Legal Intelligence Platform
Text. Data. Maps. Standards. Comparisons. Visuals. Analysis.
We create legal intelligence by transforming vast amounts of static and obscure legal documents into a dynamic learning experience, taking users on a journey from information to intelligence.
You might compare information in this sense to a jet engine taken to pieces. All parts are there, on the floor, but you need a sketch of how they fit to make sense of the mess. That is what 'law' is for most laymen: many 'fiddly bits' with no discernible use. Having all the pieces will no more give you a functioning jet engine than having all the laws will tell you how they work together. Intelligence is knowing how the parts work together. Legal Atlas is a resource that helps put the parts together, so that, one cog at a time, a complete engine is created. |
the journey from information to intelligence
|
the journey begins with reorganizing the law |
We re-organize law to relate it to the issues we are concerned with or manage. We have moved away from the traditional dispute-oriented and transactional subjects around which traditional legal libraries are organized. We call this new organization 'topics' and they can range from issues like wildlife trade and climate change to business, women's rights, gender equality to almost anything.
Within a topic, a variety of laws (more specifically, certain provisions from these laws) can apply, that in a standard legal library would be dispersed under many different headings - to keep the analogy going: like jet engine parts scattered across different rooms. A topic on women's rights, for example, might comprise the constitution, family law, inheritance, taxation, land tenure, health care, and more. We put it all together making the inaccessible, accessible. |
Ultimately, we want the legal intelligence we generate to make the entire world's laws a vast set of case studies to learn from.
With our topical approach naturally driving us to deliver legal information from multiple jurisdictions at the same time, users can access and compare similar legal content across borders, languages, and cultures. This makes it possible to understand how national laws, and thus how the management of a single issue (e.g., timber trade), changes from place to place. When it comes to implementation and enforcement, experience shared is experience increased. |
covering a single issue, around the globe |
tools for enhanced access and analysis
|
The Legal Atlas platform serves as an invaluable tool for legal professionals, enforcement, policy makers, and anyone who needs simplified access to laws. With the platform's capability and our staff's experience, the data extracted from laws are presented to users with enhanced accessibility. Just a few of these tools are:
|
Legal intelligence is about synthesis: the ability to process and act upon vast amounts of data as quickly as possible, and in a coherent manner. For this, there is simply no better tool than visualizations. The human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text.
Our goal is to deliver as much as possible in a visual format (without ignoring the value of written text and analyses) to help us see quicker what we would probably ignore or never understand if it came to us only in written form. That said, we are not into things that just look pretty. If a visual isn't making it easier to access something or delivering useful, actionable information, what good is it? |
visualizing the law gets us further, faster |
maps and the law, or the reason we are called Legal Atlas |
Law is a place-based concept. It applies within a particular jurisdiction and, in some instances, to specific people or resources within that jurisdiction. Laws not only can be mapped, but must be mapped to truly understand their impact.
Maps, including map analytics, combined with legal content, are another legal intelligence tool. They tell us which people, what resources, and which landscapes are subject to what laws. The analytics help us crunch numbers in a variety of ways and view relationships that otherwise remain hidden. Maps also dramatically alter how we access law by allowing us to first search for the things and places we know and then see how the law relates - instead of first having to know the law - which, let's face it, most of us don't, including experts. Who actually memorizes all that text, especially when it changes constantly? |