Legal information utilization support system

Abstract

The case law and law search service provides users with information on future trends in legal amendments. [Solution] In a legal information utilization support system that provides users with a legal search service, the legal information management server includes an amendment trend management table generation unit that extracts information regarding future amendment trends of laws and regulations by collecting and analyzing documents issued by conference bodies established by a specified organization and / or conferences hosted by the conference bodies, and generates an amendment trend management table based on the extracted information regarding future amendment trends of laws and regulations; and a legal information provision unit that searches a specified database in accordance with a search query for laws and regulations received from the user's information terminal device, controls so that a search result screen including the laws and regulations extracted by the search is displayed on the interface of the information terminal device, extracts information regarding future amendment trends of the laws and regulations, and controls so that this is displayed on the search result screen.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a legal information utilization support system. [Background technology]

[0002] There are legal precedent and law search services (sometimes called "legal precedent and law database services") that search for and provide various information on legal precedents and laws to those involved in legal matters. For example, "Westlaw Japan" and "Hanrei Hisho" are well-known commercial legal precedent and law search services. With such services, users can access a search system and enter keywords related to the information they are looking for to search for information on legal precedents and laws, and can obtain more detailed information about the information they find.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 below discloses a legal search system that can dynamically customize a user interface based on the procedural and chronological relationships of multiple legal cases to provide hyperlinks to corresponding case law documents. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-501974 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, previous case law and law search systems and the system disclosed in Patent Document 1 above were only able to allow users to search for information regarding amendments to laws and regulations by reflecting that information in a database based on information published in the Official Gazette, etc., and were therefore unable to provide information regarding future trends in amendments to laws and regulations.

[0006] Furthermore, while information regarding future trends in legal amendments may be provided to users through public comments, future trends in legal amendments have never been predicted or analyzed based on materials at an earlier stage than the stage at which such public comments are prepared (proposal stage). More specifically, the documents that are the subject of public comments are clearly related to the current laws and the laws that are scheduled to be amended, and it is easy to grasp the future trends in amendments, since public comments are a procedure that targets the general public and are one of the final steps in advancing subsequent legal amendments. On the other hand, while discussions are taking place at earlier stages in the conference, there are many documents issued by the conference body in relation to this, and the wording is often highly abstract, making it difficult to predict future trends in legal amendments. Direction and Because it is difficult to identify the relationship between the two, no information regarding future revision trends has been predicted or analyzed based on earlier documents.

[0007] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a precedent / law search system that can provide users with accurate information regarding future trends in legal amendments in a precedent / law search service.

[0008] More specifically, the present invention aims to provide a case law and law search system that can provide users with accurate information regarding future trends in legal amendments at an earlier stage than the publication of official gazettes and public comments in case law and law search services. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The present invention, which aims to solve the above problems, comprises the following invention-specific matters or technical features.

[0010] According to one aspect, the present invention provides a legal information utilization support system that provides a user with a search service related to laws and regulations. The legal information utilization support system includes: a document collection unit that collects documents related to the laws and regulations, which are issued by a conference body established by a predetermined organization and / or presented at conferences hosted by the conference body; a revision trend management table generation unit that analyzes the collected documents to extract information related to future revision trends of the laws and regulations and generates a revision trend management table based on the extracted information related to future revision trends of the laws and regulations; a legal information provision unit that searches a predetermined database in accordance with a search query for searching for laws and regulations received from a user's information terminal device and controls a search result screen including the laws and regulations extracted by the search to be displayed on a user interface of the information terminal device; and a revision trend information extraction unit that extracts information related to future revision trends of the laws and regulations extracted in accordance with the search query.

[0011] The law-related information providing unit may perform control so that the search result screen includes link information that associates the law with information about future revision trends of the law.

[0012] In addition, the legal information providing unit can control the search result screen to include a search result display area for displaying the laws and regulations and an amendment trend display area for displaying information regarding future amendment trends of the laws and regulations.

[0013] In this case, the search result display area and the revision trend display area may be formed within the search result screen configured as a single screen, or either the search result display area and / or the revision trend display area may be formed as a pop-up window.

[0014] In addition, the legal information provision unit can control the display of information regarding future revision trends of the law in the revision trend display area in accordance with the revision trend management table in response to the user's operation action on the link information in the law displayed in the search result display area.

[0015] In this case, the law-related information providing unit can perform control so that information regarding the revision trend of the law during a predetermined period is displayed in the revision trend display area.

