Legal Modelling: from Print to Multimedia
Houda Araj
arajhou@cam.org
http://www.cam.org/~arajhou/index.html
Consultant in cognitive law, I am launching MédiaLAW, a firm specializing in multimedia
and electronic publishing. Prior to this, I was a researcher at GRID (Groupe de recherche
en informatique et droit). I received my Ph.D in linguistics and my LL.M. from the
University of Montreal. Since 1987, my interests have been in the area of legal
informatics.
Humans communicate through their senses, at the convergence of
heterogeneous codes; each having its specific rules to deliver the messages. The written
form, as a reduction of the spoken, fails to codify all of the reality transposed by
speech such as prosodic elements, intonation and stress. This mutation impoverishes the
quality of natural human communication, which is based on heterogeneous codes, to a
homogeneous code, which led Bloomfield to deny that writing may attain the status of
language. For him, writing is merely a way of recording speech by means of visible symbols (1). Film accomplishes another step in the evolution of humanity
through a much more natural fusion of sound and sight, reproducing the real human
communication setting. Today, multimedia proposes another convergence, as it places a
greater emphasis on the interaction between speech and the visual art, while preserving
some elements from print. This article begins with a discussion of what constitutes the
concept of a model by specifying that human communication relies on various models to
produce messages. The new medium makes it possible to draw from the diverse repertoires of
signs according to different codes in order to select a blend of symbols that correspond
to a cognitive task. In the next section, my purpose is to demonstrate that legal writing
codifies the visual aspects of human communication as well as speech by promulgating a
lineal mode of linkage according to chronological time. In the last section, I will
specify that a better understanding of legal reasoning is crucial to transcode from print
to the new medium and also to determine a structure of knowledge that is amenable to
electronic teaching.
1. The
notion of the model
A model is one of the concepts that is loosely used to denote a representation of some
aspect of the world, the interactions and relationships between its components. The
benefit of the model is to describe, simplify or reproduce the operations that the real
world object would undergo. There are many different models reflecting various objects of
the world. It is also possible that several models correspond to one aspect of the world.
Generally models are constructed by analogy and can not only be interpreted in a logical
manner, but also through the use of metaphor. Theories as models are often interpreted
metaphorically. Metaphorical interpretation does not occur through a rigid correspondence
between the structure of the model and the structure of the world, but instead through the
reliance on a network of ideas. Accordingly, this method of interpretation is still a
rational process, even though one cannot express it in formal logic.
Mental grammar characterizes a model of thought that possesses two facets. The competence
model or the grammatical model expresses how elementary unit of signification combines to
form a more complex unit. The grammatical model expresses knowledge about the different
possible combinations that permit one to move from the simple toward the more complex.
These rules of the mind fulfil an important function, that is to predict future
performance. They also allow us to predict which sequence will be grammatical and which
one will not. The performance model involves the production of a message through a
particular combination of signs according to a specific code. To construct the mental
model of competence, one has recourse to decomposition at the level of performance.
Conversely, to obtain a model of performance, one should know the rules of competence and
apply them in a creative manner to communicate a structured idea. By the selection of one
particular configuration from the competence model, to express what suits the problem
domain according to the modeller views, we obtain a model of performance. The
decomposition of the actual performances serves in the construction of the competence
model and the application of the model of competence serves to create a particular
performance. The creative aspect specific to composing, converges with the interpretative
aspect which characterizes the critical aspect. Accordingly, any model which is intended
to reason about the world must achieve a task by following certain rules. Usually the
model is designed to accomplish only one task in a predictive manner, and knowledge is
represented from a particular point of view determined by the problem to be solved.
The competence model does not only represent the linguistic knowledge.
The study of the rules that govern facial communication and body gestures is referred to
as kinesics (2). Analysis of the communicative function of
space in the socialrelation or proxemics reveals that space between people follows a
cultural pattern (3). Similarly, in the search for a visual
grammar, Goodman proposes a language theory of pictures (4).
