Machine-Readable Legal Documents: Format Development and Application in Foreign Countries

Analysis of the issues of creating and applying machine-readable formats of legal documents is very relevant for national legal systems of many States. The experience of leading technological countries that are leaders in this area, namely: Germany, the USA, Japan, Brazil and a number of other countries, can be useful to the Russian Federation for the further implementation of the main provisions of the Concept for the Development of Machine-Readable Law Technologies developed in Russian Federation. Studying and understanding the processes of creating and subsequent application of machine-readable formats of legislative acts, acts of official interpretation, acts of implementation of law and law enforcement acts can significantly increase the level of automation of various types of legal activities, facilitate the solution of routine legal tasks, thereby increasing the effectiveness of legal regulation. The paper provides a comparative legal analysis of the development of technologies for machinereadable formats of legal documents in different countries, highlights the advantages, identifies the problems of creating and using such documents, the resolution of which can help improve these technologies in Russia. 

1. Arkhipov S. I. Pravovoe budushchee Rossii. Chast 2. Tsivilizatsionnyy vybor // Elektronnoe prilozhenie k Rossiyskomu yuridicheskomu zhurnalu. — 2022. — № 4. — S. 5–26.

2. Afanasev S. F. K voprosu o zakonodatelnom regulirovanii iskusstvennogo intellekta // Rossiyskaya yustitsiya. — 2020. — № 7. — S. 46–49.

3. Gavrilov S. N. Mashinochitaemye pravo, zakon i chelovekochitaemyy (russkiy) yazyk // Aktual’nye problemy rossijskogo prava. — 2023. — T. 18. — № 4. — S. 69–85.

4. Zakhilko K. S. K voprosu ob ispolzovanii iskusstvennogo intellekta v yuridicheskoy deyatelnosti // Informatsionnye tekhnologii i pravo: pravovaya informatizatsiya — 2021: sbornik materialov VII Mezhdunar. nauch.-prakt. konferentsii / pod obshch. red. A. F. Matelskogo. — Minsk: NTsPI, 2021. — S. 143–149.

5. Kornev A. V. Tsifrovye tekhnologii, pravovye riski i problema ikh minimizatsii // Aktual’nye problemy rossijskogo prava. — 2021. — T. 16. — № 9. — S. 11–20.

6. Ponkin I. V. Kontsept mashinochitaemogo i mashinoispolnyaemogo prava: aktualnost, naznachenie, mesto v RegTekhe, soderzhanie, ontologiya i perspektivy // International Journal of Open Information Technologies. — 2020. — № 9. — S. 59–69.

7. Ponkin I. V. Kontsept mashinochitaemogo prava // Yuridicheskaya tekhnika. — 2021. — № 15. — S. 231–236.

8. Trofimov E. V., Metsker O. G. Mashinochitaemye zakony: mirovoy opyt i perspektivy dlya razvitiya publichnogo upravleniya // Sovremennye tendentsii razvitiya chastnogo prava, ispolnitelnogo proizvodstva i sposobov yuridicheskoy zashchity / otv. red. E. V. Trofimov. T. 2. — SPb., 2019. — S. 86–89.

9. Trofimov E. V., Metsker O. G. Ispolzovanie kompyuternykh metodov i sistem v izuchenii prava, intellektualnom analize i modelirovanii pravovoy deyatelnosti: sistematicheskiy obzor // Trudy ISP RAN. — 2020. — T. 32. — Vyp. 3. — S. 147–170.

10. Tsifrovaya transformatsiya i gosudarstvennoe upravlenie: nauch.-prakt. posobie. — M.: Infotropik Media, 2022.

11. Sharshun V. A. Mashinochitaemoe zakonodatelstvo: ponyatie, spetsifika, perspektivy razvitiya // Pravo.by. — 2022. — № 1 (75). — S. 88–94.

12. Cvejić A., Grujić K., Cvejić A., Marković M., Gostojić S. Automatic Transformation of Plain-text Legislation into Machine-readable Format // The 11th International Conference on Information Society, Technology and Management (ICIST 2021), Kopaonik, March 2021. — URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349947228_Automatic_Transformation_of_Plain-text_Legislation_into_Machine-readable_Format (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

13. El Ghosh M. Automation of legal reasoning and decision based on ontologies. Web. Normandie Université, 2018. URL: https://theses.hal.science/tel-02062174/document (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

14. Griffo S., Almeida J. R., Guizzardi G. A. Systematic Mapping of the Literature on Legal Core Ontologies // 7th Brazilian Symposium on Ontology Research (ONTOBRAS, 2015). — URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283271868_A_Systematic_Mapping_of_the_Literature_on_Legal_Core_Ontologies (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

15. Gruber T. R. A translation approach to portable ontologies // Knowledge Acquisition. — 1993. — No. 5 (2). — P. 199–220.

16. Guizzardi G. Towards a legal core ontology based on Alexy’s theory of fundamental rights // URL: https://www.academia.edu/13182406/TOWARDS_A_LEGAL_CORE_ONTOLO-GY_BASED_ON_ALEXY_S_THEORY_OF_FUNDAMENTAL_RIGHTS?uc-g-sw=77942009 (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

17. McLaughlin P., Stover W. Drafting X2RL: A Semantic Regulatory Machine-Readable Format // Computational Law. — URL: https://law.mit.edu/pub/draftingx2rl/release/2 (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

18. McLaughlin P., Nelson J., Pagels J., Sherouse O. The Impossibility of Comprehending, or Even Reading, All Federal Regulations // Mercatus Center. — 19.10.2017. — URL: https://www.mercatus.org/publications/regulation/impossibility-comprehending-or-even-reading-all-federal-regulations (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

19. McLaughlin P., Sherouse O., Febrizio M., King M. S. Is Dodd-Frank the Biggest Law Ever? // Journal of Financial Regulation. Advance online publication. — 05.02.2021. — URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/jfr/fjab001 (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

20. Mohun J., Roberts A. Cracking the code: Rulemaking for humans and Machines. OECD Working Papers on Public Governance No. 42. — Paris: OECD Publishing, 2020. URL: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/3afe6ba5-en.pdf (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

21. Nakamura M. Development of applications for open data for Japanese laws and regulations // JOAL. Open Journal Systems. — 2022. — Vol. 10. — No. 1. — URL: https://ojs.law.cornell.edu/index.php/joal/article/view/121/112 (data obrashcheniya: 28.04.2024).

22. Nakamura M., Nobuoka S., Shimazu A. Towards Translation of Legal Sentences into Logical Forms // New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. JSAI 2007 / K. Satoh, A. Inokuchi, K. Nagao, T. Kawamura (eds.). — Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2008. — P. 349–362. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 2008. Vol. 4914.)

23. The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, Applications / F. Baader, D. Calvanese, D. L. McGuinness, D. Nardi, P. F. Patel-Schneider. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. — 574 p.