Issues on intelligent electronic agents and legal relations

computers have been looked as an instrument due to process and record information, but also as a means of automatically processing and transmitting information, and now as a means of autonomously thinking, deciding, acting. Recent trends in the field of what we are calling Artificial Intelligence, brought along new ways of expressing will and declarations – as an electronic behaviour that exteriorizes the content of a certain autonomous will. This leads us to a urgent need of rethinking many legal theories that we had since long ago already thought as definitely established, such as the theories of will, personality, consent and representation. In this paper we will question legal relations involving Intelligent Electronic Agents

Software agents and contracts

In the current economical context, characterized by the existence of a global society, the access to information is crucial for any economical and social development; yet, important technological challenges still remain. The representation, maintenance, and querying of information is a central part of this problem. How can we obtain the adequate information at the adequate time? How can we supply the correct items for the correct people at the correct time? How and where can we get the relevant information for a good decision-making? The organizations focus their competences in strategical areas and have recourse to external supplies, cooperating with sporadic partners, with the objective of reducing costs, risks, and technological faults or maximizing benefits and business opportunities. One of the most radical and spectacular changes is the information dematerialization, the procedure automation, the recourse to decision support systems or intelligent systems, and to new forms of celebrating contracts (e.g., is it possible to practice commercial acts and celebrate deals using autonomous and pro-active computational agents?). The virtual organizations face new challenges and there must be a search for new answers to old questions. The negotiation processes through electronic means and the e-commerce platforms may set new forms of contracts, with engagements and negotiations among virtual entities

Defects of the will in software agents contracting

The use of intelligent software agents brings along a lot of new issues in what contracting is concerned. Actually, to speak about contracts there must be two or more declarations of will, containing a consensual agreement, consisting of an offer and of an acceptance. But intelligent software agents operate in electronic commerce without any direct intervention of humans, and they have a control on their own actions and on their own inner state. So, legal difficulties obviously arise in such situations of contracting through the only intervention and interaction of autonomous intelligent systems. Thus being, the analysis of the process of formation of will and of issuing of declaration in electronic contracts negotiated (and eventually performed) by electronic software agents will be crucial to the development of intelligent inter-systemic electronic contracting. But, may the the rules of will defects be adapted to software agent contracting?Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Intelligent Agents and Legal Relations project (POCTI/JUR/57221/2004

Software agents as legal persons

The Law has long been recognizing that, besides natural persons, other entities socially engaged must also be subject of rights and obligations. Western laws usually recognize Corporate Bodies as having legal personality and capacity for every right and obligation needed or convenient to the prosecution of its social goals. But can we foresee a similar attribution of such a regime to software agents? In other words, are intelligent software agents capable of being personified? One of the main characteristics of a personality is the existence of a physical being or organization provided with its own will. In that sense, intelligent software agents are quite close to human beings. Indeed, they have a physical existence, and they have the capability of learning and of having a will of their own

Legal security and credibility in agent based virtual enterprises

Recent trends in the field of Artificial Intelligence, brought along new ways of formalizing and expressing wills and declarations. Its application to Virtual Enterprises requires an analysis of the interactions among agents, frameworks and users, as well as technical and legal analysis, in order to discover the rules to be applied, to solve a particular problem under a prospective scenario. Credibility, trust and security issues must be taken under consideration, especially concerning authenticity, confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation. In order to increase the use of agents in Virtual Enterprises, besides the analysis and research of legal solutions in the commercial arena, it is essential to assure that agents will meet requirements of credibility and trust, insuring a transparent and secure way for their commercial acting, now capable of generating legal relations. This paper shows how to construct a dynamic virtual world of complex and interacting entities or agents, in which fitness is judged by a quality of information criterion

Formal models in web based contracting

Legal principles have some difficulty to deal with software agents celebrating contracts and operating in e-commerce environments without direct human intervention. Autonomous intelligent agents have a control on their own actions and states, supporting or taking effective decisions. Therefore, some qualitative parameters such as trust, reputation and quality of information have to be taken under consideration to evaluate, certify and justify such decisions. Indeed, this paper shows how to construct a dynamic virtual world of complex and interacting entities or agents, organized in terms of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), that compete against one another in order to solve a particular problem, according to a rigorous selection regime in which its fitness is judged by one criterion alone, a measure of the quality of information of the agent or agents, here understood as evolutionary logic theories. This virtual world could witness the emergence of our first learning, thinking machines, that may cater for some issues on the evolution of formal models of the world in general, and on what is concerned with the objectives set to this work, in contracting, and foray into a vast, untapped technological market.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Intelligent Agents and Legal Relations Project – POCTI/ JUR/57221/2004

