Welcome to the DataLex Community

About DataLex

DataLex - Smart legal decision support and Rules as Code – AustLII 's rule-based legal reasoning platform. AustLII is a joint facility of UTS and UNSW Faculties of Law.

DataLex is developed by Andrew Mowbray, Philip Chung & Graham Greenleaf, with assistance of AustLII staff.

Andrew Mowbray is Professor of Law and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney and Co-Director, AustLII.
Philip Chung is Associate Professor of Law, UNSW Sydney and Executive Director, AustLII.
Graham Greenleaf is Professor of Law & Information Systems, UNSW Sydney and Senior Researcher, AustLII.

This is a work of joint authorship involving authors employed by UNSW and UTS. The University of New South Wales and the University of Technology Sydney jointly own the copyright subsisting in the work, together with other joint authors or their successors in title. First published in Sydney, Australia 2017.

• DataLex Development Tools - an interface for developing DataLex applications
• AUSCL Rules as Code Masterclass - AustLII DataLex video (11 May 2021)
• Law as Code: 
Introducing AustLII’s DataLex AI (Available on SSRN)

DataLex Application Examples

These applications ('apps') are of varying degrees of detail and demonstrate DataLex features. Select 'Run consultation' in order to run the app. All of these apps are for demonstration purposes only.

• Australia's Foreign Relations Act consultation - This app relates to the Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020 with a focus on “non-core foreign arrangements” (those that apply to Australian public universities). See code here.
• News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code consultation - This example is based on the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Part IVBA Digital Platforms, Divisions 1 to 3 inserted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Act 2021. See code here.
• Community Gaming Regulation consultation - This example is based on the Community Gaming Regulation 2020 (NSW). Parts of the app can also be run from the 'Consult' option on any section of the Regulation. See code here.
• Hairdressers Act consultation - This example is based on the Hairdressers Act 2003 (NSW). See code here. This Act has also be rewritten in the ylegis format. See ylegis code here.
• Modern Slavery Act consultation - This example is based on the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), and can also be run from the sections of the Act. It is an example of coding the whole of an Act. See code here.
• Electoral law consultation - This app concerns disqualification from standing for federal Parliament under s44 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (Cth) and sections of the Commonwealth Electoral Act (Cth). This has been a contentious issue in Australian politics. It is used for examples in this journal article. See code here.
• Non-Disclosure Agreement consultation - DataLex supports document assembly and generation using rules or templates or both. This simple example generates an Non-Disclosure Agreement and supporting documents. See code here.
• UK Occupation Order consultation - DataLex can be used to build chatbots and other decision-tree-based systems. This example is based on a system built by Aoife Moore (Open University Law School Digital Justice Project) concerning Occupation Orders under ss33-38 of the UK Family Law Act 1996. See code here.

Tutorials, Manuals & Tools

• DataLex Development Tools - An interface for developing test applications outside the AustLII Communities environment
• AustLII's DataLex Developer's Manual (April 2021) - This is the manual for developing applications using the DataLex software.
• Coding with yscript (May 2021) - This is a compete description and tutorial introduction to coding in the yscript language.
• ylegis preprocessor (May 2021) - A preprocessor program that takes a section of legislation (or multiple sections, or even a whole Act), and converts it automatically into a 'first draft' of DataLex code (yscript) for those legislative provisions.
• Quick Tutorial – Building DataLex 'Rules as Code' apps (November 2021)

Background articles on AustLII's approach to using AI in law

• 'Regulation of (generative) AI requires continuous oversight (AustLII submission on the ‘Safe and responsible AI in Australia’ Discussion Paper)' (24 July 2023). (Available on SSRN).
• 'Explainable AI (XAI) in Rules as Code (RaC): The DataLex approach' (2023) 48 Computer Law & Security Review 105771 (Pre-print available on SSRN)
• 'Representing Legislative Rules as Code: Reducing the Problems of “Scaling Up"' (2023) 48 Computer Law & Security Review 105772 (Pre-print available on SSRN)
• 'Applying the Rule of Law in Automated Decision Systems through Rules as Code (AustLII’s Submission to the Robodebt Royal Commission)’ (10 February 2023) (Available on SSRN)
• AustLII DataLex video, Australian Society for Computers and Law, Rules as Code Masterclass series (11 May 2021)
• 'Utilising AI in the legal assistance sector—Testing a role for legal information institutes' (2020) 38 Computer Law & Security Review Article 105407 (Available on SSRN)
• 'Strengthening Development of Rules As Code: Submission to the OECD’s OPSI on Cracking the Code' (23 June 2020) (Available on SSRN)
• ‘Building Sustainable Free Legal Advisory Systems: Experiences from the History of AI & Law’ (2018) 34(1) Computer Law & Security Review 324 (Available on SSRN)
• 'Law as Code: 
Introducing AustLII’s DataLex AI' (available on SSRN)

Articles by others

• Tim de Sousas, A Glance into the Crystal Ball - Optimistic Visions of Rules as Code (Medium.com, 16 July 2021)
• J Mohun and A Roberts, "Cracking the code: Rulemaking for humans and machines", OECD Working Papers on Public Governance, No. 42, OECD Publishing, Paris 2020
• Jason Morris (Canada), “Rules as Code” Can and Should Be Done Without Programmers – An Example from Law to Code to App (Medium.com, 5 June 2019)

Older Examples

These older examples include law that is not up-to-date. However, they are still useful as demonstrations how lengthier more complex applications can be developed using the DataLex software (Copyright and Privacy consultations), or different features of the DataLex software such as case-based reasoning (Finder's cases) or document assembly (Simple Will generator).

• Freedom of Information - This is a simple example concerning access to documents under section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) and related sections. Various small knowledge-bases (some developed by students) are linked.
• Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) procedures consultation - This example focuses on procedural steps in making a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner and appealing against a determination. It is INCLUDED in (ie called from) this Codebase dealing with other sections of the Privacy Act, so a to construct a more complex app by linking various codebases.
• Copyright - Examples using sections of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (not up-to-date)
• Privacy - Examples using sections of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (not up-to-date)
• Finder's cases - Example of case-based or example-based reasoning
• Simple Will generator - Example of Document assembly

DataLex Web Utilities

• WebTopicList - all topics in alphabetical order
• WebChanges - recent topic changes in this web
• WebNotify - subscribe to an e-mail alert sent when topics change
• WebRss, WebAtom - RSS and ATOM news feeds of topic changes
• WebStatistics - listing popular topics and top contributors
• WebPreferences - preferences of this web