A Query System for Extracting Requirements-related Information from Legal Texts

in Proceedings of the 27th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'19), pp. 319-329 (2019)

Searching legal texts for relevant information is a complex and expensive activity. The search solutions offered by present-day legal portals are targeted primarily at legal professionals. These solutions ... [more ▼]

Searching legal texts for relevant information is a complex and expensive activity. The search solutions offered by present-day legal portals are targeted primarily at legal professionals. These solutions are not adequate for requirements analysts whose objective is to extract domain knowledge including stakeholders, rights and duties, and business processes that are relevant to legal requirements. Semantic Web technologies now enable smart search capabilities and can be exploited to help requirements analysts in elaborating legal requirements. In our previous work, we developed an automated framework for extracting semantic metadata from legal texts. In this paper, we investigate the use of our metadata extraction framework as an enabler for smart legal search with a focus on requirements engineering activities. We report on our industrial experience helping the Government of Luxembourg provide an advanced search facility over Luxembourg’s Income Tax Law. The experience shows that semantic legal metadata can be successfully exploited for answering requirements engineering-related legal queries. Our results also suggest that our conceptualization of semantic legal metadata can be further improved with new information elements and relations. [less ▲]

Model-Based Simulation of Legal Policies: Framework, Tool Support, and Validation

in Software and Systems Modeling (2018), 17(3), 851-883

Simulation of legal policies is an important decision-support tool in domains such as taxation. The primary goal of legal policy simulation is predicting how changes in the law affect measures of interest ... [more ▼]

Simulation of legal policies is an important decision-support tool in domains such as taxation. The primary goal of legal policy simulation is predicting how changes in the law affect measures of interest, e.g., revenue. Legal policy simulation is currently implemented using a combination of spreadsheets and software code. Such a direct implementation poses a validation challenge. In particular, legal experts often lack the necessary software background to review complex spreadsheets and code. Consequently, these experts currently have no reliable means to check the correctness of simulations against the requirements envisaged by the law. A further challenge is that representative data for simulation may be unavailable, thus necessitating a data generator. A hard-coded generator is difficult to build and validate. We develop a framework for legal policy simulation that is aimed at addressing the challenges above. The framework uses models for specifying both legal policies and the probabilistic characteristics of the underlying population. We devise an automated algorithm for simulation data generation. We evaluate our framework through a case study on Luxembourg’s Tax Law. [less ▲]

From RELAW Research to Practice: Reflections on an Ongoing Technology Transfer Project

in the IEEE 25th International Requirements Engineering Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 4-8 September 2017 (2017, September)

An Automated Framework for Detection and Resolution of Cross References in Legal Texts

in Requirements Engineering (2017), 22(2), 215-237

When identifying and elaborating compliance requirements, analysts need to follow the cross references in legal texts and consider the additional information in the cited provisions. Enabling easier ... [more ▼]

When identifying and elaborating compliance requirements, analysts need to follow the cross references in legal texts and consider the additional information in the cited provisions. Enabling easier navigation and handling of cross references requires automated support for the detection of the natural language expressions used in cross references, the interpretation of cross references in their context, and the linkage of cross references to the targeted provisions. In this article, we propose an approach and tool sup- port for automated detection and resolution of cross references. The approach leverages the structure of legal texts, formalized into a schema, and a set of natural language patterns for legal cross reference expressions. These patterns were developed based on an investigation of Luxembourg’s legislation, written in French. To build confidence about their applicability beyond the context where they were observed, these patterns were validated against the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) by the Government of Ontario, Canada, written in both French and English. We report on an empirical evaluation where we assess the accuracy and scalability of our framework over several Luxembourgish legislative texts as well as PHIPA. [less ▲]

MatrixMiner: A Red Pill to Architect Informal Product Descriptions in the Matrix

in 10th Joint Meeting on Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2015), Bergamo, Italy, August 30 - September 4, 2015 (2015, September)

A Model-Based Framework for Probabilistic Simulation of Legal Policies

in 18th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS'15) (2015)

Legal policy simulation is an important decision-support tool in domains such as taxation. The primary goal of legal policy simulation is predicting how changes in the law affect measures of interest, e.g ... [more ▼]

Legal policy simulation is an important decision-support tool in domains such as taxation. The primary goal of legal policy simulation is predicting how changes in the law affect measures of interest, e.g., revenue. Currently, legal policies are simulated via a combination of spreadsheets and software code. This poses a validation challenge both due to complexity reasons and due to legal experts lacking the expertise to understand software code. A further challenge is that representative data for simulation may be unavailable, thus necessitating a data generator. We develop a framework for legal policy simulation that is aimed at addressing these challenges. The framework uses models for specifying both legal policies and the probabilistic characteristics of the underlying population. We devise an automated algorithm for simulation data generation. We evaluate our framework through a case study on Luxembourg's Tax Law. [less ▲]