[0016] In addition, the legal information provision unit can control the display of information regarding future revision trends for a specific target part of the law in the revision trend display area in response to the user's operation action on the link information for the target part displayed in the search result display area.

[0017] In this case, the legal information providing unit can perform control so that information regarding revision trends of the target part over a predetermined period is displayed in the revision trend display area.

[0018] The revision trend information extraction unit may create a summary based on information regarding future revision trends of the law, and the law-related information providing unit may perform control so that the summary is included on the search result screen.

[0019] The revision trend extraction unit may estimate at least one of the following items based on information about future revision trends of the law: the likelihood of the revision being realized, the timing of the revision being realized, and the progress toward the revision. The law-related information providing unit may perform control so that the estimated item is included on the search result screen.

[0020] According to another aspect, the present invention provides a legal information utilization support system that provides a user with a legal search service, the system comprising: a revision trend management table containing information on future revision trends of laws and regulations generated from collected documents related to laws and regulations, including at least documents issued by a conference body established by a predetermined organization and / or presented at a conference hosted by the conference body; and a display control unit that controls the display of a predetermined screen on the user interface of the user's information terminal device. The display control unit controls the display of a search result screen containing the laws and regulations extracted by searching a predetermined database in accordance with a search query for searching laws and regulations on the user interface. In this case, the search screen includes a search result display area for displaying the laws and regulations and a revision trend display area for displaying information on future revision trends of the laws and regulations.

[0021] The search result screen may also include a search result display area for displaying the laws and regulations, and a revision trend display area for displaying information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations.

[0022] The search result screen may also include a search result display area for displaying the laws and regulations, and a revision trend display area for displaying information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations.

[0023] Furthermore, the display control unit may perform control in response to an operation action of the user on the link information so that information regarding future revision trends of the law is displayed in the revision trend display area.

[0024] Another aspect of the present invention is a method for providing legal information using a legal information utilization support system that provides a user with a search service related to legal information. The method includes: collecting documents related to the legal information, including at least documents issued by a conference body established by a predetermined organization and / or presented at a conference hosted by the conference body; extracting information related to future revision trends of the legal information by analyzing the collected documents; generating an amendment trend management table based on the extracted information related to future revision trends of the legal information; accepting a search query for searching legal information from a user's information terminal device; searching a predetermined database in accordance with the accepted search query; controlling a search result screen including the legal information extracted by the search to be displayed on an interface of the information terminal device; and extracting information related to future revision trends of the legal information extracted in accordance with the search query. The controlling step includes controlling the search result screen to include a search result display area for displaying the legal information and an amendment trend display area for displaying information related to future revision trends of the legal information.

[0025] Another aspect of the present invention is a method for providing legal information by a legal information utilization support system that provides a user with a search service related to legal information. The method includes: creating an amendment trend management table containing information on future amendment trends of the legal documents collected, the amendment trend management table containing information on future amendment trends of the legal documents generated from documents, including at least documents issued by a conference body established by a predetermined organization and / or presented at a conference hosted by the conference body; and controlling the display of a predetermined screen on the user interface of the user's information terminal device. The controlling includes controlling the display of a search result screen containing the legal documents extracted by searching a predetermined database according to a search query for legal information on the user interface. The search screen includes a search result display area for displaying the legal documents and an amendment trend display area for displaying information on future amendment trends of the legal documents.

[0026] In this disclosure, "means" does not simply mean physical means, but also includes cases where the functions of the means are realized by software. Also, the functions of one means may be realized by two or more physical means, or the functions of two or more means may be realized by one physical means.

[0027] Furthermore, in this disclosure, "system" includes a logical collection of multiple devices (or functional modules that realize specific functions), regardless of whether each device or functional module is physically configured as a single entity or as separate entities. [Effects of the Invention]

[0028] According to the present invention, in a case law / law search service, it is possible to provide users with accurate information regarding future trends in legal amendments.

[0029] Other technical features, objects, effects, or advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following embodiments described with reference to the accompanying drawings. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0030] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a computing system including a legal information utilization support system according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional model of a legal information management server according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an amendment trend management table in the law-related information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a process for generating an amendment trend management table by a law-related information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 5]FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a search service providing process performed by a law-related information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a search top screen provided by the law-related information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a search result screen provided by the legal information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a search result screen provided by the legal information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a search result screen provided by the legal information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a search result screen provided by the legal information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of a law-related information management server according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0031] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the embodiments described below are merely examples, and are not intended to exclude various modifications or applications of techniques not explicitly described below. The present invention can be implemented in various modifications (e.g., combinations of the embodiments) without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Furthermore, in the following description of the drawings, identical or similar parts are denoted by identical or similar reference numerals. The drawings are schematic and do not necessarily correspond to actual dimensions, ratios, etc. Parts in the drawings may have different dimensional relationships or ratios.

