The Markup Language XML has proven to be very helpful to structure
legal texts and to allocate meta-data. With regards to further automatic
processing it is a significant advantage to acquire the main features of a
document already in its preparatory phase. Moreover, XML allows for
logic notation, automated linkage and simplified visualization. Yet, it is
primarily tied to syntax and proves less suitable to represent semantics.
The level of semantics assigned to a document depends on how XML
is applied. XML is normally used to tag the implicit semantics of the
document structure only, and the tags are freely interchangeable and
do not carry the actual meaning of the document’s content. Often,
errors are cause because legal texts are drafted in complex MS word
templates incorporating many macros, and then converted into XML
files. Therefore each new element, e.g. the marking of legal definitions,
the representation of relations between different level instruments’ or
the denotation of roles would complicate the drafting of a document
and inevitably go beyond the scope of the drafter. Furthermore law is
dynamic – hence standards must enable subsequent changes.