African Quantum Computing (Theoretical - Pure Science) | 16 October 2003
A Survey of Quantum Natural Language Processing for Summarising Constitutional Court Judgements: An African Feasibility Study for Rural Paralegal Support in Limpopo
L, e, r, a, t, o, M, o, k, o, e, n, a, ,, S, i, p, h, o, v, a, n, d, e, r, M, e, r, w, e
Abstract
The Constitutional Court of South Africa generates lengthy and complex judgements. Paralegals in rural regions such as Limpopo, who operate with limited resources, face difficulties in analysing these texts to serve their communities. Classical natural language processing (NLP) for automatic summarisation struggles with the nuanced, domain-specific language of law. Quantum natural language processing (QNLP) is an emerging paradigm with potential theoretical advantages for such complex linguistic tasks. This survey examines the feasibility of applying QNLP to automatically summarise Constitutional Court judgements for paralegal use in rural Limpopo. Its objectives are to review the current state of QNLP, assess its potential suitability for legal text summarisation, and identify the technical and infrastructural challenges for deployment in a resource-constrained African context. A systematic literature review was undertaken. Academic databases were searched for research on QNLP models, classical legal text processing, and summarisation techniques. The analysis focused on the theoretical capabilities, algorithmic requirements, and documented limitations of current QNLP approaches compared to classical NLP in the legal domain. The survey found that QNLP, while theoretically promising for modelling semantic relationships, remains at a nascent stage of development. A dominant theme is that current quantum hardware limitations, including qubit coherence and error rates, make practical application to lengthy legal documents infeasible in the near term. Furthermore, creating suitable quantum-ready datasets and algorithms for legal Afrikaans and indigenous South African languages presents a significant, unaddressed challenge. The application of QNLP for summarising Constitutional Court judgements is not currently feasible for real-world paralegal support in Limpopo. The theoretical advantages are outweighed by profound practical constraints in quantum hardware and a lack of foundational research tailored to the African legal and linguistic context. Future research should prioritise the development of classical NLP benchmarks and datasets for South African legal languages. Investment in intermediate, hybrid quantum-classical algorithms is advised. Parallel efforts should focus on capacity building in quantum information science within African institutions to foster long-term, contextually relevant innovation. quantum natural language processing, legal text summarisation, constitutional law, South Africa, rural paralegal support, quantum computing feasibility, African languages. This survey provides a critical feasibility assessment, synthesising the current state of QNLP with the specific requirements of African legal aid. It identifies a clear research gap concerning multilingual legal datasets and contextualises quantum computing's theoretical potential against practical deployment challenges in resource-constrained environments