Daniela Tiscornia, Ontology–driven Access to Legal Information

From the analysis of a research project supported by government funding currently in progress in Italy, a few criteria of describing legal information on different levels are presented. The non-jurists users, who the public nature of the project regards as privileged, are not able to explain clearly the information they need, therefore particular attention should be paid to the description of the content. Examples of how techniques of finding relevant information turn out to be inefficient if not linked to a homogenous and conceptual organization based on theoretical models and formal criteria are given. Thus, the need of an ontology-grounded model, further useful in more complex applications (multilingual access, normative comparison and systems of legal drafting).