation
ï noteSection
ï annex
ï appendix
These elements allow for finer differentiation of sections and subsections, especially in legal systems that make use of layered annexes, schedules, and appended material.
2. New elements for judicial decisions
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To strengthen the modeling of judicial texts, the following elements have been added:
ï witness
ï court
ï judgmentSummary
These provide explicit support for representing actors, institutions, and summaries typically associated with judgments and court rulings.
3. Enhanced tables of contents
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The structure of tables of contents has been enriched by allowing explicit subdivision into:
ï tocNum (the numeric part)
ï tocHeading (the heading)
ï tocPointer (the link or reference to the corresponding part of the body)
In addition, the level attribute has become optional, providing greater flexibility in encoding hierarchical tables of contents.
4. Alignment of tables with HTML
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Akoma Ntoso tables are now aligned more closely with HTML conventions. The following elements are now supported:
ï colgroup,
ï col,
ï thead,
ï tbody,
ï tfoot
Moreover, thead, tbody, and tfoot can carry core attributes such as eId and wId. This change improves interoperability with web publishing formats and facilitates reuse in hybrid digital environments.
5. New metadata elements
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Two new metadata elements have been added:
ï near
ï scope
These extend the expressiveness of metadata, allowing for more precise contextualization of references and applicability.
6. Improved support for definitions
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A richer structure for definitions has been introduced, including:
ï definitions,
ï definition,
ï definitionHead,
ï definitionBody
ï defBody
ï attribute defines
This improves terminological accuracy and supports documents with extensive definitional sections.
7. New element for foreign text
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ï foreignText
This element has been added to mark textual passages in a language different from the primary one of the document. This responds to the frequent presence of citations or phrases in foreign languages in legislative and judicial material.
8. Support for non-Gregorian calendars
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Attributes have been extended to account for different calendar traditions:
ï calName identifies the calendar system.
ï verbatim preserves the exact textual representation of the date.
This enhances the modelís ability to represent documents from jurisdictions or traditions using calendars other than the Gregorian one.
9. New values for existing attributes
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Several attributes have received additional values to increase descriptive power:
ï The attribute version in <akomaNtoso> is fixed to 3.1.
ï remark now accepts the value source.
ï status now accepts the value informative.
ï pos accepts the new values between and fromTo.
10. Expanded content models
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Multiple content models have been broadened or refined:
ï maincontent, basicopt, preambleopt, and prefaceopt can now include num, heading, and subheading.
ï The date attribute allows for year-only values (YYYY), in addition to full dates (YYYY-MM-DD).
ï All metadata elements now accept the attributes refers and showAs.
ï recitals may contain nested recitals.
ï citations may contain nested citations.
ï tblock and blockContainer accept an optional name attribute.
ï The caption element inside <table> is redefined as a container instead of inline.
ï The quantity element now accepts a unit attribute.
ï def and term elements can now include the attribute quote.
ï fillIn can be used for on-screen form elements.
ï subflow elements allow caption and item.
ï header accepts either a hierarchy or block elements.
ï subflow may now contain attachment.
Together, these adjustments improve the flexibility of document modeling and increase compatibility with interactive and digital publishing practices.
Conclusions
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The transition from Akoma Ntoso 2017 (3.0) to Akoma Ntoso 2025 (3.1) represents a cumulative process of refinement rather than a radical redesign. The introduction of new containers, metadata elements, and attributes, together with closer alignment to HTML and broader content models, provides greater descriptive power for legislative, parliamentary, and judicial texts.
These changes respond to practical needs observed in adoption and implementation, ensuring that Akoma Ntoso remains a comprehensive and adaptable vocabulary for representing normative documents in diverse jurisdictions and technical environments.
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The schemas eligible for comment can be found here.
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How to Provide Feedback
OASIS and the LegalDocML TC value your feedback. We solicit input from developers, users and others, whether OASIS members or not, for the sake of improving the interoperability and quality of its technical work.
The public review is now open and ends 23 October 2025 at 23:59 UTC.
Comments may be submitted to the project by any person through the use of the project's Comment Facility. Members of the TC should submit feedback directly to the TC's members-only mailing list. All others should follow the instructions listed here.
All comments submitted to OASIS are subject to the OASIS Feedback License, which ensures that the feedback you provide carries the same obligations at least as the obligations of the TC members. In connection with this public review, we call your attention to the OASIS IPR Policy [1] applicable especially [2] to the work of this technical committee. All members of the TC should be familiar with this document, which may create obligations regarding the disclosure and availability of a member's patent, copyright, trademark and license rights that read on an approved OASIS specification.
OASIS invites any persons who know of any such claims to disclose these if they may be essential to the implementation of the above specification, so that notice of them may be posted to the notice page for this TC's work.
Additional information about the specification and the LegalRuleML TC can be found at the public home page here.
Additional references:
[1] https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines/ipr/
[2] https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/legalruleml/ipr.php
https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines/ipr#RF-on-Limited-Mode
RF on Limited Terms Mode