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• An ontology-based model for Representing "Bundle-of-rights" .

  Maria-Teresa Sagri, Institute for Theory and Techniques for Legal Information, Florence, Italy
  Daniela Tiscornia, Institute for Theory and Techniques for Legal Information, Florence, Italy
  Aldo Gangemi, Institute of Cognitive Science and Technologies, Rome, Italy

  Abstract : This paper describes an application of the lexical resource JurWordNet and of the Core Legal Ontology as a descriptive vocabulary for modeling legal domains. The two resources can be viewed as a repository of structured knowledge aimed at supporting the content description modeling of normative domains. In the ontological approach legal entities are represented as conceptual units and their interrelations are described inside the same language. Other than for practical applications, these new forms of representation allow exercises of computational jurisprudence, in that they consent to formally analyze phenomena and aspects of juridical factuality for which the general theory of law has already created models and theories. This contribution aims to present a preliminary analysis of the relation among regulative units and to investigate how further aspects linked to the description of parts of norms and complex concepts can be represented in an ontology-based framework. As a case study, in the field of the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) management, the representation of click-on licenses for re-using Public Sector Information is presented.

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• Workflow description of digital rights management systems.

  Silvia Llorente,Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
  Eva Rodriguez,Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
  Jaime Delgado, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

  Abstract : Digital Rights Management (DRM) is becoming a key issue in our highly networked world. Piracy of digital goods of any kind (music, software, video) is growing day by day. In this scenario, many companies, organisations and administration-funded projects provide solutions for the implementation of digital rights management (DRM) systems. Nevertheless, although these solutions have several points in common, they are incompatible in terms of architecture and system components. This paper analyses some of these solutions, focusing on the description of their data flow, one area where common points can be found. We propose the use of workflow modelling in order to find commonalities among data flow of DRM systems, that would allow easier implementation of new ones. The selected language for performing this modelling is OWL-S (Ontology Web Language for Services). The use of an ontology language will allow us to combine workflow modelling with ontologies defining DRM concepts.

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• Ontology-based e-Government Thematic Services Based on Topic Maps.

  Ioannis Tsampoulatidis,Informatics & Telematics Institute, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece
  Dimitrios Tzovaras, Informatics & Telematics Institute, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece
  Michael G. Strintzis, Informatics & Telematics Institute, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece

  Abstract : This paper describes a novel ontology representation scheme for emerging e-Government systems, based on XML Topic Maps (XTMs). This scheme supports the provision of various services to the citizens guaranteeing independence of the knowledge between the actual sources of information and the data representation. Ontology is considered as an autonomous system, which acts as a linkage among the rendered services offered by an e-Government portal by providing and respecting the terminologies, metadata and rules defined by the State functionaries. The proposed ontology representation is supported by a Knowledge Base, which includes data about repositories, document types, domains, citizen profiles, themes for search and retrieval and service catalogues. The XTMs are created using a novel Topic Map Generator tool that is used to establish the necessary rules and constraints in the system. Finally, a use case is described in detail, for urban planning applications show-ing the advantages of the proposed approach.

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• Modeling the Tax Code.

  Eric Melz, USC Information Sciences Institute, USA
  Andre Valente, USC Information Sciences Institute, USA

  Abstract: In this paper, we argue for the necessity of constructing an ontology which represents the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Doing so would enable the construction of a broad range of intelligent applications, including automatic auditing software, robust on-line help systems, and tax questionanswering systems. We examine some of the unique challenges presented by a tax ontology and provide examples of the types of knowledge necessary for such an ontology.

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• Towards an Ontology of Forensics covering Financial Securities Fraud.

  Gang Zhao, STARLab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
  John Kingston, JBC, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
  Koen Kerremans, CVC, Erasmushogeschool Brussel, Belgium
  Frederick Coppens, Language & Computing NV, Belgium
  Ruben Verlinden, STARLab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
  Rita Temmerman, CVC, Erasmushogeschool Brussel, Belgium
  Robert Meersman, STARLab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

  Abstract : This paper discusses the approach and current results in FF POIROT, a research and technology project to explore the use of ontology technology in information systems against financial fraud. For the development of a forensic evidence ontology, the project focuses on use cases of illegal solicitation of financial products through the web and on the regulations dealing with security exchanges that have been provided by the authority regulator. The knowledge development within FF POIROT is based on the DOGMA ontology paradigm, and the derived ontology engineering methodology AKEM. The regulatory ontology engineering process is essentially multi-disciplinary and distributed team work along a pipeline of carefully defined tasks and traceable deliverables. To facilitate productivity in the regulatory ontology development, linguistic information, machine highlighted keywords and a manually constructed bilingual (English-Italian) terminological database, is used to support the ontology modelling process. Tools supporting the distributed collaborative effort and possible applications of the regulatory ontology to facilitate fraud detection on the web are also briefly discussed.

