A Comparison of Four Ontologies for the Design of Legal Knowledge Systems

There is a growing interest in how people conceptualise the legal domain for the purpose of legal knowledge systems. In this paper we discuss four such conceptualisations (referred to as ontologies): McCarty’s language for legal discourse, Stamper’s norma formalism, Valente’s functional ontology of law, and the ontology of Van Kralingen and Visser. We present criteria for a comparison of the ontologies and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the ontologies in relation to these criteria. Moreover, we critically review the criteria.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 1998
• Where: AIL
• Authors: Pepijn R. S. Visser, Trevor J. M. Bench-Capon
• Keywords: AIL 1998, Legal Knowledge Systems, Stamper’s Norma Formalism, Valente’s Functional Ontology