How much of this is a characteristic of law, in general, and how much of this is a characteristic of the English common-law tradition?
In a civil-law system where laws and regulations are more minutely detailed, and judges have less discretion, would law-as-computer code be more feasible?
Perhaps _more_ feasible, but not feasible enough. In German law schools they make it sound as if there's only one legal interpretation for every case, but actually there are often competing ones.
Also, even if the legal situation is clear, there's still discretion involved to decide which claim ranks higher. E.g. Free Speech versus (something like) Right to Privacy in the case you can see at http://lexetius.com/1999,2324 . (If you don't speak German, Google translate might be good enough.)
To me the practice of common law and civil law seem more similar than their theory.
In a civil-law system where laws and regulations are more minutely detailed, and judges have less discretion, would law-as-computer code be more feasible?