Virtual Arguments On the Design of Argument Assistants for Lawyers and Other Arguers

Virtual Arguments' subject matter is argument assistance software. Whereas word-processing software assists in the writing and formatting of texts, argument assistance software supports argumentative tasks. Argument assistance software can for instance help with the organization, visualization and evaluation of arguments.

 

The focus of this book is on defeasible argumentation. Argumentation is defeasible when it is possible that conclusions are withdrawn in the light of further argumentation. The domain of application in this book is the law, where the defeasibility of argumentation is common and often essential.

 

The author’s approach is interdisciplinary. The book reports on current research in artificial intelligence, legal theory and argumentation theory. It is relevant for all those who are interested in defeasible argumentation, legal reasoning and argument assistance software. The book combines theoretical reflection with illustrativeexamples. As a result, it provides an intriguing outlook on the state of the art both for researchers and legal practitioners.

 

Bart Verheij is Assistant Professor at the Artificial Intelligence Department of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. His research focuses on legal reasoning and defeasible argumentation. He has studied the logic of reasoning with legal rules and with legal cases. His investigation of argument defeat has resulted in the logical models CumulA and DefLog. He designed and implemented software for argumentation support (Argue! and ArguMed). He has given courses on, amongst others, legal reasoning, tort law, legal information technology and artificial intelligence.

 

This is Volume 6 in the Information Technology and Law (IT&Law) Series

Frans H. van Eemeren is Professor of Speech Communication, Argumentation Theory and Rhetoric at the University of Amsterdam. Together with Rob Grootendorst (1944-2000) he founded the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation. Van Eemeren a Distinguished Scholar of the American National Communication Association, Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Lugano, and alumnus of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. He is President of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation (ISSA), Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary journal Argumentation, and Editor of the book series Argumentation Library and Argumentation in Context. Among the monographs he (co)authored are Speech Acts in Argumentative Discussions (1984), Argumentation, Communication, and Fallacies (1992), Reconstructing Argumentative Discourse (1993), Fundamentals of Argumentation Theory (1996), A Systematic Theory of Argumentation (2004), Argumentative Indicators in Discourse (2007), Fallacies and Judgments of Reasonableness (2009), and Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse (2010). Bart Garssen is Lecturer at the Department of Speech Communication, Argumentation Theory and Rhetoric of the University of Amsterdam, and Director of the Master¿s program Discourse and Argumentation Studies Amsterdam (DASA). He is Book Editor of the interdisciplinary journal Argumentation, and Editor of the book series Argumentation in Context. His research interests are empirical research of argumentation, political argumentation and the fallacies. Together with Frans H. van Eemeren and Bert Meuffels he published Fallacies and Judgments of Reasonableness (2009). C.W. Krabbe (1943) studied philosophy and mathematics at the University of Amsterdam. His Ph.D. dissertation, Studies in Dialogical Logic (Groningen, 1982) was supervised by E.M. Barth and by K. Lorenz. Together with E.M. Barth, he wrote From Axiom to Dialogue (1982), a comprehensive study of dialectic systems and their connections with other types of logic. His publications focus on dialogue logic and argumentation. Krabbe is an alumnus of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences and an Editor of the interdisciplinary journal Argumentation. Krabbe taught logic at the University of Amsterdam and at the University of Utrecht. From 1988 until 2008 he was an Associate Professor of Logic at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Groningen, teaching both philosophical and mathematical logic and theory of argumentation. In 1995 he was, moreover, appointed as Professor on a special chair for Philosophical Theory of Argumentation. Together with D.N. Walton he co-authored the monograph Commitment in Dialogue (1995). In 1998 Krabbe received an ISSA-award for excellent research. He retired in 2008. A. Francisca Snoeck Henkemans is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech Communication, Argumentation Theory and Rhetoric of the University of Amsterdam. She us Director of the Research Master¿s program Rhetoric, Argumentation theory, and Philosophy (RAP). Her research concentrated on linguistic characteristics of argumentation and argumentation structures. In 2007 she published, together with Frans H. van Eemeren and Peter Houtlosser, the monograph Argumentative Indicators in Discourse. Her current research focuses on the role of stylistic devices in strategic manoeuvring aimed at balancing the pursuit of rhetorical effectiveness with dialectical reasonableness. Snoeck Henkemans is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Informal Logic. Bart Verheij is a tenured lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Engineering (ALICE) of the University of Groningen. In 2013-2014, he is resident fellow at the CodeX center for legal informatics, Stanford University. He holds an MSc degree in Mathematics (University of Amsterdam) and obtained his PhD degree at Maastricht Univer