[agents] CFP: AICOL 2009 Workshop at Jurix 2009 Rotterdam

[Guido Boella]

  Workshop AICOL 2009

In conjunction with the JURIX 2009 conference, a Workshop will be 
organized. This workshop will take place on *Wednesday, 16 December 
2009*. For this Workshop, a separate Call for Papers has been issued, 
which is shown below. Contributions for the Workshop can be registered 
at the Workshop web site <http://idt.uab.es/IVRXXIV-aicol09/>. Those who 
want to participate in the Workshop should indicate this on the 
Conference registration form.


      Call for Papers

AI Approaches to the Complexity of Legal Systems:  Multilingual 
ontologies, Multiagent systems, Distributed networks (AICOL-09)

16 December 2009
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
JURIX 2009

AICOL 2009 web site: http://idt.uab.es/IVRXXIV-aicol09/


    Organisers:

Ugo Pagallo
ugo.pagallo at remove-this.unito.it 
<javascript:linkTo_UnCryptMailto('pdlowr-xjr1sdjdoorCxqlwr1lw');>

Gianmaria Ajani
gianmaria.ajani at remove-this.unito.it 
<javascript:linkTo_UnCryptMailto('pdlowr-jldqpduld1dmdqlCxqlwr1lw');>

Giovanni Sartor
giovanni.sartor at remove-this.eui.eu 
<javascript:linkTo_UnCryptMailto('pdlowr-jlrydqql1vduwruChxl1hx');>

Pompeu Casanovas
pompeu.casanovas at remove-this.uab.cat 
<javascript:linkTo_UnCryptMailto('pdlowr-srpshx1fdvdqrydvCxde1fdw');>

 


      Introduction

This is a follow-up Workshop. After a first experience in Beijing (IVR 
XXIV (September 15-20, 2009 Beijing, China) <http://www.ivr2009.com/>, 
the organizers decided to formally apply for an extension in conjunction 
with JURIX-09 (Rotterdam).

Work on Artificial Intelligence and Law has been particularly fruitful 
in the last decade. Besides providing advanced computer applications for 
the legal domain such as knowledge based systems and intelligent 
information retrieval, research on AI and law has developed innovative 
interdisciplinary models for understanding legal systems and legal 
reasoning, which are highly significant for philosophy of law and legal 
theory. Among such models, we can mention, for instance, logical 
frameworks for feasible legal reasoning and dialectical argumentation, 
logics of normative positions, theories of case-based reasoning, and 
computable models of legal concepts.

Recently, research on models of legal systems and legal reasoning has 
merged with research on multiagent systems, which enable the animation 
of such models: normative structures may provide guidance to, and result 
from, the interaction of digital agents, that is autonomous entities 
able to act and communicate, in the pursuit of their purposes, possibly 
accepting the constraints of violable rules. By developing computable 
models including not only legal norms and concepts but also legal agents 
(with the associated roles and procedures) we can go beyond the statics 
of a legal system, i.e., its representation as a set of norms and 
concepts, and capture the social, interactive and dialectical dynamics 
of the law (using also ideas from game theory). An even more recent line 
of research in AI and law uses social network analysis to model the 
evolution of the law: This means identifying the patterns of emergent 
behavior of complex social networks and the ways to anticipate and 
control such dynamic.

Today there is a strong need not only to integrate research in AI and 
law within legal theory, but also to encompass the different branches of 
research in AI and law: When different branches are developing quickly, 
the risk is in fact missing the opportunities to exchange knowledge and 
methodologies. This is particularly so in the case of 'multiagent 
systems'-approach and social network analysis, that share concepts and 
objects of study, but often present merely superficial convergences in 
practice as well as in theory.

Multilingual ontologies provide an important opportunity for integrating 
different trends of research in AI and law as those mentioned above: 
Logical models of norms and concepts, multiagent systems, and 
distributed networks.


      About this Workshop

The inspiring idea of AICOL-09 can indeed be approached by developing 
models of legal knowledge concerning both its structure and content, in 
order to promote mutual understanding and communication between 
different legal systems and cultures. By achieving all the more precise 
models of legal concepts - from multilingual dictionaries to taxonomies 
and legal ontologies, namely formal models of legal conceptualization - 
we enhance our comprehension of legal cultures, of their commonalities 
and differences. Moreover, in this way we profit increasingly from 
computer support in managing legal knowledge, drawing on commonalities 
and bridging differences for deeper understanding.

