Aide (`AustLII Inferencing Development Environment') provides a quasi-natural language form of knowledge representation which is reasonably close to statutory language, but at the same time represents knowledge so that it can be used by an inferencing engine using predicate calculus.

The World Wide Web presents new challenges for the development of legal inferencing systems. This project starts by implementing via the web the inferencing component of the previous ‘DataLex’ research, through the wysh interface. This provides one solution to the problem of maintaining state in web interactions, while only requiring standard HTML and CGI facilities. Wysh knowledge bases can interact with other wysh knowledge bases located anywhere on the web, creating opportunities for new forms of ‘cooperative’ knowledge base development. Automated and customized means of linking knowledge bases and inferencing dialogues to a large dynamic ‘real world’ legal information system (the Australasian Legal Information Institute) are provided, giving one means of overcoming the ‘knowledge base lag’. The project’s development tools are available to any legal knowledge base developer via the web.This was the first paper to explain Austlii's approach to implementing rule-based reasoning systems in the context of free access to law legal information institutes.

If legal inferencing systems are to be used for immediate practical application, they are best constructed by embedding them in other technologies which can assist in augmenting and controlling the course of inferencing. Adoption of a (quasi) natural language knowledge representation assists easier development of user interpretative facilities, user control of the course of inferencing and explanation facilities. The paper explains how the DataLex Workstation Software, particularly its inference engine, ysh, implements these approaches.

Article Free Access Share on The DataLex legal workstation: integrating tools for lawyers Authors: Graham Creenleaf Senior Lecturer in Law, University of New South Wales Senior Lecturer in Law, University of New South WalesView Profile , Andrew Mowbray Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Technology, Sydney Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Technology, SydneyView Profile , Alan Tyree Landerer Professor of Information Technology and Law, University of Sydney Landerer Professor of Information Technology and Law, University of SydneyView Profile Authors Info & Claims ICAIL '91: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Artificial intelligence and lawMay 1991Pages 215–224https://doi.org/10.1145/112646.112673Published:01 May 1991Publication History 8citation271DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations8Total Downloads271Last 12 Months20Last 6 weeks2 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

This paper presents the development by the DataLex Project, a joint research project by the authors, of a software ‘shell’ specifically suited to the development of legal expert systems, and its use to develop a number of experimental applications programs used for teaching and demonstrations in several Australian universities. The paper considers a number of characteristics which make the development of legal expert systems different in character from the development of similar systems in engineering, medicine and the natural sciences. These differences, together with some practical constraints, has been responsible for the particular form which the software tools have taken.We argue there are a number of systems which have been built or are being built by people whose primary interest and training is in computer science and who fundamentally misunderstand the nature of law and legal reasoning, primarily widespread misconception that law is a simple system of rules and that legal inference consists of a simple deductive application of these rules. We challenge the view that there is need to construct deep conceptual models before effective legal expert systems may be built, concluding that it is an empirical problem which may only be resolved by building systems and evaluating their performance. The design criteria for the software and applications developed by the DataLex Project are then set out, and the shell and a number of resulting applications described. The shell includes both a decision network module (LES:DN) and a module for precedent analysis by nearest neighbour discriminant analysis (PAANDA). A full text retrieval system (AIRS) is intended to be integrated into the shell, and the reasons why this is necessary are explained. Note: This was the first published paper concerning the DataLex project, and the first paper presented at the 1st ICAIL Conference.