Expert systems in law: out of the research laboratory and into the marketplace

The major goal of workers in the field of expert systems in law can be summarized as follows: through the use of computer technology, to make scarcs, human legal knowledge and expertise more widely available and easily accessible. This paper is directly concerned with that goal. It is divided into two parts. The first discusses a three year interdisciplinary research project in expert systems in law that involved the Law Faculty and the Programming Research Group of the University of Oxford. Some of the jurisprudential aspects of the project are discussed and the prototype system that was developed is described. The second part of the paper addresses various considerations that are crucial for bringing expert systems in law out of the research laboratory and into the marketplace. And in this latter connection, the author's latest work - with Ernst & Whinney - is introduced.