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
• Standard Inclusions KB - It is valuable to INCLUDE this in any other knowledge-base. It has declarations for all non-standard verbs, and is intended to include further similar matters.
• 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

Training demonstrations

These examples are small segments of knowledge-bases used to demonstrate some of the steps in how rules are developed in DataLex knowledge bases

• Goal Tests - These are some very abstract (non-legal) examples to demonstrate the differences between backward and forward chaining rules
  • GoalTestKB (backward & forward chaining) - Used to do a class exercise
  • GoalBackwardKB (backward chaining only)
  • GoalForwardKB (forward chaining only)
• Electoral law consultation - A longer example (still under development) concerning disqualification under s44 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (Cth) and sections of the Commonwealth Electoral Act (Cth).
• Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) procedures consultation (PrivacyActKB) - An example which focuses on procedural steps in making a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner and appealing against a determination. It is designed to be INCLUDED in (ie called from) a knowledge base located outside AustLII Communities. It can also be run from this KB.
• Freedom of Information consultation - A simple example using section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth).
• Modern Slavery Act consultation - An example based on the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth)

Larger (and older) knowledge-bases

These are lengthier and more complex examples of knowledge-bases. The law in these examples is not up-to-date and they are only provided as demonstration examples of how more complex knowledge-bases can be developed.

• 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