Melbourne Law School - Theses

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    Representation and reasoning in law: legal theory in the artificial intelligence and law movement
    Hunter, Daniel Ashley Douglas ( 1996)
    Over the past few decades there has emerged a group of researchers who , have used computerised techniques to investigate the nature of legal reasoning. These researchers have formed what is called the 'artificial intelligence and law movement.' Members of the movement have built computer systems which automate legal reasoning, and in so doing have assumed that certain models of legal reasoning are correct. This dissertation argues that in many instances the models relied on by artificial intelligence research are no longer commonly accepted as valid by legal theoreticians. It further argues that until the artificial intelligence and law movement begins to recognise alternative legal theoretical models of reasoning, it is - unlikely to produce accurate, reliable and useful automated legal reasoning systems. The dissertation examines the four main reasoning paradigms in the artificial intelligence and law movement: deductive reasoning, analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning and sub-symbolic (neural network) reasoning. In each of these reasoning paradigms it shows that there is an extensive legal theoretical literature which is largely ignored by artificial intelligence research. It reviews the different models presented by legal theorists in each of these paradigms, in, order to show the limitations of artificial intelligence assumptions about the paradigm. The dissertation reviews a representative sample of artificial intelligence and law implementations in each of the reasoning paradigms, and assesses the type of legal theory implicitly adopted in each It argues that, generally, the models of legal reasoning adopted in each paradigm by artificial intelligence research has been formalistic, static, and mechanical. As a consequence, the implementations have been computationally tractable, but unconvincing in legal theoretical terms. The dissertation shows how alternative legal theoretical models of reasoning may be incorporated into existing artificial intelligence approaches. The dissertation concludes with an indication of how in future artificial intelligence and law research might provide useful models of legal reasoning, and how it might inform legal theory.
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    Electronic commerce on the Internet: legal issues of contracts on the World Wide Web
    Tan, Harry S. K. ( 1996)
    In the early nineties, despite the widespread knowledge of the potential uses of the Internet, many businesses and information technologists scoffed at using it as a medium for business. It was thought that the technology, capacity and critical mass would not make the Internet a suitable medium for electronic commerce. However, by the last quarter of 1994 there were over 10,000 companies offering information and services for sale over the Internet. This figure is now expected to grow to over one million businesses by the year 2000 despite the lack of clear laws governing commercial activity on the Internet. This paper is intended to investigate the issues of electronic commerce and the difficulties contracting parties face on the Internet which would not normally arise in conventional transactions. In addition, as one of the primary interest in the Internet comes from the easy and quick access to overseas markets, the paper will also consider the international aspects of Internet transactions. It is not the intention for the paper to be a comprehensive or definitive treatise on contract or international law, but rather consider the intriguing issues raised by electronic contracting in the domestic and international context. Chapter 1 is a concise introduction to the technology of the Internet and its workings to provide a background for the discussion that follows. Chapter 2 looks at the unresolved international issues that will arise out of trans-border Internet trade. Chapters 3 and 4 will then review the impact of Internet technology and how it challenged the current practices of proving the existence of contracts and the formation of contract. In chapter 5 we look at how the law deals with the specific issues of software being sold on-line and the attempts by Internet-stores to avoid statutory conditions designed to protect the consumer.