Conference presentation. See paper in: G. Dregvaite, R. Damasevicius (eds.) Information and Software Technologies, Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference, ICIST 2016, Druskininkai, Lithuania, 13–15.10.2016, Communications in Computer and Information Science CCIS vol. 639, pp. 18–29. Springer International Publishing Switzerland. ISSN 1865-0929, e-ISSN 1865-0937, ISBN 978-3-319-46253-0, e-ISBN 978-3-319-46254-7, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-46254-7. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-46254-7_2. ABSTRACT. This paper concerns the legal system and legal documentation systems, as well as their interconnectedness and introduces the idea of legal sublevels. Examples of legal sublevels are legal terms, ontologies, annotations, commentaries, etc. A sublevel is treated as a representation level of the legal domain. In terms of soft-ware engineering, a sublevel can be defined as a level of infrastructural services for several domains. This paper is a kind of exploratory research; an abstract the-ory is being developed. A key question is “What are the sublevels in law and le-gal informatics?” We also examine the concept of view and project the core and peripheral areas around the legal system onto Schweighofer’s 8 views/4 meth-ods/4 syntheses model. We link the idea of sublevel with the notion of view.

1. Network of Legal Metalevels
International Legal Informatics Symposium (IRIS 2016), Salzburg, 25-27.02.2016
Friedrich LACHMAYER
Vienna and the University of Innsbruck
Vytautas ČYRAS
Vilnius University
Erich Schweighofer
University of Vienna

2. 1. Introduction
2

3. Examples of legal metalevels
• ‘Meta’ means ‘with’ (German mit)
– Not ‘higher’ or ‘beyond’
• Metalevel = an additional system
• Examples:
– Legal terms (legally indifferent substrate)
see Kelsen (1991)
– Legal ontologies, thesauri, taxonomies
– Commentaries, annotations
3

4. Theme 1: The granularity problem
4
Legal system
Legal source
Legal documentation
Document 1
Document 2
Document n
…
• Small documentation entities increase metadata
• Different metalevels in
– The legal system
– The legal documentation system

5. Theme 2: Core and periphery
5

6. Theme 3: Shift from hierarchy to network
6
• Unity by Kelsen:
a lower norm conforms
with a higher norm.
“No one can serve two masters”
• Two kinds of relations
between legal orders
– either independence
(even indifference)
– or integration
• no co-ordination
• no co-operation
• Deregulation
– A consequence of the Welfare State
– Post the “Rule of Law” State
• Multidisciplarity
– pluralist perspective to legal science
(Van Hoecke, van de Kerchove, Ost)
Basic
norm
Constitution
Law
Decision
State law
Sub-state law
International lawCorporative law
Foreign law
Higher law
Subordinate law
linear
Decision
(case law)
Norm
circular

7. Theme 4: Schweighofer’s approach
7
My question:
Is this classification complete?

8. 2. Shift from hierarchy
to a network
8

9. What is the shape of a network?
Network = (semiformal) system or (formal) graph?
9
Pyramid
?
• Inverted pyramid
– American realists
– Multiple distant sources of law flow
into the singular decision by the judge
• From tree to trellis
• Tangled hierarchy
• Strange loops

10. In exactly what sense is law a system?
• A system of norms, concepts, institutions, branches,
principles, and values?
• Forest ≠ set of trees
• System (van de Kerchove & Ost 1994):
1. Set of elements (components)
• Uniting, Greek systēma, assemblage
• Elements can be subsystems
2. Relations
• Organized totality (integration principle)
• Bonds of interdependence, interaction, solidarity
3. Unity (i.e. cohesion)
• Determines the system’s structure
• Negative aspect of differentiation from the exterior
• Positive aspect of identity
• Possesses properties that are not reducible to those of its elements
10

11. Question: what is ‘metalevel’?
• Metalevel = an additional system
• Is ‘metalevel’ a subsystem
of the system?
– Seeking an answer in the book
Van de Kerchove & Ost 1994
11

12. Question:
Is ‘metalevel’ a row in a matrix?
12
Metalevel 1
Metalevel 2
Metalevel 3
Domain 1 Domain 2 Domain 3 Domain 4
‘Metalevel’ = a level of infrastructural services
for several domains?
s1
s2 s3
s4 s1
s1
s4s4 s3
s2s3 s2

13. Question: Is ‘metalevel’ a horizontal
view of the player?
Zachman framework
13
• Horizontally:
different
descriptions of the
system—all from the
same player's
perspective
• Vertically:
a single focus, but
change the player
from whose
perspective we are
viewing that focus

14. 3. Schweighofer’s
approach
14

15. 4 views by Lu & Conrad (2013)
15
The set of evidence (views) used by modern legal search engines,
http://blog.law.cornell.edu/voxpop/2013/03/28/next-generation-legal-search-
its-already-here/

16. 1. Document view
• Documents of traditional legal searches
– Cases, briefs, statutes, regulations, law
reviews and other forms of primary and
secondary (analytical) legal publications
• Norms, court decisions and legal literature
– ‘Soft law’
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2. Annotation view

17. 3. Citation view
• Out-bound (cited) sources with respect to the
document in question
• In-bound (citing) sources
Citations are different:
– basis of the act
– acts cited in the document
– citations in the operative part of the judgment
– document amending other documents
– document is amended by other acts, etc
17

18. 5. Logical view
• Is based on predicate logic
• Legal rules
– e.g. in rOWLer, a rule engine by Scharf (2015)
in JAVA and OWL 2
• Business rules management systems
– e.g. JBoss Enterprise BRMS
• Restricted to “standard cases” leaving
hard cases to the argumentation view
18

19. 6. Ontological view
• Legal ontologies
• Shared vocabularies
• Advanced thesauri
• Concepts and relations
19

20. 4. Terminology of
viewing
20

21. My terminology of viewing
21
Question:
Is my concept of viewij identical to the concept of
‘view’ by Schweighofer (i.e. by Conrad & Lu)?

22. Schweighofer’s approach as a lense
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23. Conclusions
• Is a complete list of metalevels possible?
– Variety of legal tasks
– Are classification criteria practical or thoretical?
• Subsystems in a legal documentation system?
– Software engineer’s view
• Variety of software systems serve the legal system
• Classification criteria for subsystems?
– Data
• Legal sources, databases of legal terms,
national registers, etc.
– Metadata, users, etc.
• I presented an exploratory research
23

24. Thank You
Vytautas.Cyras@mif.vu.lt
24
F. Lachmayer, www.legalvisualization.com,
http://jusletter-it.weblaw.ch/visualisierung/
E. Schweighofer, http://rechtsinformatik.univie.ac.at