Guido Governatori and Rotolo Antonino.
Justice delayed is justice denied: Logics for a temporal account of reparations and legal compliance. In João Leite, Paolo Torroni, Thomas Ågotnes, Guido Boella, and Leon van der Torre, editors, CLIMA XII, 12th International Workshop on Computational Logic and Multi-Agent Sytems, number LNCS. Springer, 2011, Copyrigth © 2011 Springer.
Abstract: In this paper we extend the logic of violation proposed by Governatori and Rotolo with time, more precisely, we temporalise that logic. The resulting system allows us to capture many subtleties of the concept of legal compliance. In particular, the formal characterisation of compliance can handle different types of legal obligation and different temporal constraints over them. The logic is also able to represent, and reason about, chains of reparative obligations, since in many cases the fulfillment of these types of obligation still amount to legally acceptable situations.
 
Guido Governatori.
On the relationship between Carneades and defeasible logic. In Tom van Engers, editor, Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL 2011). ACM Press, 2011. Copyrigth © 2011 ACM Press.
Abstract: We study the formal relationships between the inferential aspects of Carneades (a general argumentation framework) and Defeasible Logic. The outcome of the investigation is that the current proof standards proposed in the Carneades framework correspond to some variants of Defeasible Logic.
 
Monica Palmirani, Guido Governatori, and Contissa Giuseppe.
Modelling temporal legal rules. In Tom van Engers, editor, Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL 2011). ACM Press, 2011. Copyrigth © 2011 ACM Press.
Abstract: Legal reasoning involves multiple temporal dimensions but the existing state of the art of legal representation languages does not allow us to easily combine expressiveness, performance and legal reasoning requirements. Moreover we also aim at the combination of legal temporal reasoning with the defeasible logic approach, maintaining a computable complexity. The contribution of this work is to extend LKIF-rules with temporal dimensions and defeasible tools, extending our previous work.
 
Ho-Pun Lam and Guido Governatori.
What are the necessity rules in defeasible reasoning?. In James Delgrande and Wolfgang Faber, editors, 11th International Conference on Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning (LPNMAR 2011), Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, 2011. Copyrigth © 2011 Springer.
Abstract: This paper investigates a new approach for computing the inference of defeasible logic. The algorithm proposed can substantially reduced the theory size increase due to transformations while preserving the representation properties in different variants of DL. Experiments also show that our algorithm outperform traditional approach by several order of amplitudes.
 
Ho-Pun Lam and Guido Governatori.
Towards a model of UAVs navigation in urban canyon through defeasible logic. Journal of Logic and Computation, 2011.
Abstract: This paper shows how a non-monotonic rule based system (defeasible logic) can be integrated with numerical computation engines, and how this can be applied to solve the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). To this end, we have simulated a physical system from which we can obtain numerical information. The physical system perceives information from its environment and generates predicates that can be reasoned by a defeasible logic engine. The conclusions/decisions derived will then realized by the physical system as it takes actions based on the conclusion derived. Here we consider a scenario where a ``flock'' of UAVs have to navigate within an urban canyon environment. The UAVs are self-autonomous without centralized control. The goal of the UAVs is to navigate to their desired destinations without colliding with each other. In case of possible collision, the UAVs concerned will communicate with each other and use their background knowledge or travel guidelines to resolve the conflicts.
 
Guido Governatori and Giovanni Sartor.
Burdens of proof in monological argumentation. In Radboud Winkels, editor, Legal Knowledge and Information Systems JURIX 2010: The Twenty-Third Annual Conference, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, Amsterdam, 2010. IOS Press.
Abstract: We shall argue that burdens of proof are relevant also to monological reasoning, i.e., for deriving the conclusions of a knowledge-base allowing for conflicting arguments. Reasoning with burdens of proof can provide a useful extension of current argument-based non-monotonic logics, at least a different perspective on them. Firstly we shall provide an objective characterisation of burdens of proof, assuming that burdens concerns rule antecedents (literals in the body of rules), rather than agents. Secondly, we shall analyse the conditions for a burden to be satisfied, by considering credulous or skeptical derivability of the concerned antecedent or of its complement. Finally, we shall develop a method for developing inferences out of a knowledge base merging rules and proof burdens in the framework of defeasible logic.
 