[0032] (Overall composition) 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a computing system including a legal information utilization support system according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the computing system 1 may include, for example, a legal information utilization support system 10 and an information terminal device 20, which are communicatively connected to each other via a communication network N. The legal information utilization support system 10 is also communicatively connected to, for example, a government website 30. The communication network N is a network of any protocol that enables communication between devices (nodes), and may include, for example, an IP-based computer network and a mobile communication network that complies with mobile communication system standards.

[0033] The legal information utilization support system 10 is a computing device configured to collect information related to legal regulations and provide users with search services based on the collected information. In this disclosure, "legal regulations" refers to laws, government orders, ministerial ordinances, rules, notices, local ordinances, guidelines, and the like. The legal information utilization support system 10 includes, for example, a legal information management server 12 and a database 14. The hardware configuration of the policy-related information utilization support system 20 is shown in, for example, FIG. 11, but since this configuration is known, details thereof will be omitted.

[0034] The legal information management server 12 presents the search results of legal laws to the user in response to a user's request for searching for legal laws (search request or search query). In particular, the legal information management server 12 of the present disclosure may present the user with information regarding the future revision trends of the legal laws when presenting the search results of legal laws. This allows the user to check the future revision trends of the legal laws when finding the desired legal law, thereby enabling them to take appropriate action based on the future revision trends. Note that the information regarding the future revision trends of legal laws referred to in the present disclosure does not refer to definitive revision trends published in official gazettes or the like, but rather to information predicted or estimated based on specific legal information. Here, specific legal information refers to information regarding documents issued by a conference body established by a specific organization and / or documents presented at a conference hosted by the conference body. The specific organization refers to a political organization, a political party, the government, or a national or local government organization, including, for example, various ministries and agencies and their subordinate organizations. The legal information management server 12 implements a legal information management program to realize this function. Details of the legal information management server 12 will be described later.

[0035] The database 14 includes a legal precedent and statute database 141 and a document database 142. The legal precedent and statute database 141 is a database that stores legal precedents and statutes. A known legal precedent and statute database 141 may be used. Alternatively, the legal precedent and statute database 141 may be an external database accessible via, for example, an API (Application Program Interface). The document database 142 is a database that stores legal documents collected from the government web. Documents include web pages themselves and various materials linked from web pages. Documents are data files or data sets organized according to a predetermined format (for example, HTML or PDF files). Documents may also include tags, metadata, and the like that are not normally displayed visually on a user interface.

[0036] The information terminal device 20 is a computing device that accesses the legal information utilization support system 10 in accordance with, for example, interactive operations by a user and displays a screen related to legal precedent and legal search services on a user interface. The information terminal device 20 may be, for example, a personal computer such as a laptop computer or a desktop computer, a smartphone, or a tablet computer, but it may be any computing device that can access the legal information utilization support system 10 via the communication network N. The information terminal device 20 typically comprises hardware resources such as a CPU (processor), a chipset, memory, a communication network module, and a user interface (e.g., a display or touch panel, a speaker, and a vibrator), as well as software resources such as an operating system (which may include, for example, a kernel, various device drivers, a standard library, etc.) (hereinafter referred to as the "OS"). The information terminal device 20 executes various application programs on the OS under the control of the processor to achieve desired functions. In the present disclosure, the information terminal device 20 is assumed to be equipped with a web browser program that can access web servers on the Internet. The information terminal device 20 executes a web browser program to function as a web browser and can access the legal information utilization support system 10. Alternatively, a client program for accessing the legal information utilization support system 10 may be installed in the information terminal device 20.

[0037] (Legal Information Utilization Support System 10) 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional model of a legal information management server according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the legal information management server 12 includes, for example, a communication interface unit 121, a document collection unit 122, a revision trend management table generation unit 123, a revision trend management table 124, a legal information provision unit 125, and Revision trend information extraction unit 126 The present invention may be configured to include the following.

[0038] The communication interface unit 221 is an interface for the law-related information management server 12 to communicate with external devices on the communication network 10, typically with government websites 30 and information terminal devices 20.

[0039] The document collection unit 122 is an automatic crawler agent program for automatically collecting various pieces of information (e.g., web pages, documents, etc.) on the web or cloud. For example, the document collection unit 122 visits government websites or the like on a regular or irregular basis to collect various documents issued and managed by the government or the like. In particular, the document collection unit 122 of the present disclosure collects various documents issued by conference bodies and conferences hosted by the conference bodies.

