Legal data: ontology of the syndicated loan agreement

Abstract

The article defines legal data and its predetermination as data whose transmission and processing have legal implications.The author discusses the correlation between natural and formal legal language. Formalization is a crucial process for converting primary legal information into legal data. Document language is not the best format for storing legal data because it lacks formal rigor and allows for interpretation. In addition to classifying legal data, the article provides an example of analyzing several different kinds of legal data.Using complex contracts as an example,the author discusses the thoughts on the future of machine-readable legislation.To fully realize the concept of machine-readable law, it will be possible to present a contract not as a text interpreted by lawyers but as a system of interconnected legal data with a specific structure.At the beginning, this will be demonstrated through the example of private agreements based on a civil law contract between professional market participants. Formalization will continue to be a crucial component of automated law enforcement as long as civil law uses natural language text as the primarysource of the subjects of the law’s will.Civics will have to overcome its reliance on text in favor of alternative forms of treaty representation.