A principled approach to developing legal knowledge systems

In this article we present a principled, four-phased approach to the develo pment of legal knowledge systems. We set out from the well-studied CommonKA DS method for the development of knowledge systems and tailor this method t o the legal domain. In particular, we propose a generic legal ontology, and describe the creation of statute-specific ontologies to adopt the method f or building legal systems. In the construction of these ontologies, we star t from a theoretical analysis of the legal domain. The well-known example o f the Imperial College Library Regulations (ICLR) is used to illustrate the method. (C) 1999 Academic Press.