Invited Speakers:

First Call for Papers, Tutorials and Workshops:

Papers are invited on research on artificial intelligence and information technology as applied to the law, and in particular on legal knowledge systems, as well as on changes implied by the uses of ICT in the legal world. Typical topics are:
o systems that support legal decision making, drafting, knowledge discovery, negotiating and teaching
o knowledge acquisition for legal knowledge systems
o data mining for legal applications
o legal ontologies and semantic web
o representation of normative knowledge and open structured knowledge
o interfaces and retrieval systems of legal information
o question answering systems for legal databases
o legal neural networks and rule based systems
o verification and validation of legal knowledge systems
o e-government, e-court, e-democracy
o digital rights management and legal intelligent agents
o legal technology assessment and practical uses
o models of legal reasoning and argumentation
o theoretical foundations and models in Artificial Intelligence and Law
But papers on other relevant topics are welcome.

Papers should not exceed 5000 words. Electronic submission of papers is strongly preferred. To submit electronically, send the paper to the Program Chair as an email attachment, using PDF, PostScript or Word format. If electronic submission is impossible, to submit by ordinary mail, send 4 copies of the paper to the Program Chair. Style sheets can be obtained from the conference website.

Finally, proposals for tutorials and workshops are invited. Please submit a short description of the topic. Workshop proposals should be received before September 1, 2003; Tutorial proposals (with the schedule) before September 15, 2003. All proposals should be sent to the program chair, preferably by email.

Important dates:

Submission of paper: September 15, 2003
Notification of acceptance paper: October 5, 2003
Final paper (camera-ready): October 20, 2003
Submission of workshop proposals: September 1, 2003
Submission of tutorial proposals: September 15, 2003

Organising committee:

Program committee:

Local information:

Utrecht is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands, with a very attractive historic centre and a large and lively student population. It is located at the heart of the Netherlands, easily reachable from all directions. Utrecht Central Station is the largest railway junction of the Netherlands; a train journey from Schiphol Airport takes 45 minutes (four to six connections each hour, including one change at Duivendrecht), and from Utrecht to Amsterdam takes just 30 minutes, with at least six direct connections each hour.

Travel notes:

From Schiphol Airport: Take one of the trains calling at Duivendrecht: five trains per hour, usually departing from platform 2, directions Hilversum, Lelystad Centrum, Amersfoort/Groningen or Amersfoort/Enschede. (Do not take a train to Amsterdam Central, but if by mistake you still do, simply change at Amsterdam Central for Utrecht; you will have lost only 20-30 minutes.) At Duivendrecht change for Utrecht: 6 trains per hour, up the escalator to platform 8. Do not take the .33 train; it will take you to Rotterdam instead of Utrecht.

Warning: Although travelling by public transport in the Netherlands is generally safe, the trains and railway stations around Schiphol and Amsterdam are popular targets of muggers and pickpockets. Be careful in the trains and at the platforms. If you bring a laptop, it is best to carry it within your suitcase instead of separately, and not to use it on the train.

By train from Belgium or Germany: When travelling from Belgium (Brussels-Antwerp): change for Utrecht at Rotterdam Central. When travelling from Germany (Koeln-Oberhausen-Arnhem): this train directly takes you to Utrecht Central. Those travelling from Germany (Osnabrueck-Hengelo) should change for Utrecht at Amersfoort.

From Utrecht Central Station:

• Utrecht Central is a slightly confusing station, built as part of an indoor shopping centre. Upon arrival go up the stairs or escalator and follow the signs for the buses or taxis. If you prefer to walk to the city centre (Janskerkhof) follow the direction Centrum / Hoog Catharijne, walk into the shopping centre and find the exit Vredenburg (near the end). On the street called Vredenburg turn right or ask one of the many friendly locals how to walk to Janskerkhof.
• The hotels NH Centre and Strowis can be reached by foot, walking to Janskerkhof (10 min) or by city bus lines 3 and 4 (direction Burg. F. Andrealaan) and line 11 (direction De Uithof/WKZ), busstop Janskerkhof (approx. 3-5 minutes).
• For Hotel Ouwi and Maliehotel take city bus line 4 (direction Burg. F. Andrealaan) or line 11 (direction De Uithof/WKZ), busstop Oorsprongpark (approx. 10 minutes). At the traffic lights, for Hotel Ouwi turn left into the F.C. Donderstraat and for Maliehotel turn right into the Maliebaan, then the second street on your right is the Maliestraat.
• The strippencard: Local public transport in The Netherlands requires a "strippencard". Within Utrecht, all rides are two strips. If you plan to use the city bus both to and from the railway station and from your hotel to the conference venue v.v., then buying a 15-strippencard is probably worth its money (available at the railway station ticket office). Otherwise it is probably cheaper to buy a single ticket on the bus for each ride.

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