Corporate behavior: an exploratory study of the Brazilian tax management from a corporate social responsibility perspective

A look into the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reveals few studies focusing on the relationship between ethical concerns and corporate behavior of companies that perform tax evasion management. This study links tax management with ethics and CSR reporting. The purpose of this article is to analyze financial and social responsibility information disclosed by the five main Brazilian construction companies that are being investigated in Brazil’s Operation Car Wash (Operação Lava-Jato—in Portuguese) because of inappropriate behavior. Based on the theoretical concepts of organizational façades and organized hypocrisy, we used content-analysis methodology and lexical search approach to analyze the consistency between the practices of tax management and CSR reporting. The results reveal evidence of aggressive tax management. To meet its tax management objectives, a company usually manages and plans taxes accordingly, delaying the payment of tax debt and not reporting all tax risks, thus being fined for violations of the law. We found evidence of organized hypocrisy and organizational façades, since there are contradictions between the tax behavior of the investigated companies and their CSR and ethical discourse.This paper was financed by National Funds of the FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project “UIDB/03182/2020”

Conflict resolution in virtual locations

The growing use of telematic ways of communication and of the new developments of Artificial Intelligence, brought along new ways of doing business, now in an electronic format, and requiring a new legal approach. Thus, there is an obvious need for legal changes and adaptations, not only concerning a new approach of traditional legal institutes, but also concerning a need for new developments in procedural means. Transactions are now undertaken in fractions of seconds, through the telematic networks, requiring more efficient ways for solving conflicts; on the other hand, the fact that we must now consider commercial transactions totally undertaken within an electronic environment (“online transactions”) leads to an obligation of rethinking the ways of solving disputes, that will inevitably arise from electronic commerce. It is an important change already taking place, pointing out to various ways of alternative dispute resolution and, among all these ways, letting us already perceive different possibilities of using the new technologies in order to reach faster and more efficient ways (still also “fair”) of solving commercial disputes. It is a whole new evolution towards a growing use not only alternative dispute resolution, but also, towards the so-called on-line dispute resolution.The work described in this paper is included in TIARAC - Telematics and Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Conflict Resolution Project (PTDC/JUR/71354/2006), which is a research project supported by FCT (Science & Technology Foundation), Portugal

Retrieving Information in online dispute resolution platforms : a hybrid method

Information Retrieval is a theme that is so multifaceted as it is its significance to any knowledge-based sphere of influence. This is true in The Law, especially when we judge under the angle of the so-called On-line Dispute Resolution. Indeed, there is the need to analyze and develop efficient information retrieval methods that may improve the course of actions that depend on such techniques. It was under this line of thought that we look at two different methods for information retrieval, and then strengthen its advantages into a third one. The results of this effort are now being applied in UMCourt, an Online Dispute Resolution platform that helps disputant parties and software agents to interact and make their decisions.The work described in this paper is included in TIARAC - Telematics and Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Conflict Resolution Project (PTDC/JUR/71354/2006), which is a research project supported by FCT (Science & Technology Foundation), Portugal

Using mediation to solve disputes with avoiding parties

In virtually every environment there is the chance that, sooner or later, a dispute will arise. Disputes can take place in the most different scenarios and concern the most different subjects. With the advent of the telecommunication technologies, disputes also started to take place in virtual environments. In order to settle these new disputes, Online Dispute Resolution tools started to emerge. In this paper we present one of such tools, aimed at supporting mediation between two or more parties. Specifically, this tool looks at past known mediation processes and tries to guide the process into a successful outcome. It targets scenarios in which one or more party exhibits avoiding or uncooperative conflict styles, i.e., the party cannot or is not willing to generate valid proposals for dispute resolution.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - TIARAC - Telematics and Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Conflict Resolution Project (PTDC/JUR/71354/2006