Jurix 2007 Workshop on Modelling Legal Cases
- Research in AI and Law has, throughout its history, produced a variety of approaches by which legal cases can be modelled. These approaches support different styles of reasoning for a variety of problem-solving contexts, such as decision-making, information retrieval, teaching, etc. Particular legal cases that have received wide coverage in the AI and Law literature include: the infamous property law case of Pierson v. Post (see e.g. Berman and Hafner, ICAIL 1993; Gordon and Walton, COMMA 2006); other cases involving the capture of wild animals such as Young v. Hitchens and Keeble v. Hickeringill (see e.g. Berman and Hafner, ICAIL 1993; Bench-Capon and Rissland, JURIX 2001); US trade secrets cases such as Mason v. Jack Daniel Distillery (see e.g. Aleven and Ashley, ICAIL 1997); and, criminal cases such as the Rijkbloem case (see e.g. Bex et. al, ICAIL 2007). The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum in which researchers can present their own particular approach used for modelling such legal cases, with a view to considering the relative merits of the individual approaches.
- Papers are solicited that model a particular legal case of the author’s choice, using the author’s preferred model of representation. Papers should make clear what the particular distinctive features of their approach are and why these features are useful in modelling the chosen case. It is intended that the workshop will provide an opportunity for presenters to demonstrate the benefits of their approach, whilst providing a basis for group discussions to identify useful overlapping features, or individual elements that could be further explored and developed. Short position papers are also welcome from those interested in the topic but who do not wish to present a fully represented case. Possible questions for discussion are:
- Are particular methods suited to particular aspects of cases, or areas of law?
- Are cases captured at different levels of granularity?
- Are there differences in the degree of fidelity to the original decisions, and does this matter?
- Do particular methods support different styles of reasoning within and about the representation?
- To what extent does the context of use affect the representation?
- Format of papers and submission guidelines
- Papers should not be more than 10 pages long and should be submitted in PDF format. It is suggested that the conference style files are used for formatting (see IOS Press site). All papers should provide:
- A summary of the case and, where appropriate, a link to the text of the decision.
- An overview of the representation technique, or reference to a full description of it.
- The representation itself.
- Discussion of any significant features.
- Short position papers are also welcome, as are summaries and reflections on previously published work that has addressed the topic.
- All submissions should be emailed as a PDF attachment to the workshop organiser, Katie Atkinson, at: K.M.Atkinson@liverpool.ac.uk.
- Important dates
- 5th November 2007: Deadline for submission of papers/abstracts
- 21st November 2007: Notification
- 28th November 2007: Deadline for camera-ready copies
- 12th December 2007: Workshop
- Programme Committee
- Kevin Ashley, University of Pittsburgh, USA
- Trevor Bench-Capon, University of Liverpool, UK
- Tom Gordon, Fraunhofer, FOKUS, Germany
- Giovanni Sartor, European University Institute, Italy
- Henry Prakken, Groningen University & Utrecht University, The Netherlands
- Douglas Walton, University of Winnipeg, Canada
- Radboud Winkels, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Organisation
- Organiser of this workshop is Katie Atkinson, University of Liverpool, UK. You can contact the workshop organiser by sending an email to K.M.Atkinson@liverpool.ac.uk
