® InfoJur.ccj.ufsc.br
Instituut voor Taal- en Kennistechnologie
Institute for Language Technology and Artificial Intelligence

System Descriptions

The IKBALS Project

John Zelesnikov

The IKBALS Project (Intelligent Legal Knowledge BAsed Systems) at the Database Research Laboratory, Applied Computing Research Institute, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia, has as its aim the development of intelligent legal support tools.

The original prototype IKBALS I was a hybrid/object oriented rule based system built in the Goldworks II object oriented environment. Its descendants, IKBALS II and IKBALS III provide for integrated rule based reasoning, case based reasoning, and information retrieval by using intelligent cooperating information systems. They were both build using the NExpert Object expert system shell. IKBALS I and IKBALS II provided advice on the Accident Compensation Act (Victoria, Australia, 1985). IKBALS III provides advice on the Credit Act (Victoria, Australia, 1984).

The main features of the integrated IKBALS III system are:

1. The use of cooperating agents;
2. The use of an application programming interface to act as a bridge between agents in the IKBALS III system and the artificial intelligence kernel in the Knowledge Base;
3. The use of a customised induction algorithm that generated the indices into the case base;
4. The use of background information to supplement the induction process;
5. A method for converting the decision tree produced by the induction algorithm into quantitative knowledge based rules;
6. The heuristics used to justify explanations;
7. The query facility that enables users to investigate the relationship between cases and arguments in the system.

In conjunction with a firm of solicitors, the IKBALS project has developed the Credit Act Advisory System (CAAS). CAAS is a strictly rule based legal expert system which advices in relation to a small part of the Credit Act 1984 (Vic.). It is essentially the rule based component of IKBALS III. CAAS does not argue directly with either statutes or precedents. Instead, it is a production rule system where the production rules forming the knowledge base of CAAS are heuristic rules supplied by experts from Allan Moore & Co. It has been prototyped using NExpert Object and then compiled into C++ under Windows 3.1. In developing CAAS, the IKBALS project has developed a framework for building commercial legal expert systems using C++, rather than the more expensive expert system shells.

References

Vossos, G., Zeleznikow, J. and Hunter, D.

(1993), `Building Intelligent Litigation Support Tools through the integration of Rule Based and Case Based Reasoning', Law, Computers and Artificial Intelligence 2 (1), pp. 77--93.

Vossos, G., Zeleznikow, J., Moore, A. and Hunter, D.

(1993), `The Credit Act Advisory System (CAAS): Conversion from an expert system prototype to a C++ commercial system', Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law, ACM Press, pp. 180--183.

Zeleznikow, J.

(1991), `Building Intelligent Legal Tools - The IKBALS Project', Journal of Law and Information Science 2 (2), pp. 165--184.

Zeleznikow, J., Vossos, G. and Hunter, D.

`The IKBALS Project: Multimodal reasoning in Legal Knowledge Based Systems' to appear in AI and Law: An International Journal.

Split-Up

John Zeleznikov

SPLIT-UP is a hybrid rule based expert system developed at the Database Research Laboratory, Applied Computing Research Institute, La Trobe University. It was commissioned by a judge of the Family Court of Australia.

SPLIT-UP uses textbooks, heuristics, expert advice and cases to model that part of the Family Law Act 1975 (Australia) which deals with property division. When settling property cases, judges need to determine which assets she has the power to distribute (known as the Common Pool) and then decide what percentage of the Common Pool each partner receives. The module for determining the Common Pool is rule-based.

Because the distribution of assets in the Common Pool, is discretionary, the developers opted to use neural networks to determine the appropriate percentage splits. The original rule based system to determine the contents of the Common Pool was written in the expert system shell VP-Expert. The final system is written in C++ and has machine learning and neural network enhancements. It focuses upon an explanation for its advice.

References

Stranieri, A. and Zeleznikow, J.

(1992), `SPLIT-UP Expert System to determine Spousal Property distribution on Litigation in the Family Court of Australia', in Adams, A. and Sterling, L. (eds.), Proceedings of AI'92, World Scientific, 1992, pp. 51--56.

Stranieri, A., Hunter, D. and Zeleznikow, J.

(1994), `Open texture and bound: Dimensions for Artificial Intelligence and Jurisprudence', submitted to AI and Law: An International Journal.

LEDA

Egon Verharen and Wim Voermans

In 1991 the Dutch Ministry of Justice was interested in investigating the possibilities of current computer science applications for supporting the activities of legal civil servants during the preparation process of regulation and legislation. Secondly, the Ministry wanted to look into the possibility of automatic disclosure of the 'Aanwijzingen voor de Regelgeving' (Recommendations for Regulation: the rules and guidelines civil servants have to obey when making regulation) and the advantages of this over the ``paper situation''.

Wim Voermans of the Faculty of Law, and Egon Verharen of ITK at Tilburg University found that hypertext facilities were extremely suitable for not only the disclosure of the Recommendations in several ways, but also for structuring the knowledge included in the preparation activities for legislation. As a result of the research LEDA I (LEgislative Design and Advisory system), an experimental model for a legislative advisory and design system, was developed. It is a prototype of a semi-intelligent authoring tool that, using hypertext and language technology techniques, offers information of importance and interest in the preparation and design of legislation to legal draftsmen and legislators. Furthermore it offers active methodological support in the actual design and layout of legal documents and access to on-line databases and documentary information servers.

