A Unified Logical Framework for Reasoning about Deontic Properties of Actions and States

This paper studies some normative relations that hold between actions, their preconditions and their effects, with particular attention to connecting what are often called ‘ought to be’ norms with ‘ought to do’ norms. We use a formal model based on a form of transition system called a ‘coloured labelled transition system’ (coloured LTS) introduced in a series of papers by Sergot and Craven. Those works have variously presented a formalism (an ‘action language’) nC+ for defining and computing with a (coloured) LTS, and another, separate formalism, a modal language interpreted on a (coloured) LTS used to express its properties. We consolidate these two strands. Instead of specifying the obligatory and prohibited states and transitions as part of the construction of a coloured LTS as in nC+, we represent norms in the modal language and use those to construct a coloured LTS from a given regular (uncoloured) one. We also show how connections between norms on states and norms on transitions previously treated as fixed constraints of a coloured LTS can instead be defined within the modal language used for representing norms

On the Characterisation of Law and Computer Systems: The Normative Systems Perspective

this paper was to address the role of deontic logic in legal knowledge representation. However, we now feel that this question cannot, and should not, be divorced from consideration of a much broader set of questions concerning th

A tableux system for Deontic Interpreted Systems

We develop a labelled tableaux system for the modal logic KD45 extended with epistemic notions. This logic characterises a particular type of interpreted systems used to represent and reason about states of correct and incorrect functioning behaviour of the agents in a system, and of the system as a whole

Formalising Workflow: A CCS-inspired Characterisation of the YAWL Workflow Patterns

We present work concerning the formal specification of business processes. It is of substantial benefit to be able to pin down the meaning of business processes precisely. This is an end in itself, but we are also concerned to do so in order that we might prove properties about the business processes that are being specified. It is a notable characteristic of most languages for representing business processes that they lack a robust semantics, and a notable characteristic of most commercial Business Process Management products that they have no support for verification of business process models. We define a high-level meta-model, called Liesbet, for representing business processes. The ontological commitments for Liesbet are sourced from the YAWL workflow patterns, which have been defined from studies into the behavioural nature of business processes. We underwrite the meta-model by giving it a machine language which has a mapping to a prioritised form of standard CCS. We present the Liesbet meta-model and its semantic characterisation in LCCS, explain how we have facilitated the verification of properties of business processes specified in Liesbet, and discuss how Liesbet supports the YAWL workflow patterns. We include a simple three-part example of using Liesbet

Using the Event Calculus for the Performance Monitoring of Service-Level Agreements for Utility Computing

The automated performance monitoring of contracts, in terms of tracking contract state, is an important issue investigated in this work. We define contract state to be the sum of the normative relations that hold between contract parties. In order to facilitate state tracking, we define an XML formalisation of the Event Calculus, ecXML. This language is used to describe how a contract’s state evolves, according to events that are described in the contract. The work is grounded in the domain of Utility Computing (UC). UC is concerned with the provisioning of computational resources (computepower, storage, network bandwidth), on a per-need basis, to corporate businesses. Service-level Agreements (SLAs)- contracts between a provider and a customer-are a sine qua non in the deployment of UC. 1