Computer representation of legal documents

1
Computer representation of legal documents

• Fabio Vitali
• University of Bologna
• May 2nd, 2000

2

• When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a
  rather scornful tone, "it means just what I
  choose it to mean - neither more nor less
• Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

3
A few words of caveat

• Natural languages
• Technical languages
• Computer languages
• Alphabet soup

4
A scenario

• A legal drafter is writing a contract. He is
  writing a structured text with clauses. Many of
  these clauses refer explicitly to articles of
  national, international and local laws. Some
  these laws have changed since they were first
  approved. The contract is put on the Web for all
  the interested parties to read and approve it.
  Then it is printed for signatures and added to
  the firms electronic collection of active
  contracts.

5
Purposes of computer representation

• Printing
• Browsing
• Searching
• Connecting
• Reusing
• Understanding (not in our scope today)

6
Summary

• We will discuss some issues regarding computer
  support in
• Structuring legal documents
• Referring to legal documents
• Presenting legal documents

7
Structuring documents

• The World Wide Web
• Markup languages
• HTML, SGML, XML
• XML for legal documents

8
The World Wide Web (1)

• The Web was originally the result of some
  protocols and languages
• HTML
• HTTP
• URL
• Software browsers and servers

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The World Wide Web (2)

• Several additions make the current Web complex
• Server-side DB connectivity, CGI applications,
  servlets, PHP, etc.
• Computation javascript, Vbscript, Java applet,
  embedded objects
• Presentation CSS, HTML 4, etc.
• New media video, audio, VR, etc.

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A simple document
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Marking documents up

• Markup as the means to make explicit an
  interpretation of a text
• Text vs. binary markup
• Types of markup
• Punctuational and presentational markup
• Procedural markup
• Descriptive and referential markup

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The mere content

• threemeninaboattosaynothingofthedogjeromekjeromefv
  bookschapter1threeinvalidssufferingsofgeorgeandhar
  risavictimtoonehundredandsevenfatalmaladiestherewe
  refourofusgeorgeandwilliamsamuelharrisandmyselfand
  montmorencyweweresittinginmyroomsmokingandtalkinga
  bouthowbadwewerebadfromamedicalpointofviewimeanofc
  oursewewereallfeelingseedyandweweregettingquitener
  vousaboutit

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With punctuational markup

• Three men in a boat
• To say nothing of the dog!
• Jerome K. Jerome
• FV Books
• Chapter 1
• Three invalids - Sufferings of George and Harris
  - A victim to one hundred and seven fatal
  maladies - There were four of us - George, and
  William Samuel Harris, and myself, and
  Montmorency. We were sitting in my room, smoking,
  and talking about how bad we were - bad from a
  medical point of view I mean, of course. We were
  all feeling seedy, and we were getting quite
  nervous about it...

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A binary specific format
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A specific text format
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HTML
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XML (1)
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XML (2)

• Extensible Markup Language, 1996, W3C
• Descriptive markup
• Text format
• Emphasizes structures
• Meta-markup
• Standard but with strong industry support
• Document types and DTDs

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XML for legal documents

• Meta-markup many document types
• Descriptive markup elements are described
  according to their meaning, not aspect
• Structure legal documents are heavily
  structured, and can easily be referred to
  according to their structures
• Duration legal documents are supposed to last
  for long periods, longer than the average Web
  page.

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XML for legal documents

• Italian laws are composed of
• A main heading
• A preamble (not always)
• A structure of articles and clauses, divided in
  parte, libro, titolo, capo, sezione,
  paragrafo, then in articolo, then in comma
  (actual law clauses). Each of them is numbered
  according to specific rules.
• A conclusion (not always)
• Zero or more attachments

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XML for legal documents

• ltcodicegt
• lttestatagt
• ltestremi id"l0001985022800047"gt
• lttipodocgtLEGGE lt/tipodocgt
• ltdatadocgt28 febbraio 1985lt/datadocgt,
• ltenumdocgt47lt/enumdocgt
• lt/estremigt
• ltepigrafegt TITLE OF LAW lt/epigrafegt
• lt/testatagt
• ltarticolagt
• ltcapo id"l0001985022800047p00al00at00ac01a"gt
• ltcanumgtltnumelemgtCAPO Ilt/numelemgtlt/canumgt
• ltcatitologtTITLE OF HEADING I lt/catitologt
• ltarticolo id"l0001985022800047ar0001a"gt
• ltgrnumartgtltanumgt1.lt/anumgtlt/grnumartgt
• ltrubricagtTITLE OF ARTICLE 1lt/rubricagt
• ltcomma id"l0001985022800047ar0001ac001a"gt
  
• ltcorpogt BODY OF CLAUSE 1 OF ARTICLE 1
  lt/corpogt
• lt/commagt

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Referring to legal documents

• References are the moving blood of any working
  legal system.
• Implicit vs explicit references
• Modifications and references
• Human and computer references
• Synonyms and identifiers

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URLs, URNs

• URLs universal locators of resources
• The specific method of access is explicit
• http//www.cs.unibo.it/fabio/laws/1985/0047a11
• http// protocol for access
• www.cs.unibo.it/ domain name of web site
• fabio/laws/1985/0047 local name of resource
• a11 internal location within resource
• URNs universal names of resources
• The name is stable and reliable. It is converted
  to a URL when needed
• urn//nir/L198502280047a11

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XPath

• A stable way to refer to locations within
  resources
• Specific internal names
• Specific nodes identified via tree navigation
• Specific text chunks identified via absolute
  addresses
• urn//nir/L198502280047a11
• Element called a11 within document
• urn//nir/L1985022800472/3/5
• 5th element within 3rd element within 2nd element
  of resource
• urn//nir/L198502280047xpointer(/doc/chapter5/
  section2)
• 2nd section of 5th chapter of element doc within
  the resource

