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Hey HN,
After months of hard work, I am excited to share the first ever semantic map of Australian law.
My map represents the first attempt to map Australian laws, cases and regulations across the Commonwealth, States and Territories semantically, that is, by their underlying meaning.
Each point on the map is a unique document in the [Open Australian Legal Corpus](https://huggingface.co/datasets/umarbutler/open-australian-l...), the largest open database of Australian law (which, full disclosure, I [created](https://umarbutler.com/how-i-built-the-largest-open-database...)). The closer any two points are on the map, the more similar they are in underlying meaning.
As I cover in my article, there’s a lot you can learn by mapping Australian law. Some of the most interesting insights to come out of this initiative are that:
⦁ Migration, family and substantive criminal law are the most isolated branches of case law on the map;
⦁ Migration, family and substantive criminal law are the most distant branches of case law from legislation on the map;
⦁ Development law is the closest branch of case law to legislation on the map;
⦁ Case law is more of a continuum than a rigidly defined structure and the borders between branches of case law can often be quite porous; and
⦁ The map does not reveal any noticeable distinctions between Australian state and federal law, whether it be in style, principles of interpretation or general jurisprudence.
If you’re interested in learning more about what the map has to teach us about Australian law or if you’d like to find out how you can create semantic maps of your own, check out the full article on my blog, which provides a detailed analysis of my map and also covers the finer details of how I built it, with code examples offered along the way.