Legal Engineering: A Knowledge Engineering Approach To Improving Legal Quality

Knowledge engineers have been working in the legal domain since the rise of their discipline in the mid-eighties of the last century. More and more knowledge engineering is not just seen as a way of capturing and distributing (legal) knowledge by means of the knowledge-based systems created, but as an analytical approach that helps to improve legal quality. Improving legal access of course remains equally important. This insight has lead to the application of knowledge engineering methods at a much earlier stage in the development of normative systems (including legal systems), preferably when the (new) norms are created or adapted (legislation drafting). A good example of this approach is the POWER-approach developed in the Netherlands by the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (DTCA in Dutch: Belastingdienst) and some partners (see e.g. Van Engers et al., 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003). This POWER-approach offers both a method and supporting tools that support a systematic translation of (new) legislation into the administrations’ processes. This paper describes how this systematic approach that has its origins in knowledge engineering can help to improve legal quality. The POWER-method not only helps to improve the quality of (new) legislation. It also supports codification of the legal knowledge into procedures, computer programs and other designs. One of the advantages thereof is the reduction of the time-to-market of the implementation of legislation and its increased transparency (which will lead to reduced maintenance costs. In this chapter we will focus on legal quality improvement and explain some knowledge representation techniques that we use to enable this. In contrast to other knowledge modelling approaches the POWER-approach is focused on modelling legal sources rather than expert knowledge. Expert knowledge however is needed to find the correct interpretations but also for efficiency reasons. Starting with representing the (legal) experts’ knowledge (using scenarios) helps to find the adequate scope (the legal sources to be analysed). Confronting the expert with differences between the model build out of the experts’ knowledge and the knowledge that can be distilled out of the other knowledge sources (specifically the law) causes the legal experts to see things in a different light and has often led to changes in the law. 2 Prof. dr. Tom M. van Engers