Internet-based weather forecasts and train timetables may be familiar, but a system for solving a range of legal problems will soon be accessed by the public online.

Later this year the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) will complete an "intelligent" online resource that will allow users to determine how privacy and copyright law apply to specific situations.

These privacy and copyright "rulebases" are a large-scale test of software tools for legal inferencing that are being made freely available for non-commercial use to lawyers, academics and organisations.

However, Project Officer Russell Allen said the AustLII Inferencing Development Environment (Aide) was not meant to function as some kind of "robot lawyer."

"It’s intended to test a given scenario against a body of legislation," Mr Allen said. "For example, an Aide rulebase of environmental legislation would allow a company to determine whether its operations comply with the law.

"The Aide system can’t be used in areas that involve judicial discretion, like family law. That is where you must have a 'real' legal expert to interpret the case law.

"Where it can be expressed as 'rules', then the Aide system will be applicable. It can quickly clear up questions relating to vast and complex legislation, helping to pinpoint problem areas and assisting with planning."

Mr Allen said the Aide tools were designed to allow law professionals to develop rulebases for their own requirements without the need for specialised IT expertise.

At this stage Aide is primarily used for teaching the techniques of computerisation of law but AustLII is hoping to see its broader use in the near future.

AustLII is operated jointly by the Faculties of Law at UTS and the University of New South Wales and provides free Internet access to databases of Commonwealth and State law.

Mr Allen spoke on the development of the Aide system at The Science Forums ­ Hot bots & smart bytes: AI held at UTS on 3 May.