The first prototype was developed using ToolBook. It works on any 386sx or better, windows 3.1 and has already been operational for testing purposes at the Ministry since 1993. Right now we are working on LEDA II, a new prototype in C++, that will be operational this summer. Please contact us if you are interested in the LEDA system and would like to receive one of the limited number of a demo-version of LEDA I. Also, if you are interested in (any paper of) the LEDA documentation, please contact us on how to get hold of a copy (if public and available).

The LEDA Papers

Reports

W. Voermans

Computerhulp bij wetgeving, rapport van een verkennende studie inzake de mogelijkheden van vormen van computerondersteuning bij de uitvoering van wetgevingstaken en -activiteiten, uitgevoerd met subsidie van het Ministerie van Justitie, Tilburg januari 1992, X + 240 pp. (in Dutch)

W. Voermans, L. Matthijssen

Computerhulp bij wetgeving II; Onderzoeksrapport Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid/ITK, Katholieke Universiteit Brabant, Tilburg december 1993. (in Dutch)

L.J. Matthijssen

Documentstandaard voor een wetgevingsontwerp- en adviessysteem, Onderzoeksrapport Instituut voor Taal- en Kennistechnologie, Katholieke Universiteit Brabant, Tilburg maart 1993. (in Dutch)

M. Neut

LEDA-documenten omzetten van ODA naar SGML en vice versa; onderzoeksrapport Instituut voor Taal- en Kennistechnologie, Katholieke Universiteit Brabant, Tilburg, januari 1994. (in Dutch)

Papers

W. Voermans

`Het teken, dat u bewaart en duidt tot in verste verandering', in: H.A.M. Backx e.a., Recht doen door wetgeving, Opstellen over wetgevingsvraagstukken aangeboden aan mr. E.M.H. Hirsch Ballin, W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink, ISBN 90 271 3173 2, Zwolle 1990, p. 323--336 (in Dutch)

W. Voermans

`Ontwerpen van wetgeving met behulp van de computer', in: RegelMaat, kwartaalblad voor wetgevingsvraagstukken, jg. 1990, afl. 1, Koninklijke Vermande b.v., ISSN 0920 055X, Lelystad 1990, p. 17--22 (in Dutch)

W. Voermans

`Computer-aided Legislative Design: Worth while the Effort?', in: C. van Noortwijk, A.H.J. Schmidt, R.G.F. Winkels (eds.), Legal knowledge based systems; Aims for research and development, Koninklijke Vermande b.v., ISBN 90 6040 948 5, Lelystad 1991, p. 87--97

E. Verharen, W. Voermans

`Ontwerp en implementatie van LEDA', hypertextworkshop bijdrage Eindhoven 26 maart 1992, TU Eindhoven 1992

E. Verharen, M. Fridael, W. Voermans

`Ontwikkeling van en hypertexttoepassingen binnen LEDA', in: H. Weigand, H. Paaijmans (red.), Workshop Artificial Intelligence en Information Retrieval, ITK, ISBN 90 74029 04 3, Tilburg 1992, p. 44--53 (in Dutch)

F. Maes, E.J. van der Linden

`De bruikbaarheid van online-hulpstructuren bij hypertexttoepassingen', in: H. Weigand, H. Paaijmans (red.), Workshop Artificial Intelligence en Information Retrieval, ITK, ISBN 90 74029 04 3,Tilburg 1992, p.54--61 (in Dutch)

W. Voermans, A.H. de Wild, F.D.H.M. Maas en J. Nouwt

`Are Legislators beyond Help from Legal Computer-Science?', in: AIgg Kennisgeving, jg. 5, nr. 3, september 1992, p. 2--11

F. Maes, S. Goutier, E.J. van der Linden

`Online reading and offline tradition: adapting online help facilities to offline reading strategies', in: Proceedings of SIGDOC'92: 10th aAnnual International Conference on Documentation, Ottawa, Canada, October 13--16 1992, ACM, 1992

E. Verharen, M. Fridael, W. Voermans

`Experimenteel model LEDA: kennisgebaseerd gebruik van hypertexttechniek in een wetgevingsontwerp- en adviessysteem', in: B.R. van der Spek, R. de Hoog (eds.), Proceedings Kennistechnologie '92; methoden, technieken en gereedschappen, ISBN 90 71694 17 8, Rijswijk 1992, p. 329--340 (in Dutch)

E. Verharen, M. Fridael, W. Voermans

`Hypertext-toepassingen binnen een wetgevingsontwerp- en -adviessysteem', in: N.J.I. Mars (red.), Informatiewetenschap 1992 (wetenschappelijke bijdragen aan de tweede Stinfonconferentie d.d. 18 december 1992), pp. 89--109 (in Dutch)

E. Verharen, W. Voermans

`Leda: a semi-intelligent drafting support systemen', in: J.G.J. Wassink, J. Svenson (eds.), Intelligent tools for designing legislation and computer-supported comparison of law, Proceedings of the 1993 Jurix-conference TU Twente, Enschede, Lelystad 1993.

E. Verharen, M.R. Fridael, W. Voermans, L.J. Matthijssen

`Leda and Obw: Two semi-intelligent legislative drafting support systems', bijdrage aan de conferentie Towards a Global Expert System in Law, Florence 1--3 december 1993. (To appear).

© Arthur van Horck