A Conceptual Frame-based Ontology for the Law

In this paper, the conceptual frame-based ontology as introduced in Van Kralingen (1995) is described. The backbone of the ontology is constituted by three frame structures. The structures have been coined the norm frame, the act frame and the concept-description frame. A legal-theoretical analysis has determined the form of the structures. In addition to the three frame structures, the ontology comprises some (generic) elements for the instantiation of the structures. 1. Introduction The role and importance of ontologies has in recent years been a recurring topic in discussions on the development of models of the legal (and other) domain(s). An ontology aims at providing building blocks for a (conceptual) model. To be able to fulfil its role, an ontology must provide an abstract, usually simplified view on a domain (a conceptualization). This view comes to expression in the form of the specification of a number of concepts and relations that can be used as primitives for building (co..