Re: Country and Region regulations model

In message <d%8y9.7156$Nd.2976_at_afrodite.telenet-ops.be>, neil <neil_at_efc.be> writes
>I need to track regulations (i.e. laws) by country. Occasionally there are
>regulations that only apply to a single region of that country (i.e. a
>regulation is either a country-wide one or unique to a region of that
>country). Related to the regulation are a whole lot of other things such as
>multiple language translations, so it would be good not to have separate
>Country- and Region-Regulation tables.

That won't work because countries contain regions and regions contain smaller regions. This looks like a candidate for an object- or class-based database. If you use the RDBMS approach you need one table for regions (which may be countries) with a recursive parent/child relationship.

Regions inherit laws from their parents. These laws may be modified by local laws. For instance the European Convention on Human Rights was introduced across Europe but was implemented in a slightly different way in each country. The national government delegates the authority to charge penalties for minor offences, like littering. Local councils then pass by-laws to set the level of the penalties. This is an instance of a parent/child relationship between laws as well as one between geographic areas.

Just to make life more interesting Wales and England are different countries but the laws that govern them are passed by the government of neither.

Aren't you glad you asked?

-- 
Bernard Peek
bap_at_shrdlu.com
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