[0040] The revision trend management table generation unit 123 analyzes documents collected by the document collection unit 122, particularly various documents generated by conference bodies and conferences hosted by the conference bodies, to extract information regarding future revision trends of laws and regulations. For example, the revision trend management table generation unit 123 analyzes documents using a machine learning model such as natural language processing to extract specific keywords and / or phrases that suggest future revision trends of laws and regulations. For example, not only direct terms such as "revision" but also terms related to "policy" and other policy issues can be specific keywords and / or phrases that suggest future revision trends of laws and regulations. Furthermore, the revision trend management table generation unit 123 scores laws and regulations based on the number of occurrences of specific keywords and / or phrases, and based on the scoring results, identifies laws and regulations and their parts (e.g., articles, clauses, etc.) that are likely to be revised in the future. The revision trend management table generation unit 123 creates and / or updates the revision trend management table 124 based on the document analysis results.

[0041] The revision trend management table 124 is a table for managing information regarding future revision trends of laws and regulations. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a revision trend management table in a legal information management server according to an embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the revision trend management table 124 includes fields such as "Law," "Target Portion," "Document," "Type," "Content," "Registration Date," and "Invalidation Date." The "Target Portion" refers to the portion of a law or regulation that suggests a movement toward revision, indicated by its "chapter," "article," "paragraph," and "subparagraph." The "Type" indicates the type of document that suggests a movement toward revision of the law or regulation. For example, a "Type" of "Meeting" indicates a document issued at a meeting held by a certain conference body. The "Meeting" refers to a conference or meeting held to discuss policy issues related to the revision of laws and regulations. The "Content" refers to, for example, the theme or policy of the conference or conference body, public comments, etc. The "Policy" refers to the policy set forth by the conference body that discusses policy issues related to the revision of laws and regulations. Public comments are documents issued by the conference body in relation to its policy for dealing with policy issues, and include documents in which the conference body presents the issues and ideas for policy issues at an early stage (draft outline, etc.), draft policies for dealing with policy issues issued by the conference body (draft summary, etc.), documents that the conference body makes available for public comment, and documents that the conference body approves for finalization (reports, recommendations, proposals, etc.).

[0042] The legal information providing unit 125 provides users with a search service for legal precedents and laws stored in the database 14. In this example, the legal information providing unit 125 includes a legal search engine 1251 and a display control unit 1252. For example, the legal search engine 1251 searches the legal precedent / law database 141 in response to a search query for legal precedents and laws received from the user's information terminal device 20. The search query may be, for example, the name of an organization such as a ministry or agency that has jurisdiction over a law. The legal search engine 1251 may identify and extract laws, such as the "Telecommunications Business Act," that it has jurisdiction over from an organization name such as the "Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications." As a result of the search, the display control unit 1252 transmits the search results of legal precedents and laws extracted by the legal search engine 125 from the legal precedent / law database 141 to the information terminal device 20 so that the search results are displayed on the user interface of the information terminal device 20. In response to this, the information terminal device 20 displays the search results on the user interface. In the present disclosure, when searching for legal precedents and laws, the legal information providing unit 125 may cooperate with the amendment trend information extraction unit 126 to present to the user information regarding future amendment trends of laws and regulations as part of the search results. Information regarding amendment trends includes, for example, the laws and regulations themselves, and parts that constitute the laws and regulations, such as "chapters," "articles," "paragraphs," and "subparagraphs." Generally, in conventional legal precedent and law search services, when a user searches for past legal precedents using specific keywords, related laws and regulations are extracted or identified along with the legal precedents, and these may be presented together as search results. Even in such a search based on legal precedents, the legal information providing unit 125 may present information regarding amendment trends of laws and regulations extracted in relation to the search results.

[0043] In the present disclosure, when the display control unit 1252 controls the display of the search result screen on the user interface of the information terminal device 20, it can also control the search result screen to include link information that associates the extracted laws and regulations with information regarding the future revision trends of the laws and regulations (see FIG. 7, etc.). The link information is associated with the target portion (all or part) of the laws and regulations related to the future revision trends. The link information is displayed visually distinguishable by, for example, an icon. This allows the user, when finding the desired law, to immediately understand whether the law will be revised in the future.

