Welcome to the SOLI Python Documentation#

Introduction#

SOLI (Standard for Open Legal Information) is an open, CC-BY licensed standard designed to represent universal elements of legal data, improving communication and data interoperability across the legal industry.

The SOLI Python library provides an easy-to-use interface for working with the SOLI ontology, allowing users to load, parse, and query the SOLI knowledge graph.

For more information about SOLI, visit the official SOLI website.

What is SOLI?#

SOLI is a comprehensive ontology that includes over 18,000 standardized concepts covering a wide range of legal terms, including both common and specialized concepts. It combines the power of ontology and taxonomy to create a comprehensive way to describe legal information.

Key features of SOLI include:

Unique identifiers for every concept
Multilingual support
Open development process

Installation#

You can install the SOLI Python library using pip from the following sources:

GitHub (Development Version)#

pip install --upgrade https://github.com/alea-institute/soli-python/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

PyPI#

pip install soli-python

Getting Started#

Loading the SOLI ontology is as simple as creating a new SOLI graph instance:

from soli import SOLI

# Initialize the SOLI graph
# This will retrieve the OWL file from the default GitHub repository or
# re-use an existing, cached copy if available.

graph = SOLI()

Once you have initialized the graph, you can conveniently access the SOLI taxonomy or OWL classes.

print(graph["R8g9E8c4U6pZQefIjUNRuDd"].to_json())

{
  "iri": "https://soli.openlegalstandard.org/R8g9E8c4U6pZQefIjUNRuDd",
  "label": "Bankruptcy, Insolvency, and Restructuring Law",
  "sub_class_of": [
    "https://soli.openlegalstandard.org/RSYBzf149Mi5KE0YtmpUmr"
  ],
  "parent_class_of": [
    "https://soli.openlegalstandard.org/R8D2A8vpEW3oEpxLRVkaVDk",
    "https://soli.openlegalstandard.org/RBGaYz0rr5Dh0Sjxu0Z6DHx"
  ],
  "is_defined_by": null,
  "see_also": [],
  "comment": null,
  "deprecated": false,
  "preferred_label": null,
  "alternative_labels": [
    "Bankruptcy and Restructuring",
    "BKCY"
  ],
  "translations": {
    "en-gb": "Bankruptcy and Restructuring Law",
    "pt-br": "Direito de falência e reestruturação",
    "fr-fr": "Droit de la faillite et de la restructuration",
    "de-de": "Insolvenz- und Restrukturierungsrecht",
    "es-es": "Ley de Bancarrota y Reestructuración",
    "es-mx": "Ley de Quiebras y Reestructuración",
    "he-il": "חוקי פשיטת רגל והתארגנות כלכלית",
    "hi-in": "दिवालियापन और पुनर्गठन कानून",
    "zh-cn": "破产和重组法",
    "ja-jp": "破産および再生label"
    :
    "BKCY",
    "definition": "Laws relating to insolvent individuals and companies.",
    "examples": [],
    "notes": [
      "Added \"Insolvency\" to rdfs:label, per UK law (where \"insolvency\" differs from \"bankruptcy\"). In the UK, individuals and companies can be \"insolvent,\" but companies cannot file for \"bankruptcy.\""
    ],
    "history_note": null,
    "editorial_note": null,
    "in_scheme": null,
    "identifier": "BKCY",
    "description": null,
    "source": null,
    "country": null
}

Listing taxonomies#

For example, you can list all areas of law in the SOLI ontology:

# Get all areas of law
areas_of_law = graph.get_areas_of_law()
print(areas_of_law[-1])

# Output: OWLClass(label=Antitrust and Competition Law, iri=https://soli.openlegalstandard.org/RDFwOzDi3E8DQ0OxTKb6UEJ)

It’s also easy to limit the taxonomic depth:

# Limit to top-level areas of law
areas_of_law = graph.get_areas_of_law()
top_areas_of_law = graph.get_areas_of_law(max_depth=1)
print(f"Count: {len(top_areas_of_law)} / {len(areas_of_law)}")

# Count: 31 / 174

Retrieving subgraphs in both directions, e.g., children and parents, is also straightforward:

# Get parent classes for bankruptcy law
print("Parents:", graph.get_parents("R8g9E8c4U6pZQefIjUNRuDd"))

# Get child classes for bankruptcy law
print("Children", graph.get_children("R8g9E8c4U6pZQefIjUNRuDd"))

IRIs#

Note that you can use the SOLI IRIs, legacy IRIs, or short-hand identifiers to access classes:

# Get a class by formal IRI
graph["https://soli.openlegalstandard.org/R8g9E8c4U6pZQefIjUNRuDd"] \
    == graph["R8g9E8c4U6pZQefIjUNRuDd"] \
    == graph["http://lmss.sali.org/R8g9E8c4U6pZQefIjUNRuDd"]

# True

Converting classes#

Classes can be converted to JSON, OWL, or Markdown in a single line:

.to_json(): Convert to JSON
.to_owl_element(): Convert to OWL lxml.etree element
.to_owl_xml(): Convert to OWL XML string
.to_markdown(): Convert to rich Markdown string

Examples#

More examples are available in the examples section.

Features#

Load the SOLI ontology from GitHub or a custom HTTP URL
Search for classes by label or definition
Get subclasses and parent classes
Access detailed information about each class, including labels, definitions, and examples
Convert classes to OWL XML or Markdown format

API Reference#

For detailed information about the SOLI Python library API, please refer to the API documentation (coming soon).

Contributing#

Contributions to the SOLI Python library are welcome! Please see our contribution guidelines for more information. You can also contribute to the SOLI standard itself through the SOLI GitHub repository.

License#

The SOLI Python library is released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

The SOLI standard itself is available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License.

Indices and Tables#

Learn More#

To learn more about SOLI, its development, and how you can get involved, visit the SOLI website or join the SOLI community forum.

Welcome to the SOLI Python Documentation

Contents