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Specifying and Enforcing Norms in Artificial Institutions

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Book cover Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies VI (DALT 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 5397))

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Abstract

In this paper we investigate two related aspects of the formalization of open interaction systems: how to specify norms, and how to enforce them by means of sanctions. The problem of specifying the sanctions associated with the violation of norms is crucial in an open system because, given that the compliance of autonomous agents to obligations and prohibitions cannot be taken for granted, norm enforcement is necessary to constrain the possible evolutions of the system, thus obtaining a degree of predictability that makes it rational for agents to interact with the system. In our model, we introduce a construct for the definition of norms in the design of artificial institutions, expressed in terms of roles and event times, which, when certain activating events take place, is transformed into commitments of the agents playing certain roles. Norms also specify different types of sanctions associated with their violation. In the paper, we analyze the concept of sanction in detail and propose a mechanism through which sanctions can be applied.

Supported by the Hasler Foundation project number 2204 title “Artificial institutions: specification of open distributed interaction systems”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università della Svizzera italiana, via G. Buffi 13, 6900, Lugano, Switzerland

    Nicoletta Fornara & Marco Colombetti

  2. Politecnico di Milano, piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32, Milano, Italy

    Marco Colombetti

Authors
  1. Nicoletta Fornara
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  2. Marco Colombetti
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, Università di Torino, Via Pessinetto 12, 10149, Turin, Italy

    Matteo Baldoni

  2. Department of Computer Science, New Mexico State University, MSC CS, Las Cruces, P.O. Box 30001, NM 88003, USA

    Tran Cao Son

  3. Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands

    M. Birna van Riemsdijk

  4. Higher Education Development Centre, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Michael Winikoff

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Fornara, N., Colombetti, M. (2009). Specifying and Enforcing Norms in Artificial Institutions. In: Baldoni, M., Son, T.C., van Riemsdijk, M.B., Winikoff, M. (eds) Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies VI. DALT 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5397. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-93920-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-93920-7_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-93919-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-93920-7

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