Managing Administrative Law Cases using an Adaptable Model-driven Norm-enforcing Tool
Marten C. Steketee, Nina M. Verheijen, L. Thomas van Binsbergen
TL;DR
The paper addresses the challenge of enforcing norms within administrative-law case handling amid digitization and changing regulations. It proposes a model-driven case-management tool that uses the eFLINT normative-reasoning DSL to enforce norms and provide explainable decision support. The authors describe the system architecture, adaptability, and an example tax-quittance model, along with user requirements and limitations. The work demonstrates potential to reduce errors and delays while increasing transparency, and outlines concrete future directions such as linking legal sources, role-based access control, and simulation capabilities to enhance practical impact.
Abstract
Governmental organisations cope with many laws and policies when handling administrative law cases. Making sure these norms are enforced in the handling of cases is for the most part done manually. However, enforcing policies can get complicated and time consuming with ever-changing (interpretations of) laws and varying cases. This introduces errors and delays in the decision-making process and therefore limits the access to justice for citizens. A potential solution is offered by our tool in which norms are enforced using automated normative reasoning. By ensuring the procedural norms are followed and transparency can be provided about the reasoning behind a decision to citizens, the tool benefits the access to justice for citizens. In this paper we report on the implementation of a model-driven case management tool for administrative law cases, based on a set of requirements elicited during earlier research. Our tool achieves adaptability and norm enforcement by interacting with an interpreter for eFLINT, a domain-specific language for norm specification. We report on the current state of the case management tool and suggest directions for further development.