Diffusion of Legal Data in the Italgiure System: the Foreign User and the Non Legal User

• Autore: Etore Giannantonio
• Pagine: 97-115

Page 97

@1. The foreign User and the Non Legal User

On 13th February 1980 Mrs, Simon Veil, Head of the European Parliament officially opened the European Euronet Diane network at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Strasburg. This is an on-line network for the transmission of scientific and technical data.

On 21st May 1981 the President of the Italian Republic enacted a Decree (No. 322) ´Regulation on establishing the legal information service of CED (Computer Documantation Centre) of the Corte Suprema di Cassazione (the Supreme Court)ª.

These marked two very important events. Subsequently, this legal data service, that is, consulting data banks of the Centre, is no longer reserved exclusively to legal experts, but is also open to Italian and European citizens in general.

This implies not only the need to enlarge the central system and the transmitting network due to the increase in the number of terminals, but above all a qualitative change in the data in order to satisfy the needs of the type of users and, in particular, foreign users and non legal users.

In fact, a foreign user who wishes to consult or refer to the Centre encounters three main difficulties: the difference in the enquiry system the difference in the documentation language, the difference in the legal systems,

As regards the non legal user it is necessary to observe that the present legal data systems provide the person carrying out the research only with the documents, the basic material containing relevant information to solve the legal problem. It is the researcher's task to read and interprete thePage 98 documents in order to obtain the information for his or her. enquiry. However, it is necessary to create systems which allow the user, who is not a legal expert, to obtain the correct information to solve his or her specific problem and that in other words, he or she is not supplied with the text of the document to read or with references to publications to look up or interpret. The user must know exactly whether he or she has the right or the possibility or the power, to carry out a certain activity and what are the consequences of his or her work from a legal viewpoint.

This papaer intends describing what can be done to overcome, at least in part, the difficulties indicated. In particular, it will describe the Euronet Network, the Common Command Language, the automatic translation of the texts, expert systems and factual data banks.

@2. The Euronet Network

In' June 1971 the Council of Ministers of the European Economic Community passed a resolution for encouraging and coordinating the activities of the Member States in the field of scientific and technical information and documentation (Scientific and Technical Information and Documentation - STID), Amongst other initiatives directed at stimulating progress in this sector, it was decided to create a European network for the transmission of scientific and technical information and documentation.

The setting up of a European network for the transmission of data would allow for the creation of a ´common information marketª giving each researcher in the various memeber countries the possibility, by using his own terminal, to consult the data bases existing in the Community according to the cheapest possible tariffs and, in any case independent of the distance between the researcher and the data base.

The CIDST (Comitato per l'informazione eia documentazione scientifica e tecnica) as a subcommittee CREST (Comitato per la ricerca nel campo scientifico e tecaoldgico) was set up under the same resolution of June 1971 with the task of assisting and advising in carrying out the initiatives adopted.

After research lasting about three years CIDST developed a plan of action in the STID sector for 1975 1976 and 1977. In carrying out this pian passed by the Council of Ministers of the European Economic Community on 18th March 1975, the Commission of the European Economic Community signed a contract in December 1975 with the Administration of the French Post and Telecommunications as representative of a consortium of the administrations of the Post and Telecommunications (PTT) of the nine Member States for the designing in detail and the putting into operation of a European network for the transmission of data according to the most modern scientific and technical criteria named Euronet. Subsequently, inPage 99 June 1977, another contract was drawn up between the French Ministry for Post and Telecommunications and a representative of the committee of ministers of the other Member States and the French company, Sesa (the same company which set up the French network for the transmission of data packages ´transpacª) as the representative of a consortium of firms specialized in die' production of hardware and software (that is, Logica Ltd of Great Britain, Sesa of Germany Logica of the Benelux Sait of Belgium, Christian Horsing of Denmark, Caradata of Ireland, and Italsiel of Italy) for setting up a European network for the transmission of data shaped on the same principles as the French transpac system.

