Clara Smith

Collective Trust and Normative Agents

In this paper we analyze the notion of collective trust within a multi-modal setting. We argue that collective trust is a scalable concept and therefore definable in qualitatively distinct levels or strengths. We show possible connections between different forms of group trust and the emergence of obligations within groups of agents. In particular, the notion of collective trust appears to be strong enough to entail forms of delegation that may have a deontic connotation: the trust a group puts in an agent’s performance of an action yields to the result that it becomes obligatory in the interest of the group that the agent performs this action.

Good faith in contract negotiation and performance

This paper provides a formal analysis of good faith in terms of a notion of satisfaction of given correctness rules. We consider the distinction between objective and subjective good faith, focusing on observable behaviour, the former, and on beliefs, the latter. The form given to the correctness rules will allow us to impose both positive and negative requirements to be fulfilled. This analysis is then incorporated into an extension of defeasible logic, in order to provide a computational framework to deal with the various versions of good faith previously discussed. Finally, we outline some formal connections between good faith and trust.

Combinations of normal and non-normal modal logics for modeling collective trust in normative MAS

We provide technical details for combining normal and a non-normal logics for the notion of collective trust. Such combinations lead to different levels of expressiveness of the system. We give a possible structure for a combined model checker for one of the logic resulting from such combinations.

Legal Responsibility for the Acts of Others: A Logical Analysis

This paper offers a logical analysis of two cases where legal responsibility may emerge for the acts of others: (a) reflex responsibility, and (b) responsibility in the negotiorum gestio doctrine. The current contribution works within a fresh multi-modal system where the new operators are introduced for denoting intentions and actions in the interest of other agents, and the objectively ideal sets of actions for agents.

A meta-level approach to the analysis of legal phenomena based on the key concept of reduction

In this paper we show how the alleged relationship between AI and Law exhibits an example of reductions of a relevant kind. We put forward a methodological approach, based on the key epistemological concept of reduction, to the understanding, explanation and conceptualisation of phenomena concerning legal systems. This approach is appropriate as a meta-analysis of what happens when we work, think and deal with the many several aspects of legal systems, not only from purist but also from pragmatic points of view. We introduce an epistemological vision of relevant Law-AI connections.

A Formal Lazy Replication Regime for Spreading Conversion Functions over Objectbases

This paper introduces a functional-flavored formalization of objectbase evolution processes. It also determines features of the failure equivalence concept between the two main approaches for the fulfillment of database conversions: immediate and lazy updates.