Skip to main content
Log in

The representation of legal contracts

  • Published:
AI & SOCIETY Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper outlines ongoing research on logic-based tools for the analysis and representation of legal contracts, of the kind frequently encountered in large-scale engineering projects and complex, long-term trading agreements. We consider both contract formation and contract performance, in each case identifying the representational issues and the prospects for providing automated support tools.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alchourron, C. E. & Bulygin, E. (1971).Normative Systems. Springer-Verlag, New York.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • ALDUS (1992).The ALDUS project: Artificial Legal Draftsman for Use in Sales, ESPRIT Commission.

  • Allen, L. E. (1957). Symbolic Logic: A Razor-Edged Tool for Drafting and Interpreting Legal Documents.The Yale Law Journal. 66, 833–879.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, L. E. (1982). Towards a Normalized Language to Clarify the Structure of Legal Discourse. In Martino (ed.)Deontic Logic, Computational Linguistics and Legal Information Systems, North-Holland.

  • Allen, L. E. & Saxon, C. S. (1993). A-Hohfeld: A Language for Robust Structural Representation of Knowledge in the Legal Domain to Build Interpretation-Assistance Expert Systems. In Meyer & Wieringa (eds)Deontic Logic in Computer Science: Normative Systems Specification, John Wiley & Sons.

  • Atiyah, P. S. (1989).An introduction to the Law of Contract. Clarendon Press (4th edition), Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bench-Capon, T. J. M. & Sergot, M. J. (1988). Towards a rule-based representation of open texture in law. InComputer Power and Legal Language, Quorum Books, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daskalopulu, A. & Sergot, M. J. (1995). A Constraint-Driven System for Contract Assembly. InProceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law, University of Maryland, College Park, ACM Press. 62–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • deKleer, J. (1986). An assumption based TMS.Artificial Intelligence. 28, 127–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Eck, J. A. (1982). A System of Temporally Relative Modal and Deontic Predicate Logic and its Philosophical Applications.Logique et Analyse. 100, 249–381.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedler, H. (1985). Expert Systems as a Tool for Drafting Legal Decisions. In Martino (ed.)Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Logic, Informatics and Law, Florence. 265–274.

  • Gardner, A. (1987).An Artificial Intelligence Approach to Legal Reasoning. MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, T. F. (1992). A Theory Construction Approach to Legal Document Assembly. In Martino (ed.)Expert Systems in Law, Elsevier Publishers B.V.

  • Hafner, C. D. (1987). Conceptual Organization of Case Law Knowledge Bases. InProceedings of the First International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law, Boston Massachussetts, ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hohfeld, W. N. (1913). Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning.Yale Law Journal. 23, XX-XX.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IEE (1988).Model Form of General Conditions of Contracts: Home or Overseas Contracts with Erection (MF/1). The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • IEE (1991).Model Form of General Conditions of Contract: Home or Overseas Contracts for the Supply of Electrical of Mechanical Plant (MF/2). The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. J. I. (1990). Deontic Knowledge and Legal Knowledge Representation.Ratio Juris. 3, 237–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. J. I. & Sergot, M. J. (1992). Deontic Logic in the Representation of Law: Towards a Methodology.Artificial Intelligence and Law. 1, 45–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. J. I. & Sergot, M. J. (1993). On the Characterisation of Law and Computer Systems: The Normative Systems Perspective. In Meyer & Wieringa (eds)Deontic Logic in Computer Science: Normative Systems Specification, John Wiley & Sons.

  • Jones, A. J. I. & Sergot, M. J. (1996). A Formal Characterisation of Institutionalized Power.Journal of the IGPL. 4, 429–445.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Also in: Valdés, Krawietz, von Wright, Zimmerling (eds),Normative Systems in Legal and Moral Theory, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin. 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanger, S. (1985). On Realization of Human Rights. In Holmstrom & Jones (eds)Action, Logic and Social Theory. Acta Philosophica Fennica.

  • Kanger, S. & Kanger, H. (1966). Rights and Parliamentarism.Theoria. 32, 85–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lauritsen, M. (1992). Technology Report: Building Legal Practice Systems with Today’s Commercial Authoring Tools,Artificial Intelligence and Law. 1, 87–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindhal, L. (1977). Position and Change—A Study in Law and Logic.Synthese Library, 112, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, L. T. (1980). The TAXMAN Project: Towards a Cognitive Theory of Legal Argument. In Niblett (ed.)Computer Science and Law, Cambridge University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prakken, H. (1997).Logical Tools for Modelling Legal Argument: A Study in Defeasible Reasoning in Law. Kluwer, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prakken, H. & Sergot, M. J. (1996). Contrary-to-duty Obligations.Studia Logica. 57, 91–115.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Prakken, H. & Sergot, M. J. (1997). Dyadic Deontic Logic and Contrary-to-Duty Obligations. In Nute (ed.)Defeasible Deontic Logic, Kluwer, The Netherlands.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed, C. A. (1997). Representing and Applying Knowledge for Argumentation in a Social Context.AI and Society. This issue.

  • Rissland, E. L. & Daniels, J. L. (1995). A Hybrid CBR-IR Approach to Legal Information Retrieval. InProceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law, University of Maryland, College Park, ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, K. E. (1991). Representing and reasoning about open-textured predicates. InProceedings of the Third International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law, Oxford, ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sartor, G. (1994). A formal model of legal argumentation.Ratio Juris. 7, 212–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sergot, M. J. (1991). The Representation of Law in Computer Programs. In Bench-Capon (ed.)Knowledge-Based Systems and Legal Applications, Academic Press.

  • Sergot, M. J. (1997). A Computational Theory of Normative Positions. Technical Report, Department of Computing, Imperial College London. (Submitted for publication.)

  • Sergot, M. J. (1998). A Method for Automating the Analysis of Normative Positions. InProceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Deontic Logic in Computer Science, Bologna, Italy (January 1998).

  • Sergot, M. J., Sadri, F., Kowalski, R. A., Kriwaczek, F., Hammond, P. & Cory, H. T. (1986). The British Nationality Act as a Logic Program.Communications of the ACM. 29, 370–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone, R. (1994).Contract Law. Cavendish Publishing Ltd, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Visser, P., Bench-Capon, T. J. M. & van den Herik, J. (1997). A Method for Conceptualising Legal Domains: An Example from the Dutch Unemployment Benefits Act.Artificial Intelligence and Law. 5, 207–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aspassia Daskalopulu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Daskalopulu, A., Sergot, M. The representation of legal contracts. AI & Soc 11, 6–17 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02812435

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02812435

Keywords

Navigation