Welcome to the DataLex Community

About DataLex

DataLex - Smart legal decision support and legal expert systems - AustLII 's rule-based legal inferencing platform

DataLex is developed by Andrew Mowbray, Philip Chung & Graham Greenleaf, with assistance of AustLII staff

• A brief introduction to the DataLex software and the AustLII Communities platform.

Background articles on AustLII's approach to using AI in law

• 'Utilising AI in the legal assistance sector - Testing a role for Legal Information Institutes' (2019) IAAI Workshop, ICAIL Conference, Montreal, June 2019 (on Available on SSRN)
• 'Building sustainable free legal advisory systems: Experiences from the history of AI & law' (2018) 34(1) Computer Law & Security Review ( Available on SSRN)
• 'The Datalex Project: History and Bibliography' UNSW Law Research Paper No. 18-4 (January, 2018). (Available on SSRN)

Articles by others

• Jason Morris (Canada), "Rules as Code" Can and Should Be Done Without Programmers - An Example from Law to Code to App (Medium.com, 5 June 2019)

Tutorials, Manuals & Tools

• Knowledge-base Development Tools - an interface for developing test KBs outside the AustLII Communities environment
• Quick Tutorial - Building DataLex decision support systems (17 May 2019) - This is a brief introduction to the DataLex software, covering key elements in building simple knowledge-bases (KB), and interfaces.
• Building Datalex Decision Support Systems: A Tutorial on Rule-Based Reasoning in Law (2017) (Available on SSRN) - This is a more comprehensive introduction to both DataLex KB development and current interfaces.
• AustLII's DataLex Developer's Manual (June 2019) - This is the full manual for developing knowledge-bases (KB) using the DataLex software. (on SSRN)
• Key DataLex inferencing software logic and assumptions.
• Keywords supported by the DataLex KB software (listing - see Tutorials and Manual for details)

Knowledge-base Examples

Demonstrations and Training Exercises

These applications ('apps') are knowledge-bases of varying degrees of detail, used to demonstrate features of DataLex knowledge bases, and to teach others how to write knowledge-bases. Select 'Run consultation' at the top of any knowledge-base in order to run the app, so as to test the types of conclusions that can be reached by using it. All of these apps are for demonstration purposes only, and are still being further developed.

• News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code consultation - This example is based on the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Part IVBA Digital Platforms, Divisions 1 to 3 proposed to be inserted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020, First Reading Version 9 December 2020.
• Community Gaming Regulation consultation - This example is based on the Community Gaming Regulation 2020 (NSW). See the Media Release for background to this app. Parts of the app can also be run from the 'Consult' option on any section of the Regulation.
• Modern Slavery Act consultation - This example is based on the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), and can also be run from the sections of the Act. It is an example of coding the whole of an Act.
• Electoral law consultation - This app concerns disqualification from standing for federal Parliament under s44 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (Cth) and sections of the Commonwealth Electoral Act (Cth). This has been a contentious issue in Australian politics. It is used for examples in this journal article.
• Freedom of Information consultation - This is a simple example concerning access to documents under section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) and related sections. Various small knowledge-bases (some developed by students) are linked.
• Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) procedures consultation (PrivacyActKB) - This example focuses on procedural steps in making a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner and appealing against a determination. It is INCLUDED in (ie called from) this Knowledge Base dealing with other sections of the Privacy Act, so a to construct a more complex app by linking various knowledge-bases.
• Goal Tests - These are some very abstract (non-legal) examples to demonstrate the differences between backward and forward chaining rules. These are used to do a class exercise to determine (for example) 'Is D correct/true?' by comparing the intuitive steps we take to find an answer, with the steps that the Dataex program takes to do so.
  
  • GoalTestKB (backward & forward chaining)
  • GoalBackwardKB (backward chaining only)
  • GoalForwardKB (forward chaining only)

Older knowledge-bases

These older knowledge-bases have been written some time ago and the law they include is not up-to-date. However, they are still useful as demonstrations how lengthier more complex knowledge-bases can be developed using the DataLex software (Copyright and Privacy consultations), or different features of the DataLex software such as case-based reasoning (Finder's cases) or document Generation (Simple will generator).

• Copyright consultation - Examples using sections of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (not up-to-date)
• Privacy consultation - Examples using sections of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (not up-to-date)
• Finder's cases - Example of case-based or example-based reasoning using PANNDA
• Simple Will generator - Example of Document generation

DataLex Web Utilities

• WebTopicList - all topics in alphabetical order
• WebChanges - recent topic changes in this web
• WebNotify - subscribe to an e-mail alert sent when topics change
• WebRss, WebAtom - RSS and ATOM news feeds of topic changes
• WebStatistics - listing popular topics and top contributors
• WebPreferences - preferences of this web