Theory based explanation of case law domains: 38

  • Authors:

  • Trevor Bench-Capon;Giovanni Sartor

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Science, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK;Faculty of Law, University of Bologna, Italy

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Artificial intelligence and law
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

In this paper we put forward a formal description of theories which can be used to record understanding of, and explain decisions in, case law domains. We believe that reasoning with cases involves all of theory construction, use and evaluation, and that awareness of the theory which provides a context for case based arguments is essential to understanding such arguments. Moreover, our account of these theories includes a systematic link between factors and values, which we believe is necessary to explain why some arguments prove to be more persuasive than others. We begin by formalising the various elements that the theories contain, and then provide a set of theory constructors which allow theories to built up from the background of decided cases. We show how such theories can be used to explain decisions on particular cases. We discuss how theories can be compared and evaluated. We then show how the argument moves of HYPO and CATO can be understood in terms of our framework. We conclude with a brief discussion of an implementation of the framework, and a summary of the major features of our approach.