Modeling legal argument - reasoning with cases and hypotheticals

Modeling Legal Argument: Reasoning with Cases and Hypotheticals 1 is the second book in the series on Artificial Intelligence and Legal Reasoning edited by L. Thome McCarty and Edwina Rissland, two of the leaders in a relatively new field that attempts to apply techniques of computer science, formal decision theory, and artificial intelligence ("AT") to law and legal reasoning. Like the previous volume in this series, 2 this is a revision of a doctoral dissertation in computer science. Its author, Kevin Ashley, is a Harvard Law School graduate who is now a Research Scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center and Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh. I do not come to this book with formal training in computer science or the theory of artificial intelligence, so my aim is not to review the book from the perspective of an insider to those or related fields. Thus I do not evaluate Ashley's technical programming skills or the elegance of his computational models. Rather, as a user and teacher of the theory and practice of legal research and legal information, my goal is to consider this book from the perspective of a knowledgeable consumer of the insights potentially offered by those who strive to model legal reasoning in more formal ways. If what this new field has yet produced remains too internal for those situated as I am, it may indicate something about