Bing, Jon --- "Perspectives for the Development of Computers and Law and Computer Law: The Next 10 Years" [1993] JlLawInfoSci 2; (1993) 4(1) Journal of Law, Information and Science 3

^[1] Paper commissioned for the opening of the international conference "Computer and Law: State of Art and Current Issues" organised in Montreal 30.9.-3.10.1992 by Association quebecoise pour le developpement de l'informatique juridique (AQDIJ) and L'Association pour le developpement de l'informatique juridique (ADIJ, France).

^[*] Norwegian research Centre for Computers and Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Niels Juels gate 16, N-0272 OSLO - Norway.

^[2] Cf his compilation Material and Cases on Computers and Law (1st edition) Boston 1968 (privately published).

^[3] For instance represented by his reader Computers and the Law: An Introductory Handbook, Commerce Clearing House, Chicago 1969 (2nd edition).

^[4] "Les sciences juridique devant l'automation"; Cybernetica 1960:22-40, 142-160) - actually a very early suggestion for employing knowledge based systems for legal decision making.

^[5] Tapper's, Computers and the Law (Weidenfeld and Nocholson, London) (first edition was published in 1973), remain a standard work within the field. Tapper was originally inspired by the early efforts of Horty to do research in case law retrieval, conducting the first controlled experiments.

^[6] Institut de recherces et d'etudes puor le traitement de l'information juridique at the Universite de Montpellier. In spite of its name, which reveals the original interest for legal information systems, the IRETIJ is offering courses in the law of information technology, also on a post-graduate level.

^[7] Professor Catala has now moved to Paris.

^[8] The Norwegian Research Centre for Computers and Law was founded in 1970 by professor Knut S Selmer and myself, and also is an example of this type of institution.

^[9] Mr. Skelly was as early as 1970 appointed by the Department of Justice as a special "jurimetrics adviser", and has had a long career in that department. Together with Mr. Morgan he developed what must have been one of the very first legislative information systems for the province of Mantioba. Mr. Morgan returned to United Kingdom where he became Computer Development Officer to the House of Lords, and wrote extensively on computer law, cf for instance Richard Morgan and Graham Stedman Computer Contracts (3rd edition). Longman, London 1987, Richard Morgen was, by the way, my first teach of computers and law at a Council of Europe symposium of 1971.

^[10] Who was one of the persons behind the Quebec system DATUM (1971-79), and whose extensive production has been influential in both the two areas of computers and law.

^[11] Computing Law Liber Stockholm 1977.

^[12] Cf Kevin D. Ashley Medelling Legal Argument: Reasoning with cases and Hypotheticals, Artificial Intelligence and Legal Reasoning series, MIT Press, Bradford Books, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1990. The argument will also be sketched in a forthcoming review of his book in the new journal of AI and the Law.

^[13] The original theory was put forward in Nils Kristian Sundby Om normer, Norwegian University press, Oslo 1974. It has been elaborated by Torstein Eckhoff and Nils Kristian Sundby in Rettssystemer, Tano, Oslo 1991 (2nd edition).

^[14] Cf for instance Johannes Hansen Simulation and automation of legal decision CompLex 6/86, Tano, Oslo 1986 with further references to the work at the NRCCL.

^[15] One of the first presentations of a computerised model based on he work of Sundby may be found in John Bing "Legal Norms, Discretionary Rules and Computer Programs", Bryan Niblett (ed) Computer Science and Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980:119-136. This is the proceedings of the Swansea seminar in 1979, by many seen as the first international seminar devoted to AI and the Law. Sundby should have taken part in that seminar, and it was with regret that my presentation would have to be dedicated to his memory.

^[16] See for instance R. Dwarkin "The Model of Rules", 35 University of Chicago Law Review, 1967:14.

^[17] Actually, whether the system is based on citizenship or domicile differs between the Nordic countries.

^[18] Cf Dag Wiese Schartum The introduction of computers in the Norwegian local insurance offices, CompLex 9/87, Norwegian University Press, Oslo 1967.

^[19] There are differences between jurisdictions as to what extent such decisions are seen to concern fact finding or law. In the Nordic countries the legal nature of the decision are emphasised, and the general and special law of public administration is an important part of education.

^[20] Cf Dag Wiese Schartum Eg rettslig underokelse av tre edb-systemer i offentlig forvalning, CompLex 1/89, Tano, Oslo 1989.

^[21] Session in Copenhagen, cf Lov & data 29/1992:7.

^[22] Harcourt, Brace and Company, London 1949.