Argument‐based explanation of the British nationality act as a logic program

Abstract

Abstract Explanations are a significant component of any knowledge‐based system in the legal domain. We have previously proposed a method by which explanations can be improved by making use of annotations on program clauses as to the role of the clause, and organising the explanation according to an argument schema based on that of Stephen Toulmin. In this paper we describe an application of this approach to a part of the British Nationality Act. This serves to illustrate both the practicality of making the required annotations on a legal logic program, and the gains in terms of explanation that can be achieved.