Beyond boxes and arrows: argumentation support in terms of the knowledge structure of a legal topic

  • Authors:
  • Maaike Schweers;Bart Verheij

  • Affiliations:
  • Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen;Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems: JURIX 2007: The Twentieth Annual Conference
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Today's argumentation software mostly emphasizes the logical structure of reasoning, and especially the structure as it can be represented in boxes-and-arrows style diagrams. In this paper an alternative way of providing argumentation support is proposed. A content-oriented, relatively lowtech tool is presented, based on the knowledge structure of a legal topic, inspired by the structure of legal treatises. The design for this system builds on research in the areas of law, logic, argumentation theory and cognitive ergonomics. A small user evaluation has been performed to examine the usefulness of the system. We show that supporting legal reasoning based on the knowledge structure of a legal topic can be an interesting foundation for argumentation software.