EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
C O M I T É E U R O P É E N D E N O R M A LI S A T I O N
EUR OP ÄIS C HES KOM ITEE FÜR NOR M UNG
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© 2007 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved worldwide for CEN national Members.
Ref. No.:CWA 15710:2007 D/E/F
CEN
WORKSHOP
AGREEMENT
CWA 15710
June 2007
ICS 03.160; 35.240.30
English version
Metalex (Open XML Interchange Format for Legal and
Legislative Resources)
This CEN Workshop Agreement has been drafted and approved by a Workshop of representatives of interested parties, the constitution of
which is indicated in the foreword of this Workshop Agreement.
The formal process followed by the Workshop in the development of this Workshop Agreement has been endorsed by the National
Members of CEN but neither the National Members of CEN nor the CEN Management Centre can be held accountable for the technical
content of this CEN Workshop Agreement or possible conflicts with standards or legislation.
This CEN Workshop Agreement can in no way be held as being an official standard developed by CEN and its Members.
This CEN Workshop Agreement is publicly available as a reference document from the CEN Members National Standard Bodies.
CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

CWA 15710:2007 (E)
2
Contents Page

Foreword……………………………………………………………………………..………………………………3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
1 Scope…………………………………………………………………………………………………….….6
2 Terms and definitions……………………………………………………………………………….……6
3 MetaLex Concepts (informative)………………………………………………………………………..7
3.1 Legal and Legislative Resource, and Sources of Law......................................................................7
3.2 Legal and Legislative Activities.........................................................................................................8
3.3 Legal Subjects, Legal Actions, and Legal Competence ...................................................................8
3.4 Separating Content and Metadata..................................................................................................10
3.5 Content Models instead of Elements ..............................................................................................12
4 Content Models and Attributes (normative)..............................................................................14
4.1 Scope..............................................................................................................................................14
4.2 Namespace.....................................................................................................................................14
4.3 Attributes.........................................................................................................................................14
4.3.1 Metadata attributes .........................................................................................................................15
4.3.2 xml:base..........................................................................................................................................15
4.4 Content Models...............................................................................................................................15
4.4.1 Ur Types .........................................................................................................................................15
4.4.2 Abstract Types ................................................................................................................................16
4.4.3 Abstract Elements...........................................................................................................................16
4.4.4 Generic Elements and Types .........................................................................................................17
4.4.5 Concrete Types...............................................................................................................................17
4.5 Presentation....................................................................................................................................18
4.6 Conformance of Elements to the Standard ....................................................................................18
4.6.1 Defined Elements............................................................................................................................18
5 References (normative)…………………………………………………………………………………19
6 Metadata (normative)……………………………………………………………………………………19
6.1 Scope..............................................................................................................................................19
6.2 The Resource Description Framework ...........................................................................................19
6.2.1 Embedded Metadata: Elements and Attributes ..............................................................................20
6.3 Events and Actions .........................................................................................................................21
6.3.1 Example ..........................................................................................................................................23
6.4 Conformance to the Standard.........................................................................................................24
7 Extensions (informative)………………………………………………………………………………..25
8 Schema..........................................................................................................................................25