Conceptual organization of case law knowledge bases

ABSTRACT

Conceptual retrieval requires the computer to have knowledge of legal concepts and issues, and their relationship to the case law collection. This paper discusses the organization of a case law knowledge base in terms of three interacting components: a domain knowledge model defines the basic concepts of a case law domain; individual case descriptors describe the particular constellation of concepts that pertain to each case, organized into a frame-based superstructure according to the legal roles they fill; and issue/case discrimination trees represent the significance of each case relative to a model of the normative relationships of the legal domain. Each of these components is described and justified by showing its contribution to the goal of conceptual retrieval.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.1 Applications and Expert Systems
          Subjects: Law

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.1 Logical Design
          Subjects: Data models
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.3 Information Search and Retrieval
          Subjects: Retrieval models

General Terms:
Documentation, Human Factors, Languages, Theory