topology, since the set of nodes with highest degree represents the main core of thetaxonomywith the shortestaveragedistance-concepts.The domainofmul- system and multi-lingual ontologies o?ers the opportunity to integrate arti?cial intelligence not only with legal theory,but also with further, more empirical and comparative, legal studies. The relation of legal ontologies, multi-agent systems, and distributed n- works, is only one, albeit important, among many other examples of research in AI and law. The aim of the AICOL workshops is thus to o?er e?ective support for the exchange of knowledge and methodological approaches between scholars from di?erent scienti?c ?elds, by highlighting their similarities and di?erences. The comparison of multiple formal approaches to the law-such as logical m- els, cognitive theories, argumentation frameworks, graph theory, game theory, as well as opposite perspectives like the internal and the external viewpoints- should stress possible convergences, as for instance in the realms of conc- tual structures, argumentation schemes, emergent behaviors,learning evolution, adaptation, and simulation.
WewouldliketothanktheAICOLreviewersandtheOrganizingCommittees oftheJURIX2009andIVR2009conferences.WewouldalsoliketothankAlfred Hofmann for being so sensitive to the main AICOL idea. The following projects allowed the conception and organization of the research workshops, and the edition of this ?rst volume: CSO-2008-05536-SOCI, TSI-020110-2009-39, TSI- 020110-2009-374, TSI-020501-2008-131, TSI-020100-2008-134, and JLS-28002- CFP-CJ-08.