Abstract:
Today’s contracts are complex and their meaning is not always clear to those who are impacted. What can we do to provide transparency and understandability and to prevent inadvertent non-compliance and negative surprises? In our previous work, we have brought information design, user experience, readability, visualization and natural language processing to bear on exploring the use of non-textual devices in contracts and other legal documents. This paper seeks to make contract/legal rule visualization accessible to a wider audience. As the production of contract/legal visualizations can be a challenge, we propose and demonstrate prototypes of automated tools for such visualizations. In this paper, we experiment with computer-generated visualizations of selected contract clauses. Our early prototypes include common types of term and termination, payment and liquidated damages clauses. These examples provide proof-of-concept demonstration tools that help contract writers present content in a way readers pay attention to and understand. In addition, these tools can help them produce better content through self-audits, as visuals can help detect and clarify ambiguities and unintended interpretation. These results point to the possibility of document assembly engines compiling an entirely new genre of contracts, more user-friendly and transparent for readers and not too challenging to produce for lawyers.
Passera, Stefania and Haapio, Helena and Curtotti, Michael, Making the Meaning of Contracts Visible – Automating Contract Visualization (February 20, 2014). In Erich Schweighofer et al (eds), Transparency: Proceedings of the 17th International Legal Informatics Symposium (IRIS) 2014; Jusletter IT, 20 February 2014.
First posted 2015-07-17 08:12:32
Leave a Reply