YEARS OF EUROPEAN ONLINE ANNÉES DE EN LIGNE ...

LEGAL XML — USE OF XML
FOR THE PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION
OF OFFICIAL GAZETTES ( 1 )
mANAGEmENt REPORt
this paper contains the inal report on the work carried out by the working
group ‘XmL: Common use of XmL for the production and distribution of
oficial gazettes’ (‘wG XmL’).
the working group was given the task of proposing a vocabulary in the
form of an XmL schema which simpliies the development and use of XmL
models across the different oficial gazettes in which legislative documents
have to be published.
Analyses by the working group show that a common vocabulary covering
both structure and metadata would not be recommendable. A common vocabulary
on structure would not be successful for two different reasons.
1. Important differences in legislative culture cause different structures in legislative
documents.
2. the advanced status of XmL-based projects in different countries leaves
no possibility to introduce a new schema on structure.
On the other hand, a common vocabulary regarding metadata is proposed
by the working group, while the analyses showed that metadata were highly
congruent across legislative systems, and none of the existing metadata standards
were appropriate for the juridical description of documents.
the working group has created a metadata glossary with agreed deinitions,
and a common XmL schema and document-type deinitions (DtD) were written
based on this.
two obvious beneits are stressed in the report. the common metadata
can be used as an inspiration or a checklist to ensure that the most typical
subjects of legislative metadata are covered, and implementing the common
SØREN BROBERG NIELSEN
Head of Legal
Information Division,
Civil Affairs Agency,
Denmark
( 1 ) the published version is the inal report of the working group on XmL set up by the
European forum of Oficial Gazettes, which was presented between 14 and 16
September 2006 in Ljubljana. the report is co-authored by holger Bagola, Publications
Ofice. the full version of the report, including all its annexes, is available on the forum
website (http://circa.europa.eu/irc/opoce/ojf/info/data/prod/html/index.htm).
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