Legal ontologies, in particular, support the creation of multiagent 
systems for the law - where the different agents can understand 
one-another by sharing the same ontologies, or through the awareness of 
their different conceptual structures - which can be useful, for 
instance, in electronic commerce. Legal ontologies can profit from 
social network analysis, which could indicate what terms are fundamental 
for comparison. The study of how legal information is produced and 
distributed in complex social systems makes it possible to follow the 
semantic evolution of the network through its own topology, since the 
set of nodes with highest degree represents the main core of the 
taxonomy with the shortest average distance-concepts. The domain of 
multi-system and multi-lingual ontologies not only offers the 
opportunity to integrate artificial intelligence with legal theory, but 
also with comparative legal studies.

The relation of legal ontologies, multiagent systems, and distributed 
networks, is only one, albeit important, among many other examples of AI 
and law. The aim of the workshop is thus to offer effective support for 
the exchange of knowledge and methodological approaches between scholars 
from different scientific fields, by highlighting their similarities and 
differences. The comparison of multiple formal approaches to the law - 
such as logical models, cognitive theories, argumentation frameworks, 
graph theory, game theory, as well as opposite perspectives like the 
internal and the external viewpoints - should stress possible 
convergences in the realm, say, of conceptual structures, argumentation 
schemes, emergent behaviors, learning evolution, adaptation, simulation, 
etc. The overall aim is to promote a fruitful interaction between some 
of the most striking contributions to AI research on contemporary legal 
systems.


      Topics

 

    * Legal Ontologies
    * Complex Systems
    * Legal Theory
    * Legal Culture
    * Multi-Agent Systems (MAS)
    * Legal Concepts
    * Legal Thesauri
    * Taxonomies
    * Natural Language Processing (NLP)
    * Online Dispute Resolution
    * Legal Knowledge Acquisition
    * Legal Knowledge Representation
    * Knowledge Management
    * Formalization of Legal Systems and Norms
    * Artificial Societies
    * Electronic Institutions
    * Argumentative Frameworks
    * Agreement technologies
    * Game Theory
    * Legal Information Retrieval
    * Cognitive schemas
    * Trends in e-Discovery, e-Courts, e-Administration
    * Users' studies


      Scientific Committee Members

Pablo Noriega (IIIA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain)

Carles Sierra (IIIA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain)

Marco Schorlemmer (IIIE-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain)

Joost Breuker (Leibniz Institute, Amsterdam University, The Nederlands)

Rinke Hoekstra (Leibniz Institute, Amsterdam University)

Tom van Engers (Leibniz Institute, Amsterdam University, The Nederlands)

Radboud Winkels (Leibniz Institute, Amsterdam University, The Nederlands)

Danièle Bourcier (CERSA-CNRS, Paris, France)

Daniela Tiscornia (ITTIG-CNR, Florence, Italy)

Enrico Francesconi (ITTIG-CNR Florence, Italy)

Tom Bruce (University of Cornell, USA)

Michael Geneseret (Stanford University, USA)

Barry Smith (University of Buffalo, USA)

Guido Boella (Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy)

Cristiano Castelfranchi (ISTC - CNR, Italy)

Guido Governatori (NICTA, Australia)

Kevin Ashley (University of Pittsburgh, USA)

Piercarlo Rossi (Facolta' di Economia, Universita' del Piemonte 
Orientale, Italy)

Marta Poblet (ICREA, UAB Institute of Law and Technology, Barcelona, Spain)

John Zeleznikow (University of Victoria, Australia)

Arno Lodder (Vrije University, The Nederlands)

V. Richard Benjamins (Telefonica, Spain)

Henry Prakken(Universiteit Utrecht, Groningen University; The Netherlands)

Monica Palmirani (Università di Bologna, Italy)

Joan Josep Vallbé (UAB Institute of Law and Technology, Barcelona, Spain)

Núria Casellas (UAB Institute of Law and Technology, Barcelona, Spain)


      Important dates:

Paper submission:  November 15th, 2009

Peer Review Communications: December 4th, 2009

Camera Ready: December 11th, 2009

AICOL Workshop: December 16th, 2009

Publication: February/March 2010 (LNAI volume)