The Role of Verification in Improving the Quality of Legal Decision-Making
Silvie Spreeuwenberg, Tom M. van Engers, Rik Gerrits · 2001
Many Public Administrations (PA's) use knowledge-based systems to support their legal decision making processes. The quality of the decisions made depends on the quality of the underlying knowledge. In the POWER research program (Program for an Ontology-based Working Environment for Rules and regulations) conducted by the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (DTCA in Dutch: Belastingdienst) verification techniques are used to improve legal decision making. This paper describes a state-of-the art verification and validation technique for legal knowledge systems: VALENS. Within the POWER-program VALENS is used to verify legal knowledge. We will furthermore describe the experiences with VALENS in a recently finished project. The POWER-program in which VALENS has been used aims at improving law enforcement. In POWER methods and tools have been developed that help legislation drafters to improve the quality of (new) legislation. Legislation is transformed to formal legal specifications that can be used in knowledge-based systems.