[0044] Furthermore, the display control unit 1252 may perform control so that the search result screen includes a search result display area for displaying laws and regulations and a revision trend display area for displaying information about future revision trends of laws and regulations. For example, when a user selects an icon indicating link information in the search result display area, the display control unit 1252 performs control so that information about future revision trends of laws and regulations associated with the link information is displayed in the revision trend display area.

[0045] The amendment trend information extraction unit 126 refers to the amendment trend management table 124 and extracts information related to amendment trends of laws and regulations extracted by the law-related information provision unit 125 in accordance with the search query. The amendment trend information extraction unit 126 delivers the extracted information related to amendment trends of laws and regulations to the law-related information provision unit 125.

[0046] Furthermore, the revision trend information extraction unit 126 may extract information regarding revision trends over a predetermined period of time, for example. More specifically, the revision trend information extraction unit 126 may extract information regarding the latest revision trends over a certain period of time in the past or since the last revision, based on the "registration date" and "invalidation date" in the revision trend management table 124. This allows the user to easily understand the movement toward revision of laws and regulations over a certain period of time in the past and the movement toward the most recent revision.

[0047] The revision trend information extraction unit 126 may also include a summarization engine (not shown) that creates a summary based on information about future revision trends. A known summarization engine may be used. For example, the summarization engine may refer to the database 14 and create a summary of the process that led to the revision and the latest situation based on information about revision trends. In response to this, the legal information provision unit 125 controls the display of the summary on the search result screen. This allows the user to easily understand information about legal revision trends.

[0048] The revision trend information extraction unit 126 extracts information on future revision trends of laws and regulations. to Based on this, at least one of the items relating to the timing of the planned revision, the likelihood of the revision being realized, and the progress toward the revision can be extracted or estimated.

[0049] For example, the revision trend information extraction unit 126 can apply natural language processing and machine learning models to documents (e.g., meeting materials, minutes, etc.) collected by the document collection unit 122, and estimate information referring to the planned revision date of the law itself and / or the target part from the written content. More specifically, if the meeting materials contain keywords indicating "revision," "planned," or the timing (date), the revision trend information extraction unit 126 can extract such keywords and estimate the planned revision date.

[0050] The revision trend information extraction unit 126 may also estimate the progress of the revision of laws and regulations according to several milestones (progress indicators) defined based on certain events in the process toward future revision of laws and regulations and / or target portions. For example, each event in a series of processes, such as a "hearing" at a conference, the issuance of a "proposed summary of issues" document, the issuance of a "summary outline" document, and the issuance of a "proposed summary" document related to public comments, may be defined as a milestone. The revision trend information extraction unit 126 may apply natural language processing and machine learning models to documents issued by the conference and / or meetings, and determine which milestones have been reached based on the contents of the documents.

[0051] The revision trend information extraction unit 126 may also apply natural language processing and machine learning models to the collected documents to estimate the likelihood of future revisions of laws and regulations from the contents of the documents. More specifically, if the revision trend information extraction unit 126 extracts a statement regarding revisions made by a person with strong authority over legal revisions (e.g., the Prime Minister is committed to the revision), it adds a predetermined value to the likelihood value. Furthermore, if the revision trend information extraction unit 126 extracts a high level of consensus among the members of the meeting body for legal revision extracted from the contents of the documents (e.g., 9 out of 10 people state that the proposal is good), it adds a predetermined value to the likelihood value. Furthermore, the revision trend information extraction unit 126 adds a predetermined value to the likelihood value depending on the milestone determined to have been reached. For example, the later the milestone in the process toward revision, the higher the value added.

[0052] (Generation process of revision trend management table) 4 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a process for generating an amendment trend management table by a legal-related information management server according to an embodiment of the present invention. This process is realized by the legal-related information management server 12 executing a legal-related information management program under the control of a processor, thereby cooperating with predetermined hardware.

[0053] At a predetermined execution time, the legal information management server 12 crawls government web pages and collects and acquires various documents (S401). Subsequently, the legal information management server 12 analyzes the acquired documents and extracts specific keywords and / or phrases that suggest future trends in legal amendments (S402).

[0054] Next, the legal information management server 12 scores the extracted specific keywords and / or phrases based on the number of occurrences, and based on the results of the scoring, identifies laws and regulations and their parts (e.g., articles, clauses, etc.) that are expected to be revised in the future (S403).

[0055] Then, the law-related information management server 12 creates and updates the revision trend management table 124 based on the identified laws and regulations and their parts (S404), thereby obtaining the latest revision trend management table 124 including information on future revision trends of laws and regulations.

