Legal Informatics: Applications, Implications, Possibilities

Legal Informatics: Applications, Implications,

Possibilities

PhD candidate: Michael Curtotti [email protected]

Supervisory Panel: Prof. Tom Gedeon (Advisor), Assoc. Prof. Chris Johnson (Chair), Dr Eric McCreath (Supervisor), Dr James Popple (Advisor)

A visualization of the formalstructure of the AustralianCopyright Act 1968

Presentation to LIV 2015 [email protected] 2

Why is [legal] informatics transformative?

Applications

1) Technology/Computers – explore some applications

Implications: the ideas/attitudes driving informatics

2) A spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship, an environmentthat embraces new ideas

3) A multidisciplinary outlook & engagement

Possibilities:

4) Possibilities are only limited by imagination, but how canthe profession make the most of this revolution?


The scope of legal informatics:

• The scientific study of information in legaltexts

• The creation of legal expert systems

• The management of 'legal' data

• Theory and practice of computable law,i.e., of cooperation/symbiosis betweenhumans and machines in legal problem-solving (Sartor/Francesconi)


Use of IT in the legal profession (2014 ILTA survey – 454 firms)• 96% - Windows Server 2008/2012 primary server

• 99% Windows 7 + desktop operating system

• 83% traditional local desktop installation

• 96% use versions of microsoft word

• 81% use template macros

• 45% use hotdocs and alternatives

• 4% do not have document management systems

• 64% have attorneys working at matter centric rather thanapplication centric interface


What is law: an informatics viewpoint

• Law is data. • Law is information. • Law is knowledge.


Law as document

Section NumberingHeading (bold)

ParagraphingSub-section and ParagraphNumbering (UK Export Control Act 2002)


1993 Clearer Commonwealth Law –Parliamentary Review• Marking/highlighting defined terms in legislation may

distract readers

• Should section numbers be moved to the margins?

• Layout changes to improve readability may impedecross-referencing

• Presenting amendments as mark up to the existing textwould create too much of an administrative burden

• If amendments are presented as mark-up to sections wemight have to rewrite the whole section in plain english


Law as data: UK Legislation API (c. 2013)


Law as data (UK)


Law as network – the U.S. Code


The law is becoming more complexBommarito & Katz show (between 2008-2010):– The network is growing (more sections)

– The network is more interconnected (moreconnections per section)

– Sections are becoming larger

– The density of concepts in sections is increasing(looking at data – language variance - insidesections)


Application to Contract Drafting:Definition Graph

"New Material" means any Material that is created, written or otherwisebrought into existence by the Scholarship Student or the Parties, in theprocess of carrying out the Research Studies Project.


Definition Cloud


AustLII: from 1995 onwardsGranular search functions

Complementing info

Navigation tools

Hyperlinked andhighlighted definitions


Ravel Law – Using Networks &Visualization of US case law


Ravellaw - basic visualization


Ravellaw – jurisdictional view


ANU & Cornell University Crowd-SourcedStudy of Readability of Legislation

• 2014 collected c. 43000 crowd-sourced readerassessment of the readability/usability of 1200sentences (including 1000 legal sentences)

• Used this data to understand the demographicsof those who use law online & their experienceof law

• To categorise legal sentences by difficulty

• Applied machine learning for predictinglanguage difficulty


Some findings • Results suggest legal

professionals (includinglaw students are now ina minority of readers)

• 'Legal' group have ahigher proportion oftertiary educated thanthe public

• The law is harder toread for non-lawyersthan lawyers


Can we improve the writing of law? Implicationsfrom machine learning and data analysis

• Avoid sentences with more than five prepositions.

• Keep sentence length below 30 words.

• Avoid more than 3 cross references.

• Avoid more than two conjunctions (and/or).

• Avoid more than two negatives.

• Aim for at least 50% non-functional words in a sen-tence (i.e. nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives).


Law as Behaviour: Section Readership(from Google Analytics of Cornell LII pages)• Top 37 sections

accounted for 9.97%of the section viewsduring a year.

• c. 65000 sections

• We can literallyobserve humanbeigns interacting withthe law


Abstraction, Encapsulation, Design & Law as Legal Product

Visa page from DIBPwebsite


Law as Automated & Designed Artefact


Abstraction, standardization & law as empowerment

(Creative Commons Australia)


What is Law?• The general commands of an habitually obeyed

sovereign which may enforce its will bypunishing disobedience. (law school c. 1985)

• A design perspective: Law is a human createdartefact. It is designed. Its optimal design:– is functional;

– readily usable; and

– provides a positive user experience

• The user is at the apex – an inversion of acommand theory of law.


Do the bells toll for thee, legalprofession?

Technology is not accidental.

It is made by human beings to servehuman purposes.

The future will be determined byconscious choices made by humanactors. Mostly, people are not lawyers.

What would be necessary for the legalprofession to become an activeprotagonist in this process?

And what do we want for the legalprofession and the clients and thesociety we serve?

Documents

Legal Informatics: Applications, Implications, Possibilities