The study of myths reveals that they are a valuable source to define a given cultural
model (5). Eco discuss chromatic competence; he demonstrates
that there is a relation between colors and mental categories, since each language
categorizes colors and segments reality according to experience. Chromatic perception is
determined by society, and there is cultural meaning to colors. Moreover, the
discrimination of colors makes the eyes able to isolate more colours that words can name (6). There is a strong hypothesis that the competence model or
the rules to create meaning for a different system of signs can be unified under rhetoric.
In this perspective, rhetoric is seen as an instrument of discovery, sound judgement and
inquiry (7).
The fluency in the generation of a message depends upon the knowledge of the competence
model and what one wants to accomplish or communicate to let the receiver focus its
attention on the central idea. The organization of the message depends upon the cognizance
of the stimulus and what is to be expected from it. The response is not random, but is
planned as a consequence of selecting signs in accordance with their potential to render
certain answer. To illustrate, a teacher can zoom a picture drawing upon the photographic
code to focus on a certain point in the explanation of a concept. Similarly, the
discrimination between modes of sign production is crucial since digital signs are more
adapted to the expression of abstract knowledge, and the iconic code accommodates the
explanation of abstract ideas. The print model of legal reasoning can be seen as an
encoding of several codes in the digital code through the elimination of what can not be
reproduced digitally and through the perversion of the other mode of codification
qualities.
2. The print
model of legal reasoning
The study of legal decision reveals that even legal reasoning has been transformed and
reduced by the print medium. The fundamental ability of humans to communicate by image is
immune and the oral tradition is still omnipresent in law. Whatdistinguishes the written
form of communication is the integration of the visual with the abstract model of
thinking. Metaphorical thinking, symbolic interpretation and narrative are the reminders
of human communication by visual images. These devices play an important role in legal
discourse, and without them, legal discourse would stumble over its own abstraction.
Similarly, several aspects that characterize the speech are adapted to the written mode.
With respect to the organization of knowledge, the legal treatise displays a linear model
that disregards the cognitive capability of the learner.
2.1. Image
Legal discourse relies on images to convey ideas. Usually, these figures are not
present to embellish discourse, but to fulfill a necessary function. They are the
substance of law, and ideas can not be delivered without them. With an image that is
worth a thousand words, one can avoid empty abstraction that is difficult to grasp. Humans
cannot progress without verbal figures because language is a process that is in constant
formation.
2.1.1.
Symbol
To become a symbol, the sign has to be related to a significant
event so that people recognize it as symbol and a synthesizer of human experience. Making
a distinction between symbol and sign, it has been noted: This distinction between signs
and symbols is most interesting and in my judgment most valuable. According to it the sign
indicates, the symbol represents: the sign transmits directly, the symbol indirectly or
obliquely: the sign announces, the symbol reminds or refers: the sign operates in
immediate context of space and time, the symbol extends the frame of reference
indefinitely (8).
The term of "symbol" is loosely defined to include differentà meanings. Human
languages as symbolic systems are founded on the à conventional arbitary relation. This
means that the association à between words and what they represent are motivated only by
social convention. The relation between mathematical symbols and their objects of
reference is a one-to-one relation, while in human language, the correspondence is
one-to-many relations. Interpretation by association of ideas opens up a world where
humans have the possibility of access to different realms of reality such as religion,
art, philosophy, and science. This interlink between the physical world and the
metaphysical is what distinguishes humans from animals. A Symbolic point of view of legal
language implies that the meaning of a concept is attained through a unified network of
signs rather than through its referential value.
Symbolism by the association of ideas makes the inexplicable become explicable. One aspect
of symbolic interpretation is that meaning is not fixed in advance. Statute interpretation
could not be reduced to find or discover the one hidden meaning, because there is not a
sole meaning in the text, but many. Interpretation creates a relation between interpreter
and author, and between interpreters. It is not necessary that the interpreter of the text
and the author agree on the interpretation. The separation in time and space between the
writer and the reader makes it quite difficult to achieve a coincidence between two mental
representations. The text is multidimensional, each places stress on some aspect and
persuades the other of what the interpretation of the text should be. Multiple
interpretations could lead to a conflict between interpreters.
