In the Beginning….. …was the word The Golem of Prague.

In the Beginning….

…was the word

The Golem of Prague

…and numbers too

Software for Golems

A successful fraud…

…until a Scot took it apart

Sir Robert Murray Keith

To be a machine, to feel, think, know good from evil like blue from yellow . . .

-Julien Offray de La Mettrie, Man a Machine

If we had it [a characteristica universalis], we should be able to reason in metaphysics and morals in much the same way as in geometry and analysis

If controversies were to arise, there would be no more need of disputation between two philosophers than between two accountants. For it would suffice to take their pencils in their hands, to sit down to their slates, and to say to each other... : Let us calculate”

Napoleon writing the Code Civil

The sorcerer’s apprentice

That old sorcerer has vanished And for once has gone away! Spirits called by him, now banished, My commands shall soon obey. Every step and saying That he used, I know, And with sprites obeying My arts I will show.

Flow, flow onward Stretches many Spare not anyWater rushing, Ever streaming fully downward Toward the pool in current gushing.

Come, old broomstick, you are needed, Take these rags and wrap them round you! Long my orders you have heeded, By my wishes now I've bound you. Have two legs and stand, And a head for you. Run, and in your hand Hold a bucket too.

Ah, the word with which the master Makes the broom a broom once more! Ah, he runs and fetches faster! Be a broomstick as before! Ever new the torrents That by him are fed, Ah, a hundred currents Pour upon my head!

No, no longer Can I please him, I will seize him! That is spiteful! My misgivings grow the stronger. What a mien, his eyes how frightful!

Brood of hell, you're not a mortal! Shall the entire house go under? Over threshold over portal Streams of water rush and thunder. Broom accurst and mean, Who will have his will, Stick that you have been, Once again stand still!

Can I never, Broom, appease you? I will seize you, Hold and whack you, And your ancient wood I'll sever, With a whetted axe I'll crack you.

"To the lonely Corner, broom! Hear your doom. As a spirit When he wills, your master only Calls you, then 'tis time to hear it."

Napoleon writing the Code Civil

Mechanical Jurisprudence and the Codes – User requirements

• Coherence

• Completeness – for every question put to the court, there must be an answer

• which the court can reach in finite time (Halting problem)

• Decidable set of proofs (for appeal courts)

And with that

Computability

How to do it

• Nulla poena sine lege

• “Negation as failure”

• lex specialis derogat legi generali

and Kelsen’s Hierarchy of Norms

• Principia Mathematica and theory of types

And finally…

• Completeness – for every question put to the judge, there must be an answer which the judge can reach in finite time

• Dworkin’s Hercules

• - and the law as “oracle machine”

FF POIROT

Joseph Bell Centre for Forensic Statistics & Legal ReasoningTechniques and technology backed by world leading research

www.josephbell.org

FF POIROTAn ontology to support systems tackling financial fraud

Description: A collaborative project funded by the

European Union to develop an ontology to support systems that tackle financial fraud:

-Detecting unauthorized online investment brokers (Italy).

-Detecting/preventing VAT fraud (across EU borders).

Academic and commercial partners from Belgium, Italy, UK and Romania.

September 2002 – August 2005.

Further work: Ontology will be developed (3 versions).

Knowledge will be extracted from domain-specific corpora to populate the knowledge base.

A multilingual multi-domain terminological database will be developed.

Alignment and merging with other financial fraud ontologies will take place.

Ontology browser, editor and query engine will be developed.

Results: Knowledge acquired from law reports,

papers and websites

-Relevant law identified and extracted.

User requirements completed; ontology modelling under way.

Natural language technology to extract knowledge from web pages.

Natural language technology to be used to make final system available to users in different languages.

A suspicious investment brokerA suspicious investment broker’’s websites website

County Clare Businessman remanded on £162 million fraud

A 29 year old Businessman originally from Ennis in County Clare was remanded in custody by an English court after he stood accused of attempting to defraud the British Customs and Excise authorities out of £162 millionin false VAT claims.

