Automatic classification of sentences in Dutch laws

The work described here builds on [1], where we presented a categorisation of
norms or provisions in legislation. We claimed that the categories are
characterized by the use of typical sentence structures and that this would enable
automatic detection and classification. In this paper we present the results of
experiments in such automatic classification of provisions. We have defined
fourteen different categories of provisions, and compiled a list of 81 sentence
structures for those categories from twenty Dutch laws. Based on these structures,
a parser was used to classify the sentences in fifteen different Dutch laws,
classifying 94% of 530 sentences correctly. It compares well with other, statistical
approaches. An important improvement of our classifier will be the distinction of
principal and auxiliary sentences.