Towards Measures of Complexity: Applying Structural and Linguistic Metrics to German Laws

Bernhard Waltl, Florian Matthes

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The increasing complexity of legal systems has many origins, which are worth a deeper analysis. This paper is an attempt to unveil the complexity in legal texts driven by structural, lexical and syntactical properties. Thereby we transferred established quantitative methods from structural network analysis and linguistics into the domain of legal text analysis. Based on 3 553 German laws, respectively regulations, we calculated several structural and lexical indicators for complexity and determined highly significant correlations (p ≤ 0.01). The papers' contribution is a set of metrics, enabling a structured and objective comparison of legal texts regarding their complexity.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLegal Knowledge and Information Systems - JURIX 2014
Subtitle of host publicationThe 27th Annual Conference
EditorsRinke Hoekstra
PublisherIOS Press BV
Pages153-162
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781614994671
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Event27th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, JURIX 2014 - Krakow, Poland
Duration: 10 Dec 201412 Dec 2014

Publication series

NameFrontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications
Volume271
ISSN (Print)0922-6389
ISSN (Electronic)1879-8314

Conference

Conference27th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, JURIX 2014
Country/TerritoryPoland
CityKrakow
Period10/12/1412/12/14

Keywords

  • German law
  • complexity
  • legal texts
  • measures
  • readability

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