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Browsing Cases

ProEthica organizes ethics cases in a searchable repository with filtering by year, subject, and domain.

Cases List

Navigate to Cases in the navigation bar, or access directly at /cases/.

Cases List Case repository showing cases grouped by year with clickable subject tags

List Layout

Cases are organized by year with expandable cards displaying:

Element Description
Title Clickable case name linking to the detail page
Case Number Badge showing identifier (e.g., "Case #24-02")
Subject Tags Clickable tags for filtering (yellow badges)
Find Similar Link to precedent discovery
Questions Ethical questions posed to the board (expanded view)
Conclusions Board determinations (expanded view)

A view toggle in the page header switches between compact (titles and tags only) and expanded (questions and conclusions visible) modes. The selected mode persists across browser sessions.

Filtering

The filter bar provides filtering options:

Filter Description
World Filter Dropdown to filter by domain (e.g., Engineering Ethics)
Tag Filter Clickable tags to filter by subject category

Tag Filtering

Subject tags are clickable throughout the interface:

  • Filter bar tags - Click any tag in the "Filter by tag:" row
  • Case card tags - Click a tag on any case card
  • Expand for more - Click "+X more" to reveal all available tags
  • Clear filter - Click the active (highlighted) tag again to remove the filter

When a tag filter is active, a "Filtering by:" indicator appears at the top. The active tag is highlighted in yellow with an "x" indicator.

Find Similar

Each case card includes a Find Similar link that navigates to the precedent network with that case pre-selected. See Precedent Network for details.

Subject Tags

Subject tags provide topical classification. For NSPE cases, these come from the NSPE Board of Ethical Review's subject categorization system.

Tag Category Examples
Professional Conduct Conflict of Interest, Competence, Integrity
Public Safety Health and Safety, Public Welfare
Practice Areas Design, Construction, Consulting
Relationships Client Relations, Employer Relations

Case Detail Page

Click the case title on any case card to access the full case page at /cases/<id>.

Case Detail

Context Bar

Below the case title, a context bar displays key metadata and navigation:

Element Description
OntServe Link Links to the case ontology on OntServe (when entities are committed)
Entity Count Badge showing total extracted entities
Transformation Case transformation type (Transfer, Stalemate, Oscillation, Phase Lag)
Structure View document sections and embeddings
Provenance View extraction history and session data

Pipeline Status (Authenticated Users)

Authenticated users see a pipeline status bar with numbered step buttons below the context bar:

Button Name Content
1 Contextual Roles, States, Resources
2 Normative Principles, Obligations, Constraints, Capabilities
3 Temporal Actions, Events, Causal Relationships
4 Synthesis Provisions, Precedents, Questions, Conclusions, Decision Points, Resolution Patterns

Step button states indicate completion:

  • Filled (green) -- Step complete, click to view results
  • Outline -- Step available but not run
  • Lock icon -- Step locked pending prerequisites

The pipeline status bar and associated step buttons are hidden for unauthenticated users in production.

Header Actions

Button Function
Back to Cases Return to case list
Pipeline Open the case pipeline dashboard (authenticated users only)
Source Link to original source (if available)

Case Sections

Engineering ethics cases (NSPE format) contain these sections:

Section Content
Facts Background circumstances and situation description
Question(s) Specific ethical questions posed to the board
NSPE Code References Relevant code of ethics provisions
Discussion Board's ethical analysis and reasoning
Conclusion(s) Board's formal determinations
Dissenting Opinion Minority view (if present)

Section structure varies by professional domain. ProEthica currently uses NSPE engineering ethics as the canonical format.

Case Metadata

The card header displays:

  • Case Number - Official case identifier
  • Year - Year of board decision
  • World - Domain classification (e.g., "Engineering Ethics")

Structure Page

The Structure page displays document analysis and embedding information. Access via the Structure button on any case detail page.

Case Structure Structure page showing document sections and embedding status

Summary Cards

Metric Description
Sections Total number of document sections
With Embeddings Sections that have vector embeddings
Coverage Percentage of sections with embeddings
Dimensions Embedding vector size (384D for local model)

Document Sections

The accordion shows each section with content length, embedding status, and preview text.

Similar Cases Sidebar

When embeddings exist, the sidebar shows cases with similar discussion sections based on embedding cosine similarity.