3 Global overview of the schema

All AKOMA NTOSO documents share the same root element <akomantoso>, under which the specific document type is selected. The single root element follows a specific design approach called “Universal root”, which is aimed at better identifying of the root and separation of namespace and schema declaration (available in the root) and meaningful attributes (available in the document type element). 

The schema starts with a few <group>s and <attributeGroup>s used throughout the schema for content models and types. They are followed by common <simpleType>s (mostly enumerations of string values) and <complexType>s. Complex types in this sections include those supporting all but one of the main categories of content models used throughout this schema, such as hierarchy (a hierarchy of nested elements with number and titles), blocks (a sequence of block elements - e.g., paragraphs) used within containers either with required or optional identifiers, inline (the content model for all mixed model elements such as paragraphs), and marker (zero length elements characterized by their attributes) either with required or optional identifiers. The last category of content models, container, has no common form, but lists different elements in different orders, and individual container-like complex types are spread throughout the schema. 

Elements are organized in meaningful sections:

1. The root element <akomantoso>
2. The document elements, one for each document type (such  as <act>, <bill>, <judgement>, <report><debateRecord> and <doc>), that share one of the main document formats: hierarchicalStructure (that has an explicit hierarchy inside), openStructure, that allows basically everything inside, judgementStructure, a flat organization of section that contain and organize the judgement, and debateStructure, a slightly hierarchical structure for debaterecord and reports. 
3. The shared container elements, one for each main part of the above mentioned structures, except for <meta>, which is described in the apposite section.
4. The hierarchical elements, listing the main elements that are used in the full hierarchy of nested structures of acts and bills, as well as <heading>s, <num>s and <subtitle>s.
5. Elements for parliamentary debates, particularly subdivisions (such as <communication>s, <papers>,<questions> or <address>es, and specific debate elements such as <speech>, <question>, etc.
6. Elements for judgements, particularly <background>, <motivation>, <decision>, and for open structures, particularly <item>.
7. AKOMA NTOSO specific block and inline elements, including the table of content (<toc> and <tocItem>), the specific elements appearing in the <preamble>s of the various document types, the normative references (<ref>, <mref>, <rref>), the defined term in a definition (<def>) the note marker (<noteref>) pointing to an editorial note placed out of line (in the meta section), the recorded time of a spoken remark (<recordedTime>), the container for amendments (<mod>, <mmod>, <rmod>) and of two types of amendment quoted fragments: simple text fragments (such as a few words inside quotes) or full structures (such as an entire part or  a section).
8. Generic elements: the list of available generic elements (one for each of the main categories of content models). 
9. HTML elements: the list of elements, directly derived from HTML, used to provide for presentation-oriented, rather than semantic-oriented, markup within AKOMA NTOSO documents. They are in effect a very strong simplification of the full HTML language, but still allow for many useful structures inside legal documents (such as tables).
10. Metadata elements within the <meta> element provide a location for all relevant information about a AKOMA NTOSO document that does not belong to its actual content. Metadata thus are all, by definition, editorial additions to the text as originally composing the document.