Design Requirements of a CD-ROM Based Reference System Capable of Replacing Print Materials in a Field of Law

Abstract

This paper was presented at an Expert Systems in Law Conference held at the University of Bologna in 1989. It draws on the author's initial work conceptualizing how legal commentary of the scope suggested by the word "treatise" might be redesigned if placed in a digital environment together with all or most of the primary authority it analyzed and to which it referred. The desktop technology and online systems of the period and the possibilities opened by CD-ROM as a medium of data distribution figure prominently in the discussion of format, function, and structure. The authorial challenges addressed by the paper include: setting the domain boundaries, achieving a proper balance between selectivity and completeness, and dealing with the effects of later legal developments on prior ones.

Keywords: treatise, legal informatics, legal information, expert systems

JEL Classification: K40