Machine Learning versus Knowledge Based Classification of Legal Texts

  • Authors:
  • Emile de Maat;Kai Krabben;Radboud Winkels

  • Affiliations:
  • Leibniz Center for Law, University of Amsterdam;Science Faculty, University of Amsterdam;Leibniz Center for Law, University of Amsterdam

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2010 conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems: JURIX 2010: The Twenty-Third Annual Conference
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

This paper presents results of an experiment in which we used machine learning (ML) techniques to classify sentences in Dutch legislation. These results are compared to the results of a pattern-based classifier. Overall, the ML classifier performs as accurate (90%) as the pattern based one, but seems to generalize worse to new laws. Given these results, the pattern based approach is to be preferred since its reasons for classification are clear and can be used for further modelling of the content of the sentences.