The relation between a term and the reference can be mediated by analogical
correspondence. There is always something that stands for something else. A bundle of
knowledge that can take the form of an image is attached to every sign, helping one to map
the abstract to the concrete. It is common, for example, to see the concept of justice,
which is abstract, linked to the balance schema. In Rodriguez, the symbol of the balance
helped to weigh two divergent interests to determine which was more acceptable to society.
By using a physical object, the judge discussed things that are very difficult to perceive
concretely. He advanced:
Fundamental justice requires that a fair balance be struck between the
interests of the state and those of the individual. The respect for human dignity,
while one of the underlying principles upon which our society is based, is not a principle
of fundamental justice within the meaning of s. 7 (Rodriguez v. British Columbia 1993 3
S.C.R. 521).
Symbolic representation opens up to humans levels of reality which could not otherwise
be grasped. It manifests itself through ritual, the architecture of the court, legal
iconography and verbal language. It expresses the continuity between the religious and the
legal, between the concrete and the abstract, and between past and present. Symbols have
pedagogical functions as they transmit moral values.The net as a symbol in the criminal
court is used to demonstate that justice must be flawless. Illustrating how to construct
an argument, the judge exports the following image:
An analogy I often used in charging juries, especially in cases where the Crown's case
was circumstantial, was that of a fisherman's net. The evidence presented at trial by the
Crown seeks to establish factual propositions. Once established, facts may be used to
infer other facts. In this way, established factual propositions intertwine to construct a
net of such propositions. If a factual proposition is established as a mere probability or
likelihood, and not beyond a reasonable doubt, it cannot be used to infer any further
facts. The interweaving of facts breaks down and there is a hole in the net. A net with a
hole, however small, is no useful net at all, since there remains a critical factual
proposition which is not consistent only with the accused's guilt (R. v. Mackenzie 1993 1.
S.C.R. 218).
Symbol also has the function of legitimating power and exalting the virtue of judges.
In the Ruffo affair, the issue was that in becoming an exclusive symbol of the struggle on
behalf of children and their rights, the judge usurped her own judicial function. In
making herself the champion of children, Judge Ruffo has become "a case",
"an affair: the Ruffo affair", "a public figure", a "star",
a "heroine", a "Joan of Arc". Regardless of the merit of the cause she
has embraced, this reason puts at issue the objectivity, impartiality and independence
that a judge must be seen to demonstrate in all circumstances. She jeopardizes the image
of the judge by altering the model of what a judge should be. The system is structured in
such a way that if a reasonable apprehension of bias is observed, the requirement of
impartiality is not met. The appearance of impartiality is important for public confidence
in the system:
Both independence and impartiality are fundamental not only to the capacity to do
justice in a particular case but also to individual and public confidence in the
administration of justice. Without that confidence the system cannot command the respect
and acceptance that are essential to its effective operation. It is, therefore, important
that a tribunal should be perceived as independent, as well as impartial (Ruffo v. Conseil
de la magistrature 1995 4 S.C.R 298).
This symbol is one of the most deeply revered in the legal
community. Viewed in this way the interpreter is the true author of the law (9), because the determination of meaning by language is a legal
fiction devised to create a sense of security. Accordingly, there is no reason to believe
that legal experts express their ideas and feelings outside the realm of symbolism.
2.1.2.
Fiction
Fictional thinking is the original form of human thought. It is inscribed in our
genes, it is the language of thought, the language of spirit. In narrative, legal concepts
are communicated and realized through event or action. This also implies that experience
is prior to the abstract principles. It ensures that language functions referentially by
mapping an abstract concept to the external world. Fiction implies comparison, Barsch
advances:
In comparing [a substantive idea and a concrete idea], we see
whether there is a conformity, or, in other words, coexistence between them: whether the
concrete idea exists in the substantive idea, is in part of it, is an element of it; and
consequently, whether it has to be affirmed or negated (10).
