The maintenance of legal knowledge based systems

Abstract

Legal knowledge based systems (KBSs) are, by definition, grounded on law. Very often the relevant law is subject to routine amendment and repeal, such changes occurring at irregular and unpredictable intervals. These systems are thus particularly affected by significant problems of adaptation as a result, a fact which has limited their practical take-up. If they are to be of more practical use the maintenance issues associated with these systems must be taken seriously. In this paper we discuss the issues associated with the maintenance of legal KBSs and describe a suite of maintenance tools designed to address these issues.