A computational model for trial reasoning

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Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to describe a computational model for legal reasoning in criminal law (i.e. trial reasoning). This logic-programming based model contains seven key components: facts of a new case, old cases, domain knowledge, meta rules, similarity matching relations, various implications, and two explicit agents, the plaintiff and the defendant, with opposing goals and reasoning strategies. The argumentation process in this model can be likened to a two-agent game. One agent puts forward an argument. The other agent recognizes the situation, generates candidates to refute the claim, and selects the best one for the next move. The game ends when any one agent can no longer make a move. Certain debate strategies of this model are illustrated in this paper with examples. In addition, the computational model presented has been used in the design and development of HELIC-II - a parallel knowledge-based system for trial reasoning.

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