The doctrine of ex turpi causa is an abstract principle that works to prevent abuse and
misuse of the judicial process. This concept is well established in contract law and
insurance law, where it provokes little controversy. In tort, the proper role of the ex
turpi causa is not articulated. To explain, a judge has used the following stories:
Few would quarrel with the proposition that a man who murders his wealthy aunt
should not be allowed to receive the proceeds of her life insurance as beneficiary, or
that two robbers who disagree over the division of the spoils would not be allowed to
settle their dispute in a court of law. It was to deal with flagrant abuses like these
that English courts developed the principle expressed in the maxim: ex turpi causa non
oritur actio --no right of action arises from a base cause (Hall v. Hebert, [1993] 2
S.C.R. 170).
Legal narrative does not duplicate the events it describes;
instead, it teaches us how to think about the event. It is a recounting, by which the
teller, often dehumanized, makes present that is distant spatiotemporally. The story told
by the magistrate focuses the attention of the listener on a sequence of events that make
someone liable. The role of narrative in law is ancient (11).
It asserts the authority of the judge and the law in relation to the learner on whom power
is exerted.
2.1.3. Model
and metaphors
When one attempts to perceive a thing as another thing, looking for similarity in
dissimilarity, one is building a model. And when one speaks about contract using biblical
language, one is using a model to create metaphors. With model and metaphor, we are
seeking a correspondence between two heterogeneous things. The difference is that the
primary function of the model is to transfer knowledge while metaphor transfers knowledge
for the purpose of creating a new expression. Beyond using models to argue a case, the
legal expert uses metaphors.
a. Model
The legal expert cannot limit himself to the perception of isolated
facts, but instead must find affinities between fields expressing more cohesion in law.
Through association, affinity and juxtaposition of two divergent ideas in an integrative
approach, the legal specialist discovers a precedent and thereby creates a metaphorical
link that serves in the argumentation stage, and also later on in the resolution of the
case. These metaphors demonstrate that the discovery of precedent may not be reduced to
linking cases according to the lexical analogies, but rather, that the generation of a
distant analogy or a metaphor depends upon an abstract network of knowledge. Metaphors
created by analogy serve as a model for case citation (12).
b. Metaphors
Catachresis is considered to be forced metaphor; this is the reason
why its metaphoric origin may be quickly disregarded. As an expression, it is aimed to
adapt language to the needs of the world. According to the authors of Antiquity,
catachresis is reated by analogy. It allows one to extend language and allow it to
coincide with reality, which is in continual evolution. When one is confronted with a new
reality and the absence of a term, a new term could be invented, or else a known category
could be extended to adapt to the new reality. The expression "good faith" is an
example of catachresis which is the result of analogical reasoning. As with all metaphoric
expression, it is created by elying on similitude and differences. The expression of
"good faith" presents a similitude with "good intention", to the point
here they can be considered to be synonyms and thus substitutable. It is obvious, however,
that strict synonymy leading to an identity does not exist. Therefore, there is a
difference between "good intention" and "good faith". In its original
meaning, the notion of "bonae fidei" designates a general mode of conduct that
refers to a certain state of mind, but does not focus only on intentional action. It is
plausible that in the case of imprudence or negligence, one could denote an intention to
injure that is constituent of bad faith (13). The notion of
"good faith" is a metaphor that takes a different meaning in each branch of law.
O'Connor has take an inventory of the meaning of good faith in administrative law, in
criminal law, in responsibility incorporate law (14).
The expression "right to life" is a further example of catachresis that takes
its meaning in relation to a hierarchy of rights. Each liberty is measured against social
rights, freedom of expression, defamation, right to information and right to private life.
The term right to life, which means power over life, is not an absolute power. It is a
natural right that people have by virtue of being a member of society, in a special
relation one to another. Adapted to features of human nature, personal liberty and rights
arise from one's entrance into a relationship with another. Without the interpersonal
relationships one does not need the right to life.
Locke consider catachresis as an "abuse" of language because through catachresis
becomes possible to invent the most fantastic entities, assembling and disassembling
reality in the most capricious ways, pairing man with woman or human being with beast in
the most unnatural shapes. Approving Locke, Kittay says:
Catachresis is, literally, a misuse of language. It is sometimes
taken to refer to those cases of metaphor which arise out of a need to name some unnamed
entity - standard examples include "the leg of a chair" or the "foot of a
mountain" - or it is sometimes said to be an abuse of language... "Gaps" in
lexical fields are often filled by such metonyms which become catachrestic once they are
established in the language (15).
