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A MetaLex and Metadata Primer: Concepts, Use, and Implementation

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Legislative XML for the Semantic Web

Part of the book series: Law, Governance and Technology Series ((LGTS,volume 4))

Abstract

MetaLex is a generic and extensible interchange framework for the XML encoding of the structure of, and metadata about, documents that function as a source of law. It aims to be jurisdiction and language-neutral, and is based on modern XML publishing concepts like a strict separation between text, markup, and metadata, building on top of structure instead of syntax, accommodation of transformation pipelines and standard application programmer interfaces, and integration of Semantic Web standards. In this chapter we introduce several important MetaLex concepts, and present the MetaLex approach to standardization of metadata about sources of law, and its integration into the Semantic Web.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Internationalized resourceidentifier .

  2. 2.

    http://www.cen.eu

  3. 3.

    See http://www.juriconnect.nl, http://www.nir.it, http://www.akomantoso.org. The UK SLS legislation portal is working on a web-based API, which supports i.a. RDF /OWL andMetaLex : http://www.legislation.gov.uk

  4. 4.

    See http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-spinosa-urn-lex-00

  5. 5.

    http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-syntax-grammar/ and http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/

  6. 6.

    http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-overview/

  7. 7.

    http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-vocab-pub/

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Center for Law, University of Amsterdam, 1000 BA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Alexander Boer & Tom van Engers

Authors
  1. Alexander Boer
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  2. Tom van Engers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexander Boer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. European University Institute, Via Boccaccio, Villa Schifanoia 121, Florence, 50133, Italy

    Giovanni Sartor

  2. Via Zamboni 33, Bologna, 40126, Italy

    Monica Palmirani

  3. Information Theory and Techniques, IOTTIG-CNR, Institute of Legal, Florence, 50127, Italy

    Enrico Francesconi

  4. ITTIG-CNR, Via Panciatichi 56/16, Florence, 50127, Italy

    Maria Angela Biasiotti

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Boer, A., van Engers, T. (2011). A MetaLex and Metadata Primer: Concepts, Use, and Implementation. In: Sartor, G., Palmirani, M., Francesconi, E., Biasiotti, M. (eds) Legislative XML for the Semantic Web. Law, Governance and Technology Series, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1887-6_8

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