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XLink (1)

• A way to express sophisticated hypertext links
  (inter-document relationships)
• Simple links point-to-point, local, directional,
  embedded
• Extended inline links point-to-point, local,
  multidirectional, embedded links
• Extended out-of-line links point-to-point,
  remote, multidirectional, external links

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XLink (2)

• ltextlink xltypeextended xlroleextlink
  xltitleprovagt ltruolo xltypearc
  xlfromone xltotwo/gt ltruolo
  xltypearc xlfromone xltothree/gt
  ltlocal xltyperesource xlroleonegt
  Click here lt/localgt lturl xltypelocator
  xlroletwo
• xlhrefhttp//www.sitetwo.com//gtltypelocato
  r xlrolethreexlhrefhttp//www.sitothree.c
  om//gt
• lt/extlinkgt

• ltruolo xltypearc xlfromone
  xltotwo/gt ltruolo xltypearc
  xlfromone xltothree/gt

• ltlocal xltyperesource xlroleonegt
  Click here lt/localgt lturl xltypelocator
  xlroletwo xlhrefhttp//www.sitetwo.c
  om//gt lturl xltypelocator xlrolethree
  xlhrefhttp//www.sitothree.com//gt

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URNs and XLink for legal documents

• Support for absolute references
• Regardless of modifications
• Support for specific references
• Modifications are specific and local
• Support for automatic conversion between human,
  traditional references and computer, Web-based
  references
• See clause 3 of article 5 of law 47 of 1985
• urn//nir/L198502280047xpointer(/art/articolo5
  /comma3)

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Presenting legal documents

• Legal documents must be transformed in order to
  be read by humans and to be used.
• Printed and on-line versions
• Inclusions and quotations in other legal
  documents
• Summaries and comments by researchers
• (semi-)automatic generation of modified texts

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CSS

• Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) adds rendering
  semantics to existing XML documents.
• Used to specify that a text node is a block
  element, or an inline element, and what
  appearance attributes to give it.
• comma element-type block font-size
  100 text-align left margin-right 5px
  margin-left 5px color 0000FF

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XSLT and XSL

• Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation
  (XSLT) transforms an XML element with structural
  semantics into another XML document with
  rendering (or other) semantics.
• Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is a set of
  elements with specific rendering semantics.
  Foblock is a paragraph, while foinline is an
  inline element
• XSLT transforms any XML document into either an
  XSL or an HTML document. We can use to specify
  that an element in the source XML document is a
  foblock element or a ltPgt element

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XSLT - an example

• ltxsltemplate matcharticolo"gt
• ltHR/gt ltH2gt ltxslvalue-of
  selectgrnumart"/gt - ltxslvalue-of
  selectrubrica"/gt lt/H2gt
• ltxslapply-templates /gt
• lt/xsltemplategt
• Each element in the source element is matched
  with the best fitting template, and the output is
  written in the destination document.

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Two case studies

• There are several experiences in Italy on using
  XML for the law. Two will be examined
• Zanichelli publisher
• Norme in rete (http//www.normeinrete.it/)

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Zanichelli

• A project born in 1996 using SGML instead of XML
  (but with XML in mind for evolution)
• An SGML DTD for laws and normative documents of
  all kinds
• An SGML database with the whole civil and
  criminal code, and some 400 additional laws and
  normative documents
• A converter for the selection of the laws for
  print
• A converter for the selection of laws for a CD

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http//www.normeinrete.it/

• A project born in 2000 from a joint initiative of
  Italian Senate, Chamber and the Prime Ministers
  office.
• A working group identifying the best XML tools
  for legal drafting and verification
• A working group delivering a DTD to constrain and
  shape future laws
• A working group delivering URNs for all present
  and past normative documents.
• A working group delivering meta-information sets
  for Italian laws and other official documents.

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Conclusions

• Representing legal documents with computers
• Useful for quotations, references, access,
  evolution
• Requires sophisticated languages more than tools
• URNs and XPaths for correct references
• XML for correct structuring
• XSLT for transformation into usable documents.

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References (1)

• Case studies
• Norme in rete http//www.normeinrete.it/
• Zanichelli http//www.zanichelli.it/
• XML
• J. Bosak, XML, Java, and the future of the Web,
  http//metalab.unc.edu/pub/sun-info/standards/xml/
  why/xmlapps.htm
• T. Bray, J. Paoli, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen,
  Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0, W3C
  Recommendation, 10 February 1998,
  http//www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml
• T. Bray, The annotated XML Specification,1998,
  http//www.xml.com/axml/testaxml.htm

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References (2)

• XSLT
• James Clark, XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version
  1.0, W3C Recommendation 16 November 1999,
  http//www.w3.org/TR/xslt
• E.R. Harold, XSL Transformations (XSLT), capitolo
  14 del libro XML Bible, disponibile in rete
  http//metalab.unc.edu/xml/books/bible/updates/14.
  html
• James Clark, XSLT in Perspective,
  http//www.jclark.com/xml/xslt-talk.htm
• XPointer e XLink
• S. DeRose, E. Maler, D. Orchard, B. Trafford, XML
  Linking Language (XLink), W3C Working Draft , 21
  February 2000, http//www.w3.org/TR/xlink/
• J. Clark, S. DeRose, XML Path Language (XPath),
  Version 1.0, W3C Recommendation 16 November 1999,
  http//www.w3.org/TR/xpath
• S. DeRose, R. Daniel Jr., E. Maler, XML Pointer
  Language (XPointer), W3C Working Draft 6 December
  1999, http//www.w3.org/TR/xptr