Capturing Critical Questions in Bayesian Network Fragments

Sjoerd Timmer, John-Jules Meyer, Henry Prakken, Silja Renooij, Bart Verheij

Legal reasoning with evidence can be a challenging task. We study the relation between two formal approaches that can aid the con- struction of legal proof: argumentation and Bayesian networks (BNs). Argument schemes are used to describe recurring patterns in argumenta- tion. Critical questions for many argument schemes have been identified. Due to the increased use of statistical forensic evidence in court it may be advantageous to consider probabilistic models of legal evidence. In this paper we show how argument schemes and critical questions can be modelled in the graphical structure of a Bayesian network. We propose a method that integrates advantages from other methods in the literature.

Manuscript (in PDF-format)

Reference:
Timmer, S., Meyer, J.J., Prakken, H., Renooij, S., & Verheij, B. (2015). Capturing Critical Questions in Bayesian Network Fragments. Legal Knowledge and Information Systems. JURIX 2015: The Twenty-eighth Annual Conference (ed. Rotolo, A.), 173-176. Amsterdam: IOS Press.

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