[0056] (Search service provision processing) 5 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a process for providing a search service by a legal-related information management server according to one embodiment of the present invention. This process is realized by the legal-related information management server 12 executing a legal-related information management program under the control of a processor, thereby cooperating with predetermined hardware.

[0057] For example, a user inputs keywords related to the legal precedent or law they are looking for into a legal precedent / law search screen displayed on the user interface of the information terminal device 30. In response to this, the information terminal device 30 transmits a search query based on the input keywords to the legal precedent / law management server 12. As a result, as shown in the figure, the legal precedent / law management server 12 acquires the search query (S501). Next, the legal precedent / law management server 12 references the legal precedent / law database 141 based on the search query and extracts legal precedents and laws (S502). Note that in the case of a legal precedent search, the legal precedent / law management server 12 may further extract laws related to the extracted legal precedent.

[0058] Next, the legal information management server 12 attempts to extract information on the revision trend of the laws and regulations by referring to the revision trend management table 124 (S503). Subsequently, the legal information management server 12 determines whether or not the information on the revision trend of the laws and regulations was extracted (S504). If it is determined that the information on the revision trend of the laws and regulations was not extracted (No in S504), the legal information management server 12 deletes the extracted precedents and laws and regulations. search As a result, display data to be displayed on the interface is generated (S505).

[0059] Next, the legal information providing unit 125 transmits the generated display data to the information terminal device 20 (S509). In response to this, the information terminal device 20 displays the following on the user interface: search The results screen will be displayed. Note that the search results screen in this case is the same as the search results screen for previous case law searches.

[0060] On the other hand, if the legal information management server 12 determines that it has been able to extract information regarding the revision trends of laws and regulations (Yes in S504), the legal information management server 12 extracts or estimates the planned timing of the revision, the likelihood that the revision will be realized, and the progress toward the revision based on the extracted information regarding the laws and regulations and their future revision trends (S506).

[0061] Next, the legal information management server 12 adds link information associating the extracted legal acts with information on their future amendment trends (S507). Next, the legal information providing unit 125 generates display data for displaying the precedents, legal acts, and link information associated with the legal acts extracted by the search on an interface as search results (S508). Next, the legal information providing unit 125 transmits the generated display data to the information terminal device 20 (S509). In response to this, the information terminal device 20 displays a search result screen on the user interface. Note that in this case, the search result screen displays, for example, an icon indicating the presence of information on the amendment trends associated with legal acts whose amendment trends are estimated. In response to a user's operation action on the icon, the legal information providing unit 125 performs control so that information on the future amendment trends of legal acts is displayed on the search result screen. Furthermore, the legal information providing unit 125 can perform control so that information on the planned amendment timing, probability, and progress level is displayed on the search result screen (see FIG. 8, etc.).

[0062] (Example) The user operates the user interface of the information terminal device 20 to access the legal information management server 12, and causes a top screen 600 for the search service, such as that shown in FIG. 6, to be displayed on the user interface of the information terminal device 30. In the example shown in FIG. 6, the top screen 600 includes a search query input field 601. The user inputs keywords related to legal precedents and laws and regulations into the search query input field 601. In this example, the user inputs "Telecommunications Business Act" as the keyword. In response to this, the information terminal device 30 transmits a search query including the input keywords to the legal information management server 12.

[0063] When the policy-related information management server 22 receives a search query, it references the legal precedent / statute database 141 based on the keywords indicated by the search query to extract legal precedents and laws, and also references the amendment trend management table 124 to extract information regarding the amendment trends of the extracted laws. Furthermore, the policy-related information management server 22 generates display data based on the extracted legal precedents / statutes and information regarding the amendment trends of laws. The display data includes link information that associates the laws with information regarding their amendment trends. Next, the policy-related information management server 22 controls the display of a results screen based on the generated display data on the interface of the information terminal device 20. In response to this, the information terminal device 20 displays a search result screen 700, such as that shown in FIG. 7, on the user interface.

[0064] As shown in the figure, the search result screen 700 includes, for example, a search result display area 701 and a revision trend display area 702. The search result display area 701 displays the "Telecommunications Business Act" that matches the search keyword and a list of its provisions. Meanwhile, in this example, nothing is currently displayed in the revision trend display area 702.

[0065] On the search result screen 700, the user can search for the desired article by, for example, operating a scroll bar to scroll the search result display area 701, or by entering keywords using a search command given by, for example, the CTRL key + F key. In this example, icons 703a and 703b are displayed for the "Telecommunications Business Act" and "Article 27," respectively. Icons 703a and 703b are associated with link information, indicating that future revision trends are expected.