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• Extracting Legal Propositions from Appellate Decisions with Text Discourse Analysis Methods.

  Woojin Paik, Konkuk University, Koeia

  Abstract : Appellate decisions are the most important judicial documents in the Anglo-American legal system. Typically, judges write appellate opinions by including a summary of the facts of the case, identification of the issues of law raised in arguments by counsel for each of the parties, pronouncement of the legal propositions supported by the controlling authorities, and declaration of a decision that resolves the issues by applying the legal propositions to the facts of the case. The cited legal propositions are often concise summaries of certain aspects of the previous cases or the Federal or State codes, which are applicable to the current case in consideration. In this paper, we describe how a text discourse analysis program can be used to categorize each sentence in the appellate decisions as one or more of the discourse categories such as ‘facts’, ‘issues’, ‘legal propositions’, and ‘decisions’. We also show how an information extraction program is applied to the sentences belonging to the ‘legal proposition’ category to build a visually browsable legal knowledge base.

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• Automatic classification and analysis of provisions in Italian legal texts: a case study.

  Roberto Bartolini, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale, CNR, Italy
  Alessandro Lenci, Universita' di Pisa,Italy
  Simonetta Montemagni, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale, CNR, Italy
  Vito Pirrelli, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale, CNR, Italy
  Claudia Soria, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale, CNR, Italy

  Abstract : In this paper we address the problem of automatically enriching legal texts with semantic annotation, which is considered to be an essential pre-requisite for effective indexing and retrieval of legal documents. We present SALEM (Semantic Annotation for LEgal Management), a system developed for automatically producing a semantic annotation of Italian law texts. SALEM is a semantically oriented system that uses techniques of NLP to perform two tasks: i) to classify law paragraphs according to their regulatory content, and ii) to extract relevant text fragments corresponding to specific semantic roles that are relevant for the different types of regulatory content. The paper describes the overall architecture of SALEM and reports about the results of a preliminary case study carried out on a sample of law texts; finally, further direction of research are discussed, with specific emphasis on prospective applications of the system.

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• Modelling Changes in Ontologies.

  Johann Eder, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
  Christian Koncilia, University of Klagenfurt, Austria

  Abstract: Ontologies are shared conceptualizations of certain domains. Especially in legal and regulatory ontologies modifications like the passing of a new law, decisions by high courts, new insights by scholars, etc. have to be considered. Otherwise, we would not be able to identify which knowledge (which ontology) was valid at an arbitrary timepoint in the past. And without this knowledge we would for instance not be able to identify why a user came to a specific decision. In this paper we will show how a simple ontology description formalism, namely a directed graph, has to be extended to represent changing knowledge. Furthermore, we will present the operations that are necessary to manipulate such an ontology. Finally, we will discuss different implementation approaches.

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• Cases and dialectical arguments: An approach to case-based reasoning.

  Bram Roth, Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands
  Bart Verheij, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands

  Abstract : Case-based reasoning in the law is a reasoning strategy in which legal conclusions are supported by decisions made by judges. If the case at hand is – in some sense – analogous to a settled case, then by judicial authority one can argue that the settled case should be followed. As a result, in the case at hand the same conclusion then holds as in the settled case. Case-based reasoning is a topic where ontology meets logic since one’s conception of cases determines one’s conception of reasoning with cases. In the paper, it is shown how reasoning with cases can be modelled by comparing the dialectical arguments that cases give rise to. This paper addresses two aspects of case-based reasoning that should be captured by any formal model of this reasoning strategy. It is argued that one should be able to account not only for the conclusions that follow by comparison with settled cases, but also for the reasoning patterns along which the conclusions follow (such as analogising or distinguishing). Then a formal theory of case-based legal reasoning is explained and illustrated with examples. A method is used for representing dialectical structure of cases explicitly. A special feature thereby is that factors can be entangled, that is, a factor can support or attack that another factor is a reason. With the help of the dialectical case representations, reasoning by case comparison can be presented as a (generalised variant) of reasoning a fortiori. A unique characteristic of this approach is its explicit recognition that in the law it is to some extent contingent which case features are relevant for case comparison. In other words, different case features can in principle be treated as relevant for the purpose of comparing cases. Moreover, the relevant case features can be stated at different levels of abstraction. The formal theory captures not only the conclusions that follow by case comparison, but also some typical reasoning patterns. In particular, a number of reasoning patterns are presented that exploit the contingency of the case features relevant for case comparison: emphasising and downplaying differences and similarities between cases. The formal theory is compared to other existing approaches to reasoning by case comparison. In particular, the comparison with these approaches addresses their relative emphasis on the conclusions that follow, and on the reasoning patterns along which the conclusions follow.

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