Processing and Representing Statutory Formalisms

deBessonet, C. G. and Cross, G. R., "Processing and Representing Statutory Formalisms," Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers, Systems and Signal Processing, Bangalore, India, 1170-1172, December, 1984.

Abstract: We are developing a system called CCLIPS (Civil Code Legal Information Processing System) for legal reasoning and conceptual retrieval. The system uses an intermediate language called ANF (atomically normalized form) to represent the provisions of the Lousiana Civil Code. The use of ANF allows the semantic content of legal rules to be specified succinctly and unambiguously. The atomically normalized propositions are aggregated using logical connectives into if-then clauses that express the articles of the Civil Code.

The prototype system is being developed with the intention of establishing the usefulness of ANF in retrieval and reasoning. Both queries and responses in the prototype version of the system are expressed in ANF. The system also contains semantic formalisms to express procedural representations of the legal concepts that appear in the Civil Code.