SHYSTER

SHYSTER is a case-based legal expert system, developed by James Popple as part of his doctoral research at the Australian National University. Details of the design, implementation, operation and testing of SHYSTER are given in his book A Pragmatic Legal Expert System (1996).

SHYSTER provides advice in areas of case law that have been specified by a legal expert using a specially developed specification language. It was implemented in a UNIX environment, and consists of a dozen modules written in ISO C. This C source code, and the case law specifications used to test SHYSTER during its development, are available for no charge, and without warranty, on certain terms and conditions. Example output from SHYSTER is also available.

Details of the etymology of the word shyster are available in a PDF file (256K/1 page).

SHYSTER-MYCIN—a hybrid legal expert system, combining SHYSTER and the MYCIN medical expert system—was developed by Tom O'Callaghan.

PDF files can be read and printed using Adobe's free Acrobat Reader.