The network came into operation on 15th November 1979; was officially inaugurated, as mentioned above, on 13th February 1980; began operating commercially on 31st March 1980 and on 24th November 1980 was officinally opened to Swiss -users also.

On 20th December 1980 the Computer Documentation Centre of the Corte Suprema di Cassazione (the Supreme. Court) was linked for the first time to the network.

@@2.1. The Structure

The network consists of 4 network switching nodes placed in Paris, London, Frankfort and Rome and of 5 remote concentrators placed in Brussels, Aia, Dublin, Copenhagen and Luxembourg,

A node is defined as a packet switching exchange - PSE; a packet as a block of characters of a fixed length; a concentrator or multiplier as a processor which provides for the.. introduction of several lines for the transmission of data functioning at different speeds on a line at high speed; the concentrator, thanks to the fact its speed is superior to that of the lines converging on it, is capable of serving, in turn, all the various lines or channels dispatching or extracting from each one of them one packet at a time.

The nodes are linked together ´in a meshª with telephonic circuits at 43,000 bits per second (43 kb/s); the concentrators are linked to the closest nodes, the entire network is controlled by a Network Management Centre (NMC) situated in London and linked to the London node by two circuits at 96 kb/s.

Both processors and terminals by using particular protocols may be linked to the network, A protocol means a series of rules which must be observed for the exchange of data between two or more devices which converse between themselves.

In particular processors and terminals with ´intelligentª synchronous transmission, that is, capable of working on ´ packet mode terminalsª canPage 100 be linked to the network by dedicated lines at a speed of 2400 to 43,000 bits per second using a standard packet switching control named X 25.

The processors, in order to be linked to the network, must undergo some modification of their hardware and, to be precise, some modification of the front-end of their system of teletransmission. Moreover, a particular software must also be used. It is an interface programme which obviously differs according to the type of processor.

As far as the Centre of the Corte di Cassazione (the Supreme Court) is concerned, the following has been provided for: with regard to hardware to substitute the original CTMC front end and to install a DCP Telcon front end' suitable for carrying out a direct link-up with the Euronet node; with regard to software to utilize the interface created for Univac computers, by a group of technicians of Univac and of the Computer Centre of the University of Rome.

Character mode terminals with control TTY (that is, teletype compatible, in practice, almost all existing telewriters and character mode videos) may be linked to the network by means of the public telephone network at a speed of 110 to 1200 bits (the Rome node is accessible at present with lines at 300 b/s which should soon be brought up to 1200 b/s) or by means of dedicated lines with a speed from 5600 to 1200 b/s.

In particular these are linked to the node using protocol X 23. This mode, by means of the PAD (Packet Assembler /Disassembler), packages the characters arriving at the terminal before guiding them into the network and unpackages the messages arriving from the network for the terminal and transmits them character by character.

Instead, the asyncronous video terminals may be linked to the network using the'DEVIP (Data Entry Virtual Terminal Protocol!). The link-up is eing planned and developed by Olivetti in collaboration with the French Telesystemes.

The list of the models of compatible terminals with the most important technical characteristics is set out in the publication of the European Community, ´The Terminal User Guideª, edited by Diebold Deutchland GmbH Beratunsunternghmen fur Informations Technologic, ,Feberbachstr.

@@2.2. The Host Computers

More than thirty host computers belonging to the various countries of the Community are at present linked to the Euronet network.

In particular, the folowing should be mentioned: Blaise (British Library Automated Information Service) of London with regard to bibliographical information and library automation, and Infoline of London with regard to engineering and science; for France, Gated (Centre d'assistance techniquePage 101 et de documentation) of Paris with regard to civil engineering Cisi of Paris, ITF (Istitut textile de France) of Boulogne ser Seine, Spl (Societe pour l'informatique) of Paris, Telesystemes of Paris, Thermodata of Grenoble In the termochemlcal and medical sector; for Germany D1MDI (Deutches insitut fur medizinische dokumentatlon und Information) of Cologne, FIz-technik...