Re: MetaLex - Open XML Interchange Format for Legal and Legislative Resources

Hi Jodi, Antoine,

I was one of the original developers of MetaLex, but haven't been actively involved in its development for some time now, so this information may not be entirely up-to-date. The CEN MetaLex schema is a merger of the original MetaLex and the Akoma Ntoso standard developed for African parliaments. 

The FRBR-based ontology used in MetaLex was adopted by the legislation.gov.uk people [1], I don't believe they adopted the XML schema itself. The same holds for the Netherlands Council of the Judiciary, who (will) use the ontology in their cross-reference resolution for case law.

Law is very particular in the way citations work. Legislation is in constant flux, changes very frequently, and versions can become active retroactively while older (case) law may still refer to the 'old' version of the law. Have a look at the work of Alexander Boer for more information. 

The Dutch government is contemplating a vendor-independent XML schema for use in a legislation-editor, but I don't know whether this will be MetaLex-based. 

The namin scheme for legislation/case law etc. in The Netherlands are standardised by the JuriConnect group, and is based on the MetaLex naming conventions. Again, I don't know the particulars here.

For more information, and a more up-to-date picture, perhaps it's best if contact Alexander Boer (in cc).

Best,

Rinke


[1] http://blog.law.cornell.edu/voxpop/2010/08/15/legislationgovuk/


On 23 nov 2010, at 00:56, Antoine Isaac wrote:

> Hi Jodi, Rinke,
> 
> On 11/23/10 12:44 AM, Jodi Schneider wrote:
>> The law standard MetaLex surprised me with the importance it gives to citation specifications--and that it draws from FRBR:
>> http://www.metalex.eu/WA/proposal
>> 
>> Anybody have more context about how widely and by whom it's been adopted?
>> 
>> -Jodi
>> 
> 
> 
> I don't know much about the current usage of Metalex, but we can ask Rinke Hoekstra, a great colleague of mine @ Vrije Universiteit :-)
> 
> Rinke, the mail I copy was sent by Jodi to public-lld@w3.org, the mailing list for the Library Linked Data community. If you feel like answering--if just to give a pointer that can answer Jodi's question--please send it there!
> 
> Best,
> 
> Antoine


---
Dr Rinke Hoekstra

AI Department         |   Leibniz Center for Law    
Faculty of Sciences   |   Faculty of Law            
Vrije Universiteit    |   Universiteit van Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1081a    |   Kloveniersburgwal 48      
1081 HV Amsterdam     |   1012 CX  Amsterdam        
+31-(0)20-5987752     |   +31-(0)20-5253497         
hoekstra@few.vu.nl    |   hoekstra@uva.nl           

Homepage: http://www.few.vu.nl/~hoekstra

Received on Tuesday, 23 November 2010 12:36:26 UTC