With this view communication by image is scorned by the rational mind. The discursive
image as a reminder of the trueimage is called original language and denotes a primitive
mentality. It is also the sign of decadence and imminent death, for it serves only as
ornamentation. It is this transition from the figurative to the abstract that denotes
man's maturation. One of the consequences of rationality fragmentation of knowledge and
the adoption of a reductionist view of the world. The rational is the comprehensible, the
seen and the irrational is incomprehensible, the unseen. In the above account the verbal
image can be seen as a prisoner of the alphabetic code and a liberator for humanity.
2.2 Speech
The relation between speech and writing is a complex subject. Writing encodes speech,
by presenting in a linear script some of the articulations that may already have appeared
orally. Writing encourages sequential thinking. It suppresses sounds since the print as
the medium for writing cannot transport sounds. Yet some aspects of the written code
remind us that the written word follows the verbal code which it tries to mimic.
2.2.1.
Dialectic
The presence of argumentation reveals the importance of the oral tradition in law.
Dialectical thinking promotes unity in transgression, contradiction and disparity. It
reverses polarity by viewing the world in gradation instead of in opposition. This mode of
argumentation runs against the positivist concept of logical contradiction, which
characterizes the method of abstract thinking. In the legal field, argumentation occurs
through the dialectical process. Each concept gives rise to its opposite, and in the
resolution of the conflict a higher vision or a synthesis arises. The thesis and
antithesis converge in a synthesis, which can become a thesis and generate an opposite
which may lead to another synthesis. Justice Cardozo, a former justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States, stated that the rights lie in the duality of concepts. He
wrote:
Here is the great antinomy confronting us at every turn. Rest
and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive. The law, like human kind,
if life is to continue, must find some path of comprise. Two distinct tendencies pulling
in different directions, must be harnessed together and made to work in unison (16).
However, when formal contradiction is used in law, there is a feeling that one is missing
the point. Formal logical laws are empty, they are constructed from contradictory
negations. In this example, the judge uses formal contradiction in arguing his case:
With the greatest respect, where the trial judge erred was in concluding that
because the lot was not used for agricultural purposes it was used for a purpose other
than agriculture. Section 101 does not recognize acquired rights when a lot is not used
for agricultural purposes, but rather when it is used for a purpose other than
agriculture. Unused land is not used for agricultural purposes; however, precisely because
it is unused, it is also not used for a purpose other than agriculture, as required by
s.101. (Veilleux v. Quebec, 1989, 1 R.C.S; p.852).
This reasoning is not linked to any existing state of affairs; it is a mere
abstraction void of truth and content. The flexibility of legal ideas cannot progress
without taking into consideration the relatedness in contradiction of one concept to the
other. An analysis in terms of dialectical contradiction protects against any tendencies
to devoid the law of its principle mission, which is to resolve conflicts.
2.2.2 Deixis
In written discourse, because the speaker and the objects referred to are not present
in the situation of utterance, deixis emerges as a way of anchoring language to the
spatio-temporal dimension and to the immediate situation of speaking in relation to the
person. Deictic can be non-linguistic (pointing, nodding) or linguistic (demonstratives
and other kinds of reference). The role of linguistic deictic is intensified in written
language. It compensates for the loss of the spatio-temporal in which human communication
takes place. To fill some function of the spoken language, the text is marked with an
anchor to circumstantial reality. But there is much that remains to be said about the
differences and the similarities between the oral and the written code. The notion of
coherence takes on a special meaning in relation to the written code. This difference from
the spoken code is of importance because the written message operates at a higher level of
rules and grammar.
