Developing legal knowledge based systems using decision tables

Knowledge based systems can be of great use to lawyers in many different areas. Within the framework of the INFOSOC project implemented at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, legal knowledge based systems were developed to achieve some of these purposes, using a methodology based on the decision table technique, and a decision table engineering workbench, PROLOGA. This paper describes the adopted methodology, which is still being refined, the tools used and the experiences in developing a concrete system: HANDIPAK, a knowledge based system with regard to financial benefits for the disabled in Belgium. Developing HANDIPAK showed that the decision table technique was not only very useful for testing the consistency of legal knowledge, but also for supporting the acquisition and the representation process of that knowledge.

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