Computer Power and Legal Language: The Use of Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, and Expert Systems in the Law

by Charles Walter

Overview

Computer Power and Legal Language explores the central issues involved in the use of computers to conduct legal business. The contributors, all experts in their field, take as their starting point fundamental questions about the potential utility of computational models of linguistics, intelligence, and logic in the law: Is it possible to use computing to communicate in the manner legal experts do? Can legal language be represented in computational form? How does natural language serve as both a bridge and a major stumbling block for the communication of concepts—both among jurists and computers? In answering these and other questions regarding computers in the law, the contributors present the results of research on the cutting edge of legal informatics, expert systems, and legal language, and they introduce important new applications of computers for lawyers.

Walter begins with an introductory chapter on the ways language is used in law. Subsequent chapters address a wide range of concerns: the relationship between precision in meaning and open texture in legal writing; the application of logic programming to law; a semantic representation of pre-contractual and contractual verbs of exchange; the use of CCLIPS, a computer program that reads and understands the Louisiana civil code; the interface between human users and legal information retrieval systems; and more. A state-of-the-art contribution to current research in the field, this book offers a much-needed synthesis of current theory and practice regarding computers and legal language.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780899303062
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/14/1988
Pages:	410
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

CHARLES WALTER is Senior Research Scientist and Director of the Law & Technology Institute, and former Director of the Program on Law and Technology at the University of Houston Law Center. Also a practicing lawyer, he is the author of Computing Power and Legal Analysis as well as numerous scientific articles in books and articles about substantive law.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Charles Walter
Precise Meaning and Open Texture in Legal Writing and Reading by Peter Linzer
Elements of Legal Language by Charles Walter
Toward a Model of Legal Argumentation by Donald Berman and Charles Walter
A Brief Introduction to Logic Programming and Its Applications in Law by Marek Sergot
Toward A Rule-Based Representation of Open Texture in Law by Trevor Bench-Capon and Marek Sergot
A Semantic Representation of the Pre-Contractual and Contractual Verbs of Exchange by J. Hook
The Discourse Properties of the Criminal Status by Michael Hoey
The Implementation of CCLIPS by George Cross, Cary deBessonet, Teri Bradshaw, Glynn Durham, Rittick Gupta, and Mohammed Nasiruddin
Representing Contractual Situations by Seth Goldman, Michael Dyer, and Margot Flowers
The Text Retrieval System as a Conversation Factor by Jon Bing
Natural Language Interfaces by Michael Hoey and Charles Walter
Semiotic Orders in Law by Michael Heather
Distinguishing Legal Language-Types for Conceptual Retrieval by Cary deBessonet and George Cross
The Basic Logic for the Interpetation of Legal Texts by Hector-Neri Castaneda
Obstacles to the Development of Logic-Based Models of Legal Reasoning by Donald Berman and Carole Hafner
The Relation between Language Studies and Expert Systems by J. C. Gardin
An Experiment with Normalized Statutes in an Emycin Expert System by Grayfred Gray
Exploring Computer-Aided Generation of Question for Normalizing Legal Rules by Layman Allen and Charles Saxon
Expert System Shells and the Judicial Process: An Evaluation by Bethany Dumas and Charles Walter
Expert Systems for Law by Charles Walter
Toward a Legal Expert System Shell: A Prolog Implementation by C. Duncan MacRae and Elizabeth Chase MacRae
State of the Art of Computerization in Law Practice by Charles Walter
Index