2.3. Textual
relations
In the written language, the rules of coherence or textual grammar
present complementary views about relations that convey textual meaning. According to the
proponents of the cohesion theory, the notion of coherence is equated with the
determination of interphrasic relations (17). The supporters
of the narrative view study the text at a deeper level, considering it to be an arena for
the confrontation of conflictual views(18). The defender of
the argumentative view regards the text as a manifestation of the will of an author to
persuade the readers by using discursive techniques(19). This
view is used to gain an understanding of the persuasive technique used in the legal
argument (20). At another level, unified discourse is held
together by a ruling theme, by cross-reference and by certain implications or
presuppositions. These theories reflect the fact that the generation of a message is
mostly topic-oriented instead of being goal-oriented.
This organization of knowledge that suits the model of the print weakens modular
communication and stimulates the rational mind by promoting a uniform model of thinking.
Similarly, the replacement of visual art by verbal art, in addition to the predominance of
speech, has left the legal community in a state of tension dividing the subjectivist from
the objectivist. For the objectivists, there is a direct mapping between reality and the
law, and meaning is determined and fixed in advance. What cannot be mapped to reality is
pure fantasy and not worth of studying. For the subjectivists, the interpretation lies in
the imaginative mapping without any resort to reality. For them, meaning is not fixed,
since they adopt a much wider view of reality which encompasses and links the seen to the
unseen.
3.
Multimedia modelling
The revolution of the print imposed its model of thought and reversed the ancient one
in adapting human cognition to the new mode of communication. As a medium, it reflects a
reductionist model of thought. In fact, the transcoding of a verbal image into the verbal
code involves a transformation from the analogical to the symbolic code which corrupts the
original message that is referential by nature. Also, the give-take of dynamic
conversation is sacrificed since the speaker is totally separate from the listner.
Conversely, multimedia promises to display a whole range of reasoning in the most natural
ways. Today, multimedia invites us to question the model of print as a model of human
thought and to examine alternative models to codify human knowledge. To create a
successful legal multimedia, the developer must combine various types of signs in
inclusive ways. Through multimedia, we are no longer constrained by the sensory
limitations of the print medium; we can convey our ideas and information through
combinations of communication systems. This revolution was developed on the basis of the
natural faculty of humans to communicate orally; and also on the capacity to focus on
image and text. If the written code converted the heterogenous code of communication
through the amalgam, the multimedia would preserve and determine a novel mode of
expression based on a innovative blend of symbols. As a result, the integration of the
many spheres renders the communication process more complex, more dense and more
efficient. This enrichment at the level of information transfer requires an amalgam of
several heterogenous codes. Consequently, the shift from a fragmented to a holistic
dimension of communication demands an expertise that is based on several fronts.
In an iconoclastic society, analogical representation was chained up
in the alphabet, and thus, few question the absence of a link between image and text.
Although verbal images constitute virtually the only way to communicate through the
written law, the true images remain important not only as decor but mostly to transfer
meaning. In fact, verbal art and visual art entertain several kinds of relations. There
are three types of relations between image and text. In the case of the pre-eminence of
the image over text, the source of inspiration of the writer is the image. Verbal imagery
transforms the image into a legal concept or tells a story about a visual concept. The
reverse is true when the text precedes the image; the artist translates the verbal art to
the visual art. But often, when the text is simultaneous with the image, the relation is
not of dependency but of integration and complementarity. The visual code can be combined
with the verbal code, thereby preserving the integrity of both. The fusion of the verbal
code with the visual code permits the creation of a visual image with the alphabet.
According to Barthes, the complementarity between text and image stems from the incapacity
of an image to express temporal and causal relation. It emerges from the nature of the
image polysemic to the infinite or monosemic to the extreme. Text complements the image by
stopping and directing the interpretation (21). Few would
bother to argue the auxiliary functions of the image with the text. Considering further
the abstract and normative nature of the law beyond its narrative side, no one would dare
to consider whether law could lend itself to illustration. Another aspect that has been
dissimulated by print is gestural language. With the hands, one can affirm, negate, and
interrogate, and moreover, this code is unambiguous (22).
