The Credit Act Advisory System (CAAS): conversion from an expert system prototype to a C++ commercial system

ABSTRACT

CAAS is a rule-based expert system, which provides advice on the Victorial Credit Act 1984. It is currently in commercial use, and has been developed in conjunction with a law firm. It uses an object-oriented hybrid reasoning approach. The system was initially prototyped using the expert system shell NExpert Object, and was then converted into the C++ language. In this paper we describe the advantages that this methodology has, for both commercial and research development.

REFERENCES

• 1: The production rules forming the knowledge base are heuristic rules supplied by experts from Allan Moore & Co. As such, the system does not directly model or reason with statutes or precedents per se
• 2: The ~ 1984 (Vic) and the Credit (Administration) Act, 1984 (Vic). For further information on the Act see: Cavanagh, S. W. and Barnes, S., Consumer Credit Law in Australia - Commentaries on the New Credit Legislation, Butterw. orths, 1988; Duggan A. J., Begg S. W., Lanyon E. V., Regulated Credit- the Credit and Security Aspects, The Law Book Company Limi~ 1989; Levine, J. R., Victorian Consumer Credit Legislation with Annotations, CCH Australia Limited, 1984.
• 3: Object hierarchies inheriting both slots and methods were used quite extensively.
• 4: A Petri net is a directed graph with two kinds of nodes, places and transitions, interconnected by arcs - in such a way that each arc connects two different kinds of nodes (ie. a place and a transition). Such a graph is called a bipartite direc~ graph. For more on Petri Nets, see Rosenberg, G. (ed.), Advances in Petri Nets 1990, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 483, Springer Verlag, Berlin 1990.
• 5: For further information on this project see, Zeleznikow, J., Vossos, G. and Hunter, D., 'The IKBALS Project: Multi- Modal Reasoning in Legal Knowledge Based Systems,' submiaed to Artificial Intelligence and Law Journal.

INDEX TERMS

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

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: C++

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.3 Deduction and Theorem Proving
          Subjects: Deduction (e.g., natural, rule-based)

  J. Computer Applications
  J.1 ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PROCESSING
      Subjects: Law

General Terms:
Languages, Legal Aspects