[0066] For example, when a user selects icon 703b for "Article 27," the information terminal device 20 displays a search result screen 700' as shown in FIG. 8 on the user interface in accordance with the link information associated with icon 703b. On the search result screen 700', information regarding the future revision trend of "Article 27" is displayed in the revision trend display area 702. That is, information regarding the future revision trend of "Article 27" is extracted and presented to the user according to the revision trend management table 124 shown in FIG. 3. More specifically, detailed information regarding "Meetings" and "Policies" for the future revision of "Article 27" is presented. Additionally, a link 704 is associated with "Document 2," and the user can click this link to view the document "Document 2" (not shown). Furthermore, in this example, information regarding the likelihood of future revision of the law, the planned revision timing, and the progress rate is displayed (area 705). This allows the user to know that individual provisions of the "Telecommunications Business Act" are being revised and quickly understand the details.

[0067] Furthermore, when the user selects, for example, the icon 703a for "Telecommunications Business Act" on the search result screen 700 shown in FIG. 7 or the search result screen 700' shown in FIG. 8, the information terminal device 20 displays the search result screen 700'' shown in FIG. 9 on the user interface in accordance with the link information associated with the icon 703a. On the search result screen 700'', information regarding the future revision trends of the "Telecommunications Business Act" as a whole is displayed in the revision trend display area 702. This allows the user to grasp not only the future revision trends of individual provisions in the "Telecommunications Business Act", but also the movement toward the revision of the "Telecommunications Business Act" as a whole from a bird's-eye view.

[0068] In this example, nothing is displayed in the revision trend display area 702 on the search result screen 700, but this is not limited to this. For example, if there is a movement toward future revision of laws and regulations, the search result screen 700'' as shown in Figure 9 may be displayed immediately.

[0069] Alternatively, the search result screen 700 may not be composed of the search result display area 701 and the revision trend display area 702, but may be composed of a single area (screen), and the content displayed there may be selectively switched (for example, by switching tab screens) depending on the user's operation action on the icon 703, or may be displayed as a pop-up window 702' as shown in Figure 10.

[0070] As described above, according to this embodiment, the legal information utilization support system 1 can accurately provide users with information regarding future revision trends of laws and regulations in the case law and law search service. In particular, according to this embodiment, the legal information utilization support system 1 predicts or estimates future revision trends of laws and regulations by analyzing documents collected from the Internet and issued by a conference body established by a specified organization and / or presented at a conference hosted by the conference body, manages these in the revision trend management table 124, and displays search results on the screen in response to a case law and law search query from a user, extracting information regarding laws and regulations and future revision trends of the laws and regulations. This allows users to understand future revision trends of the laws and regulations they are searching for at an earlier stage than the official gazette or public comments are published.

[0071] The above-described embodiments are merely examples for explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention to these embodiments. The present invention can be embodied in various forms without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0072] For example, in the methods disclosed herein, steps, operations, or functions may be performed in parallel or in a different order unless the results are inconsistent. The steps, operations, and functions described are provided merely as examples, and some of the steps, operations, and functions may be omitted or combined into one, or other steps, operations, or functions may be added, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[0073] Furthermore, although various embodiments are disclosed in this specification, specific features (technical matters) in one embodiment can be added to or substituted for specific features in other embodiments, with appropriate modifications, and such forms are also included in the spirit of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0074] 1. Computing system 10. Legal information utilization support system 12...Legal information management server 121...Communication interface unit 122...Document Collection Department 123...Revision trend management table generation unit 124...Revision Trend Management Table 125…Legal Information Department 126…Revision trend information extraction department 14...Database 141...Case Law and Law Database 142...Document database 20...Information terminal device 30. Government websites N: Communication network

Claims

1. A legal information utilization support system that provides a search service related to laws and regulations to a user, a document collection unit that collects documents related to the laws and regulations that are issued by a conference body established by a predetermined organization and / or presented at a conference hosted by the conference body; a revision trend management table generation unit that extracts information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations by analyzing the collected documents using specific keywords and / or phrases that suggest future revision trends of the laws and regulations, and generates a revision trend management table based on the extracted information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations; a law-related information providing unit that searches a predetermined database in accordance with a search query for searching laws and regulations received from a user's information terminal device, and controls the display of a search result screen including the laws and regulations extracted by the search on a user interface of the information terminal device; and a revision trend information extraction unit that extracts information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations extracted in accordance with the search query based on the revision trend management table. Legal information utilization support system.