Law can be more readily adapted to multimedia modelling because it is a form of story
telling, and the need to explain abstract ideas is central to its mission. Producing a
legal multimedia integrates the reasoning process of writing for the print medium and goes
beyond it in bringing out elements that must be eliminated by the written code, as they
are not easily captured or described in print. The multimedia legal encyclopedia builds on
empirical knowledge and signals the growing importance of this form of publication in
legal education. A case encyclopedia can connect each case to the transcripts, the
pictures from the trial, audio clips of the legal arguments, pieces of evidence,
cross-examination, video images from the court proceedings, all following the fluidity of
a case hearing. This symbiotic form of communication can also suit the production of a
multimedia that links correspondence, legal manuscripts, oral proclamation and legislative
discussion which precede the enactment of a statute. Also, the advent of digital law made
the convergence between the task domain and organization of knowledge embrace many aspects
with different goals. The embodiment of knowledge in a particular fashion induces learning
and problem solving. Similarly, the way the task is accomplished influences the way
knowledge is presented. If we wish to make this legal knowledge available to a computer we
must find a way of representing it in an appropriate form, and have a good perception of
what task to accomplish. For data to be useful, they must be organized according to a task
model. The data model, geared mainly to capturing the information requirements of an
application, should exhibit a certain natural quality. A second requirement is that the
model be detailed enough to provide an adequate representation, but not so complex or
large that it becomes impossible to operate upon it. There is often a compromise to be
made between the accuracy of a model and its utility. The embodiment of the task model is
crucial to the creation of an electronic intelligent book for a virtual classroom
conducive to learning and discovery.
Through an associative organization of knowledge, the reader is given the possibility to
determines it own path of navigation through the textual network. Rather than being
passive, the reader generates a new text, and participate in the act of writing, thereby
realizing a very basic form of interactivity. But in a truly interactive system, the
virtual world does not only have a ready-made elements, it creates its data "in real
time" according to the user's directions. A data base may be queried at the demand of
the reader to get information to complete his knowledge and create a new document that
will fulfil its needs. In the case of the training video, the author may choose to include
an interactive quiz after the video, to determine the level of comprehension by the user.
At a higher level of interactivity, the author must construct not only one story, but a
complete set of stories to explain a concept engaging the reader in fictional
communication. Also, author's prediction of the most probable action according to the
user's aims helps to respond adequately to the target audience.
Conclusion
Transcoding without considering the specific role of each symbolic system in the
acquisition of knowledge would be a labor spent in vain. Without any adaptation of the
text model to the new medium, it is expected that a distorsion and depersonalization would
affect the comprehension of information conveyed by a multimedia. A serious departure from
the way we think about legal publications is needed to produce a publication that mirrors
the structure of the legal mind. When a new medium supplants an old medium, it announces
the end of one mentality and the adoption of a new one. The medium is a part of the
message because it imposes its own qualities on reality. Multimedia emphasizes the role of
images in communication and puts a greater value on dialogue and conversation. As a
medium, it also commands a goal-oriented organization of knowledge.
The legal modeller interacts with the the legal specialist to organize knowledge in a
model suited to a legal task. He also interacts with the software engineer to map the
software model with knowledge organization that is suited to the legal task. The software
as a very abstract structure of knowledge can predict the full range of possible
applications. Confronted with the possibilities that are offered by the software module,
one must decide which is the best alternative and be aware of the trade-offs in making a
final choice. Finally, the legal modeller will connect with the potential user to map the
knowledge organization with different models. The kind of mental models which the legal
expert has developed is an intuitive understanding to make qualitative judgements.
Usually, expert models do not coincide with novice models of problem resolution. Each
solves problems according to its own particular model of thought. Users' needs vary
according to different settings, making it important that the design of a functional
information system meets these needs.
Both the task model and the grammatical model, designed to organize data, are superposed
on the software model which itself is superposed on the hardware model. Hardware relates
to software and software connects to infoware which itself relates to userware. The role
of the software is to represent the abstract properties of the world data. To serve as a
communication medium, however, software should represent information in ways similar to
those in which people perceive information. The choice of the software and the
organizational scheme greatly affects the usefulness of the schema design for the users.
