Knowledge Specification for Multiple Legal Tasks - A Case Study of the Interaction Problem in the Legal Domain (Paperback)

This work offers a methodological background for the development of legal knowledge systems. It describes a composite method that comprises three existing methods: CommonKADs, the de facto standard for the development of knowledge systems; Van Kralingen's theory of frame-based conceptual models of statute law (Van Kralingen's book "Frame-based Conceptual Models of Statute Law" is also published in the Computer/Law series); and KANT, a method to determine the primitive entities and their relations in legal domains. The composite method reduces the dependency between a knowledge specification and the purpose for which the specification is created. This dependency is often perceived to be a problem since it can prevent the specification from being reused for other purposes (this is known as the "interaction problem"). The composite method allows knowledge specifications to be reused for other purposes. The author applies the method to the Dutch Unemployment Benefits Act, and shows that both an assessment and a planning task can be performed using the same knowledge specification.