Legislation in the Knowledge Base Paradigm: Interactive Decision Enactment for Registration Duties

Abstract

Recently, a prototype for an interactive decision enactment system for notaries was developed. This prototype follows the Knowledge Base Paradigm (KBP): it consists of purely declarative domain knowledge, to which various logical inference methods can be applied. This paper extends that work in two ways. First, we experimentally validate the claim that the KBP leads to highly maintainable software. Second, we extend the number of additional logical inferences, which allow us to address a number of usability concerns. This provides further evidence for the claim that the KBP is indeed a viable method of developing interactive software systems. The resulting decision enactment prototype is a fully generic system, that can be applied to other domains with minimal effort.

Interactive configurator with FO(.) and IDP-Z3

“…It is generic in the sense that it can be reconfigured by simply changing the FO(•) knowledge base. The user interface is automatically generated based on the vocabulary of the knowledge base: this helps reduce the cost of developing applications significantly (Deryck et al 2019). It is available online 5 .…”

“…The fourth case study deals with registration duties on property purchases in Belgium. It was originally presented by Deryck et al (2018) and later extended by Deryck et al (2019). In Belgium, registration duties depend on many parameters, such as the location, the type of property, the characteristics of the buyer and the seller, and more.…”

“…Later in 2018, the relevant law was simplified by the Belgian government. In (Deryck et al 2019), the KB is updated to reflect these changes, together with improvements to the Interactive Consultant as requested by the notary office. While the change was the most significant change to the real estate sales law to have ever happened, updating the KB required only 0.5 person-days, due to the KB's modular nature.…”

“…Reasoning engines enable the Knowledge Base paradigm (Denecker and Vennekens 2008), in which systems store declarative domain knowledge, and use it to solve a variety of problems. This approach can significantly reduce the development and maintenance costs of intelligent machines (Deryck et al 2019).…”

Combining Logic and Natural Language Processing to Support Investment Management

“…In the application, the propagation works interactively: as soon as a new rule is created, the impact on the eligibility is immediately shown by coloring the asset green (eligible) or red (not eligible). The explanation inference traces the propagated values back to the given values of the interpretation I p [3]. The application allows the user to click on a propagated value and see immediately which atoms steered the decision.…”