Temporal Decay of Co-Citation Predictability: A 20-Year Statute Retrieval Benchmark from 396M Ukrainian Court Citations
Researchers have developed a new benchmark, UA-StatuteRetrieval, to assess the stability of co-citation predictability in legal information systems over time. Analyzing 396 million Ukrainian court citations from 2007 to 2026, they found a significant decay in retrieval performance, with predictability dropping by up to 47%. While high-frequency articles and criminal procedure maintained stability, mid-frequency articles and civil law showed notable degradation, partly explained by a 2017 judicial reform and a 4.3% semantic shift in article citation patterns. AI
IMPACT Reveals temporal decay in legal information retrieval, suggesting a need for dynamic models beyond static co-citation analysis.