Dylan Creaven, who now lives at an address in London`s plush Kensington area, also faced a secondary charge of money laundering.

The court heard how Creaven was allegedly heavily involved in a scam known as a ‘carousel fraud’ where his company Silicon Technology Europe transported computer processing units on a regular basis between Ireland and Britain in order to avoid paying VAT on the numerous transactions.

Creaven was remanded in custody and will appear in court again next week.

Acknowledgements: www.eurunion.org; www.theirishwebsite.com

Famous name but:• Links to a page on Smallxchange site • With almost no content• Permanently “under construction”

Over The Counter = unlisted stocks = risky

Too good to be true

!!!

Has little effect –except for Italian

Clearly aimed at the Italian market

• financial fraud Prevention Oriented Information Resources using Ontology Technology

Carousel Fraud

C o m p an yA 1

Step 1

C o m p an yA 2

Step 2

C o m p an yB 1

C o m p an yB 1

Step 3

Step 4 (carousel)

M a jor H ypothe s is

L a w (or supporting pos tula te s )

E vide nc e

1

2

3

4 5

F ille d c irc le s re p re s e n t e v id e n c e .O p e n c irc le s re p re s e n t le g a l ru le s a n d p o s tu la te s .Cro s s -h a tc h e d c irc le re p re s e n t s ma jo r, o r u lt ima te , o r fin a l h y p o th e s is .

1 3

1 . 1

2

H1

1 . 2 2 . 1

4

2 . 3 3 . 1 3 . 2

1 .1 .1

1 . 3 4 . 1

E 1 .1 .1 .1

F 1 .1 .1 .1F 1 .1 .1 .2

F 1 .1 .1 .3

2 . 2 4 . 4

F 4 .4

E 4 .4

E 1 .3 .1

F 1 .3 .1

E 1 .2 .1E2.3

F 2 .3 .1 F 2 .3 .2

E3.2.1

F 3 .2 .1 F 3.2.2

2 .1 .1

2 .1 .2

2 .1 .3

E2.1.1

E 2 .1 .2 .1

E 2 .1 .2 .1 .1

F 2 .1 .2 .1 .1

E 3 .1

E2.2

F 3 .1

E 2 .1

F 2 .1

4 . 34 . 2

4 .1 .2

4 .1 .3

4 .1 .1

F 4 .1 .3E 4 .1 .3

E 4 .2

F 4 .2

F 4 .3 .1

F 4 .3 .2

F 2 .2

• IF COMPANY A is checking the SUPPLY AND COMPANY A purchased GOODS in a TRANSACTION from COMPANY B

• And TRANSACTION:PRICE < the lowest open market value of GOODS:PRICE THEN COMPANY A should check with the SUPPLIER if there is a valid reason for the low TRANSACTION:PRICE

• agent• person• natural_person• juristic_person....• organization....• role...• public_servant• juridical• tax_inspector• financial_crime_police_officer...• judicial• judge...• physical_object...• document• form• tax_form...• regulation• tax_regulation• physical_quantity• amount• money (M)• income (M)...• action.....• declaring_income_tax• procedure....• appealing_legal

Legal Lego

Using model based reasoning in the teaching of evidence

Joseph Bell

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.""The dog did nothing in the night-time."

"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.Inspector Gregory and Holmes, in "Silver Blaze"

"You suspect some one?""I suspect myself."

"What!""Of coming to conclusions too rapidly."

Annie Harrison and Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty“

"Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing,

but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally

uncompromising manner to something entirely different.“

"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work."

"In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backwards. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practise it much. In the every-day affairs of life it is more useful to reason forwards, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically."

Sherlock Holmes, in "A Study in Scarlet

"I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would cover the facts as far as we know them.

But which of these is correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we shall no doubt find waiting for us."

Watson and Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

Sherlock Holmes, in "The Sign of the Four"