2. the law-related information providing unit performs control so that the search result screen includes link information associating the law with information regarding future revision trends of the law; 2. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 1.

3. the law-related information providing unit performs control so that the search result screen includes a search result display area for displaying the laws and regulations and a revision trend display area for displaying information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations; 3. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 2.

4. The search result display area and the revision trend display area are formed within the search result screen configured as a single screen.

4. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 3.

5. Either the search result display area and / or the revision trend display area is formed as a pop-up window.

4. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 3.

6. the law-related information providing unit, in response to an operation action of the user on the link information of the law displayed in the search result display area, performs control so that information regarding future revision trends of the law is displayed in the revision trend display area according to the revision trend management table; 4. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 3.

7. the law-related information providing unit performs control so that information regarding amendment trends of the laws and regulations over a predetermined period is displayed in the amendment trend display area; 7. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 6.

8. the law-related information providing unit, in response to an operation action by the user on the link information for a predetermined target portion of the law displayed in the search result display area, performs control so that information regarding future revision trends of the target portion is displayed in the revision trend display area; 7. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 6.

9. The legal information providing unit performs control so that information regarding revision trends of the target part during a predetermined period is displayed in the revision trend display area.

9. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 8.

10. the revision trend information extraction unit creates a summary based on information about future revision trends of the laws and regulations; the legal information providing unit performs control so that the summary is included on the search result screen; 2. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 1.

11. The revision trend information extraction unit estimates at least one of the following items: the likelihood that the revision will be realized, the timing of the planned revision, and the progress toward the revision, based on information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations; the legal information providing unit performs control so that the estimated item is included on the search result screen; 2. The legal information utilization support system according to claim 1.

12. A legal information utilization support system that provides a search service related to laws and regulations to a user, a revision trend management table including documents related to the laws and regulations that are issued by a conference body established by a specified organization and / or presented at a conference hosted by the conference body, and information on future revision trends of the laws and regulations extracted by analyzing the documents using specific keywords and / or phrases that suggest future revision trends of the laws and regulations; a display control unit that controls the display of a predetermined screen on a user interface of a user's information terminal device, the display control unit performs control so that a search result screen including the laws and regulations extracted by searching a predetermined database in accordance with a search query for searching laws and regulations is displayed on a user interface; the search result screen includes a search result display area for displaying the extracted laws and regulations, and an amendment trend display area for displaying information regarding future amendment trends of the laws and regulations based on the amendment trend management table for the extracted laws and regulations, Legal information utilization support system.

13. the search result screen includes a search result display area for displaying the laws and regulations and a revision trend display area for displaying information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations, The legal information utilization support system according to claim 12.

14. the display control unit performs control so that information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations is displayed in the revision trend display area in response to an operation action by the user on link information associating the laws and regulations with information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations in the search result display area; The legal information utilization support system according to claim 13.

15. A method for providing law-related information by a law-related information utilization support system that provides a user with a search service related to laws, comprising: Collecting documents related to the laws and regulations that are issued by a conference body established by a predetermined organization and / or presented at a conference hosted by the conference body; extracting information regarding future revision trends of the law by analyzing the collected documents using specific keywords and / or phrases that suggest future revision trends of the law; generating a revision trend management table based on the extracted information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations; receiving a search query relating to a search on laws and regulations from a user's information terminal device; searching a predetermined database according to the received search query; performing control so that a search result screen including the laws and regulations extracted by the search is displayed on a user interface of the information terminal device; extracting information about future revision trends of the laws and regulations extracted in accordance with the search query based on the revision trend management table; The control includes controlling the search result screen to include a search result display area for displaying the laws and regulations and a revision trend display area for displaying information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations. How to provide legal information.

16. A method for providing law-related information by a law-related information utilization support system that provides a user with a search service related to laws, comprising: creating a revision trend management table including documents related to the laws and regulations that are issued by a conference body established by a specified organization and / or presented at a conference hosted by the conference body, and information on future revision trends of the laws and regulations extracted by analyzing the documents using specific keywords and / or phrases that suggest future revision trends of the laws and regulations; and performing control so that a predetermined screen is displayed on the user interface of the user's information terminal device; performing the control includes performing control so that a search result screen including the laws and regulations extracted by searching a predetermined database in accordance with a search query for searching laws and regulations is displayed on a user interface; the search result screen includes a search result display area for displaying the laws and regulations and a revision trend display area for displaying information regarding future revision trends of the laws and regulations based on the revision trend management table for the extracted laws and regulations, How to provide legal information.

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