Dynamic legal database providing historical and current versions of bodies of law
View Patent ↗Information collections defining a common subject such as a codified or uncodified body of law are stored on a computer readable medium in association with temporal information indicating the state or status with respect to time of parts of the information collection, including different versions of the same part. Parts that are different versions of each other have different temporal information associated therewith and can be accessed based on the temporal information. Thus, the temporal information may be used to control access to and display of parts of the subject in a computer system based on time as a search or request parameter. Parts of the common subject may be organized and stored according to various schemes, including hierarchical schemes such as topic trees, a relational database, a file system or a structured document system (e.g., using XML). Parts of the common subject and temporal and other information may be associated in various ways, including linking (e.g., hyperlinking), with pointers, or by including them in the same file, record or document. A hierarchical arrangement of hyperlinked, structured documents collectively provide a table of contents (TOC) to the subject.
1. A method in a computer system of modifying one or more data structures encoded on a computer-readable medium, the computer system comprising one or more processors operatively coupled to the computer-readable medium and a memory operatively coupled to one or more of the processors, the one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law and organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer-readable medium of information relating to the body of law, the body of law comprising a plurality of topics and a plurality of parts, including parts that are different versions of each other, the one or more data structures comprising an association of each part of the body of law, including different versions thereof, and at least one topic, the association comprising (1) a hierarchical arrangement of topics of the body of law and parts of the body of law in which each part of the body of law and different version thereof and the associated at least one topic are hierarchically associated, (2) an association of temporal information, which temporal information comprises one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part and different version thereof and the respective part of the body of law or respective different version thereof, (3) and an association of information relating to each part and version of the body of law and the at least one topic with which the respective part or version is associated, the method comprising:
the computer system receiving input comprising a new version of a part of the body of law and new temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of the new version;
one or more of the processors executing instructions to store information identifying one or more of the topics in the memory; and
one or more of the processors executing instructions to cause the one or more data structures to comprise:
an association of the part, and the new version thereof, with the one or more topics identified by the information stored in the memory;
an association of the new temporal information and the part or the new version of the part; and
an association of information to the part and the new version thereof and the at least one topic with which the part or the new version is associated.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the input comprises the information identifying the one or more of the topics; and
the method comprises one or more of the processors executing instructions to retrieve the information identifying the one or more of the topics from the input.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more of the processors executing instructions to retrieve from the computer readable medium a version of the part that is immediately previous to the new version of the part;
one or more of the processors executing instructions to identify the topic within the retrieved version of the part; and
one or more of the processors executing instructions to modify the one or more data structures to cause the association of the part or the previous version of the part and the temporal information associated with the previous version of the part or the part to be consistent with the new temporal information.
4. A computer system for modifying one or more data structures encoded on one or more computer-readable media, the computer system comprising:
one or more processors;
a memory operatively coupled to at least one of the processors; and
one or more computer-readable media operatively coupled to at least one of the processors and encoded with one or more data structures and instructions capable of execution by at least one of the processors;
wherein
the one or more data structures represent an information collection comprising a body of law, organize the information collection, and facilitate access from at least one of the computer-readable media of information relating to the body of law,
the body of law comprises a plurality of topics and a plurality of parts, including parts that are different versions of each other,
the one or more data structures comprise an association of each part of the body of law, including different versions thereof, and at least one topic, and
the association comprises (1) a hierarchical arrangement of topics of the body of law and parts of the body of law in which each part of the body of law and different version thereof and the associated at least one topic are hierarchically associated, (2) an association of temporal information, which temporal information comprises one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part and different version thereof and the respective part of the body of law or respective different version thereof, (3) and an association of information relating to each part and version of the body of law and the at least one topic with which the respective part or version is associated; and wherein
the instructions comprise instructions that, when executed by at least one of the processors, cause the computer system at least to
receive input comprising a new version of a part of the body of law and new temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of the new version,
store information identifying one or more of the topics in the memory, and
modify the one or more data structures, the modification causing the one or more data structures to comprise (1) an association of the part, and the new version thereof, with the one or more topics identified by the information stored in the memory, (2) an association of the new temporal information and the part or the new version of the part, and (3) an association of information to the part and the new version thereof and the at least one topic with which the part or the new version is associated.
5. The computer system of claim 4 , wherein:
the input comprises the information identifying the one or more of the topics; and
the instructions comprise instructions that, when executed by at least one of the processors, cause the computer system at least to retrieve the information identifying the one or more of the topics from the input.
6. The computer system of claim 4 , wherein the instructions comprise instructions that, when executed by at least one of the processors, cause the computer system at least to:
retrieve from at least one of the computer readable media a version of the part that is immediately previous to the new version of the part;
identify the topic within the retrieved version of the part; and
modify the one or more data structures to cause the association of the part or the previous version of the part and the temporal information associated with the previous version of the part or the part to be consistent with the new temporal information.
7. A computer program product comprising:
a first computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors within a computer system that comprises a memory operatively coupled to at least one of the processors and one or more computer-readable media operatively coupled to at least one of the processors, cause the computer system to modify one or more data structures encoded on one or more of the computer-readable media;
wherein the one or more data structures represent an information collection comprising a body of law, organize the information collection, and facilitate access from at least one of the computer-readable media of information relating to the body of law;
wherein the body of law comprises a plurality of topics and a plurality of parts, including parts that are different versions of each other;
wherein the one or more data structures comprise an association of each part of the body of law, including different versions thereof, and at least one topic;
wherein the association comprises (1) a hierarchical arrangement of topics of the body of law and parts of the body of law in which each part of the body of law and different version thereof and the associated at least one topic are hierarchically associated, (2) an association of temporal information, which temporal information comprises one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part and different version thereof and the respective part of the body of law or respective different version thereof, (3) and an association of information relating to each part and version of the body of law and the at least one topic with which the respective part or version is associated; and
wherein the instructions comprise instructions that, when executed by at least one of the processors, cause the computer system at least to
receive input comprising a new version of a part of the body of law and new temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of the new version,
store information identifying one or more of the topics in the memory, and
modify the one or more data structures, the modification causing the one or more data structures to comprise (1) an association of the part, and the new version thereof, with the one or more topics identified by the information stored in the memory, (2) an association of the new temporal information and the part or the new version of the part, and (3) an association of information to the part and the new version thereof and the at least one topic with which the part or the new version is associated.
8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein:
the input comprises the information identifying the one or more of the topics; and
the first computer-readable medium is encoded with instructions comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one of the processors, cause the computer system at least to retrieve the information identifying the one or more of the topics from the input.
9. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the first computer-readable medium is encoded with instructions comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one of the processors, cause the computer system at least to:
retrieve from at least one of the computer readable media a version of the part that is immediately previous to the new version of the part;
identify the topic within the retrieved version of the part; and
modify the one or more data structures to cause the association of the part or the previous version of the part and the temporal information associated with the previous version of the part or the part to be consistent with the new temporal information.