The Impact of Information Technology on the Taxonomic Organization of Knowledge

University Of Kansas Center For Research Inc, Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

0092618 Hanson This research investigates how computer automation is contributing to changes in the status, conceptualization and use of knowledge in American society by means of a case study of legal information. The researcher, a cultural anthropologist from the University of Kansas, will investigate the impact of artificial intelligence in the form of expert systems for automated processing of legal procedures and computer assisted legal research. The difference between the traditional conceptualization of the law as a hierarchical, taxonomic form of knowledge and the more contemporary computer-influenced conceptualization of computerized keyword searching, which implies a more horizontal, loosely structured network will be studied for its impact on the practice of law. Methods include a literature search and inventory of legal expert systems, open ended interviews with legal theorists and practitioners in law firms and courts, and comparative research in Europe and Australia where the use of legal expert systems is more advanced than in the USA. The research will plot the number of citations to non-legal sources in opinions issued by selected state Supreme Courts and Federal District Courts over the past forty years, as well as perform other quantitative analyses to assess the permeability of the boundary between the law and other disciplines. This research should advance our understanding of the impact of computerized information technologies on legal institutions. The new knowledge to be created will be valuable to theorists as well as practitioners of the law.