Considering law to be inclusive of the different spheres of being, its openness opposes
meaning fixation and the attachment of the law to strict physical reality. Also, the sense
of duty that animates the legal mind is what guarantees law's evasion of pure fantasy. Law
continually seeks and strives to move from the abstract to the concrete by mediation.
Proof is seen as a balance between the material, the logical, the conscious, the
immediate, the seen, the concrete, the explicable, and the provable, or what we call
reason; and the unseen, the metaphysical, the unconscious, the inexplicable, the
immaterial dimension of human being, or what we call emotion. We recall Cicero, who
believed that persuasion relies upon the proof of allegations and the arousing of feelings
in the audience to whatever impulse the case may require.
Lex Electronica Volume 3, numéro 1 ( hiver 1997 )
Notes
(1) Bloomfield, Leonard. Language: New
York, H.Holt, c1933. p.21
(2) Morris, Desmond and al. Gestures:
Their Origins and Distributions. London: J. Cape, 1979, 269 p.
(3) Hall, Edward T. The Silent
Language. Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday, 1959, 240 p.
(4) Goodman, Nelson. Language of Art: An
approach to a Theory os Symbols. Indiana-polis: Bobbs-Merrill. 1968, 277 p.
(5) Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Les structures
élémentaires de la parenté. Paris: Mouton 1967, 594 p.
(6) Eco,
Umberto. "How Culture Conditions the Colors We See". On signs / edited by
Marshall Blonsky. Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985. 157-175.
(7) Simons, Herbert W. The Rhetoric of
Inquiry as an Intellectual Movement in the Rhetorical Turn.
(8) Dillistone, F. W. Christianity and
Symbolism, London: Collins, 1986. p.24; Langer, Suzanne K. Philosophy in a New Key.
Oxford. 1942; Foss, Martin. Symbol and Metaphor in Human Experience. Princeton University
Press. 1949; Guiraud, Pierre."La sémiologie" in Langage. Bernard Pottier.
(9) Gardies, Jean Louis. "La logique
de l'interprétation du droit et la logique du droit lui même". Archives de
philosphie du droit. Vol.27, 1982, p.418
(10) Barsch, A. and Hauptmeir H.
"Speculations about Jakobson: Logical Construction from a Literary point of
View", Poetics, 12 p.553
(11) Winter, Steven L. "The
Cognitive Dimension of Agon Between Legal Power and Narrative Meaning" Michigan Law
Review. vol. 87, pp.2225-2279. August 1989.
(12) Araj, Houda. "From Lexical
Analogy to Creative Analogy in Legal Informatics". Submitted to Artificial
Intelligence Law Journal, 1996
(13) Volansky, Alexandre AI. "La
bonne foi notion générale du droit. Théorie de la responsabilité délictuelle".
Essai d'une définition expressive du droit basée sur l'idée de bonne foi: étude de
doctrine juridique. Paris: librairie de jurisprudence ancienne et moderne, 1930, pp.284,
287.
(14) O'Connor, J.F, Good Faith in English
Law. Brookfield, Vt: Gower, 1990, 148 p.
(15) Kittay, Eva Feder. Metaphor: its
Cognitive Force and Linguistic Structure. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987, p.297
(16) Cardozo, Benjamin N. The Growth of
the Law. New Haven : Yale University Press, 1924. p.2
(17) Halliday, M.A.K and Hasan R.
Cohesion in English. London: Longman, 1976, 374 p.
(18) Greimas. A.J. et Courtés, J.
Sémiotique. Dictionnaire raisonn de la théorie du langage. Paris: Hachette, 1979,
422 p.
(19) Perelman, Cha-m and
Olbrechts-Tyteca, L. The New-Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. Translated by John
Wilkinson and Purcell Weaver. University of Notre Dame Press, 1969; 566 p.
(20) Haynes, David N. The Language and
Logic of Law: A Case Study. University of Miami Law Review. Volume 35, January 1981,
number 2, pp.183-254
(21) Barthes, Roland. Image, Music,
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220 p.
(22) Garapon, A. L'àne portant des
reliques: essai de rituel judiciaire. Paris: Le Centurion, 1985, 211 p.
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