Monica Palmirani, Guido Governatori, and Giuseppe Contissa.
Temporal dimensions in rules modelling. In Radboud Winkels, editor, Legal Knowledge and Information Systems JURIX 2010: The Twenty-Third Annual Conference, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, Amsterdam, 2010. IOS Press.
Abstract: Typically legal reasoning involves multiple temporal dimensions. The contribution of this work is to extend LKIF-rules (LKIF is a proposed mark-up language designed for legal documents and legal knowledge in ESTRELLA Project [3]) with temporal dimensions. We propose an XML-schema to model the various aspects of the temporal dimensions in legal domain, and we discuss the design choices. We illustrate the use of the temporal dimensions in rules with the help of real life examples.
 
Insu Song, Guido Governatori, and Joachim Diederich.
Automatic synthesis of reactive agents. In 11th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision, ICARCV 2010. IEEE Press, December 7-10 2010. Copyrigth © 2010 IEEE.
Abstract: This paper introduces a new approach to designing smart control chips that enables automatic synthesis of real-time control systems from agent specifications. An agent specification is compiled into a hardware description format, such as RTL-VHDL (Register Transfer Level--VLSI Hardware Description Language) or RTL Verilog, which is synthesized using computer-assisted tools to develop ASIC masks or FPGA configurations. A rule-based specification language called Layered Argumentation System (LAS) is defined and a sound and complete mapping to Verilog is developed. LAS combines fuzzy reasoning and non-monotonic reasoning. This enables chip designers to capture commonsense knowledge and concepts having varying degrees of confidence collaboratively and incrementally.
 
Guido Governatori.
A logic framework of normative-based contract management. In Satoshi Tojo, editor, Fourth International Workshop on Juris-informatics (JURISIN 2010), November 18-19 2010.
Abstract: In this paper an extended Defeasible Logic framework is presented to do the representation and reasoning work for the normative-based contract management. A simple case based on FIDIC is followed as the usage example. This paper is based on the idea that normative concepts and normative rules should play the decisive roles in the normative-based contract management. Those normative concepts and rules are based on the normative literals and operators like action, obligation, permission and violation. The normative reduction is based on the normative concepts, normative connections and normative rules, especially on the superiority relation over the defeasible rules.
 
Guido Governatori.
Law, logic and business processes. In Third International Workshop on Requirements Engineering and Law. IEEE, 2010, Copyrigth © 2010 IEEE.
Abstract: Since its inception one of the aims of legal informatics has been to provide tools to support and improve the day to day activities of legal and normative practice and a better understanding of legal reasoning. The internet revolutions, where more and more daily activities are routinely performed with the support of ITC tools, offers new opportunities to legal informatics. We argue that the current technology begins to be mature enough to embrace in the challenge to make intelligent ICT support widespread in the legal and normative domain. In this paper we examine a logical model to encode norms and we use the formalisation of relevant law and regulations for regulatory compliance for business processes.
 
Guido Governatori and Renato Iannella.
A modelling and reasoning framework for social networks policies. Enterprise Information Systems, 2010 Copyrigth © 2010 Taylor & Francis.
Abstract: Policy languages (such as privacy and rights) have had little impact on the wider community. Now that Social Networks have taken off, the need to revisit Policy languages and realign them towards Social Networks requirements has become more apparent. One such language is explored as to its applicability to the Social Networks masses. We also argue that policy languages alone are not sufficient and thus they should be paired with reasoning mechanisms to provide precise and unambiguous execution models of the policies. To this end we propose a computationally oriented model to represent, reason with and execute policies for Social Networks.