Metadata for content description in legal information

The subject of this paper is a description of the Jur-Wordnet (Jur-IWN) project, an extension for legal domain of the Italian version of EuroWordNet database, linked to the Interlingual Index (ILI) records, The data base aims at providing both a content description model for legal information and a tool for accessing multilingual and heterogeneous information sources. The double perspective of application of the database involves a double interpretation of the model, and of its features. Conceived as a lexical source, terms are linked to each other throughout semantic relation, while, as a content description model, the concepts are organised according to stronger assumptions about the ontological nature of entities that populate the legal domain and about their relationship. The crucial problem is to save the global consistency of the model, in the view of the interchange between their components the lexical view need a clear definition of the boundaries between common language and technical legal terminology, while the conceptualisation of the core entities need to be linked in coherent way with upper level categories and the lexical ´leafs´.