A brief survey of developments in computerised legal information retrieval

Starting with an explanation of the language of law, the article outlines the characteristics of legal literature and the expectations of computer‐based systems. There follows a brief evaluative survey of the development of major legal text retrieval systems throughout the world with an indication of the areas of research in progress. The final section deals with systems in the United Kingdom and the problems associated with research funding and the general organization of legal information in the country. 8 refs.