Conceptual Design Question

Hello Everyone,

In a text-heavy database, I'm trying to make an initial design decision in the following context.

There is a lot of long text that I could break down into three different categories:
a. Laws
i. Only 1 country per law, many laws
ii. There are multiple types of laws (statutes, regulations, court cases, proposed laws, etc)
iii. Each law will have only one type
iv. Each law may refer to many other laws
b. Treaties
i. 2 countries per treaty
ii. At any one time, there will only be one treaty in force between any two countries
iii. There may be proposed new treaties which will supercede old treaties when finally ratified
c. Commentary
i. Any commentary could refer to one or more laws or treaties
ii. Any commentary may have one or more authors
iii. Any commentary may refer to one or more countries

The conceptual question is what are the trade-offs between having one textual table compared with multiple text tables? Any help on pointing out practical considerations would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Bryan