An expert system for the mauritian family law

In this paper, we have developed a new information system that can be used by legal professionals and government officials in order to ascertain whether two individuals can legally be married according to the family laws prevalent in the Republic of Mauritius. We took the family laws from the Napoleon Code and converted them into formal rules. We also created a virtual imaginary community of 50 people in order to get some sample facts to be able to test the system. Our system caters for all types of blood relationships and relationships created through marriage and simple adoption. The outcome of this research will have a very positive impact on the officers of the Civil Status Office who will have the possibility of checking instantly whether two persons are eligible to get married to each other. Previously, this took a lot of time and many violations of existing rules have also been reported. Because of the inherent complexity of the legal system, some aspects of family law like nullity, divorce and guardianship will be dwelt in our future works.

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