RuleML+RR 2019 Doctoral Consortium and Rule Challenge

Book published by CEUR-WS.org (2019)

Business Process Regulatory Compliance is Hard

in IEEE Transactions on Services Computing (2015), 8(6), 958-970

Verifying whether a business process is compliant with a regulatory framework is a difficult task. In the present paper we prove the hardness of the business process regulatory compliance problem by ... [more ▼]

Verifying whether a business process is compliant with a regulatory framework is a difficult task. In the present paper we prove the hardness of the business process regulatory compliance problem by taking into account a sub-problem of the general problem. This limited problem allows to verify only the compliance of structured processes with respect to a regulatory framework composed of a set of conditional obligations including a deadline. Experimental evidence from existing studies shows that compliance is a difficult task. In this paper, despite considering a sub-problem of the general problem, we provide some theoretical evidence of the difficulty of the task. In particular we show that the source of the complexity lies in the core language of verifying conditional obligations with a deadline. We prove that for this simplified case verifying partial compliance belongs to the class of NP-complete problems, and verifying full compliance belongs to the class of coNP-complete problems. Thus by proving the difficulty of a simplified compliance problem we prove that the general problem of verifying business process regulatory compliance is hard. [less ▲]

Detecting Deontic Conflicts in Dynamic Settings

in Cariani, Fabrizio; Grossi, Davide; Meheus, Joke (Eds.) et al Deontic Logic and Normative Systems 12th International Conference, DEON 2014, Ghent, Belgium, July 12-15, 2014. Proceedings (2014)

Regulations, through the use of obligations and permissions, are widely used in modern society to define acceptable behaviours. Thus it is indeed important that these regulations do not conflict with each ... [more ▼]

Regulations, through the use of obligations and permissions, are widely used in modern society to define acceptable behaviours. Thus it is indeed important that these regulations do not conflict with each other and contain contradicting obligations. In the present paper we focus on identifying conflicts between obligations in dynamic settings. We first show the need of an alternative semantics rather than the more classic modelled by standard deontic logic. Second we introduce a new semantics for the obligations capable of representing and reasoning about them in these dynamic settings, and lastly we use it to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions to identify conflicting obligations. [less ▲]

Towards an Abstract Framework for Compliance

in Bagheri, Ebrahim; Gasevic, Dragan; Halle, Sylvain (Eds.) et al Proceedings of the 17th IEEE International EDOC 2013 Conference Workshops, Vancouver, Canada, 9 September 2013. (2013, September 09)

The present paper aims at providing an abstract framework to define the regulatory compliance problem. In particular we show how the framework can be used to solve the problem of deciding whether a ... [more ▼]

The present paper aims at providing an abstract framework to define the regulatory compliance problem. In particular we show how the framework can be used to solve the problem of deciding whether a structured process is compliant with a single regulation, which is composed of a primary obligation and a chain of compensations. [less ▲]

Normative Multi-Agent Systems

in Dagstuhl Reports (2012), 2(3), 23-49

Normative systems are systems in the behavior of which norms play a role and which need normative concepts in order to be described or specified. A normative multi-agent system combines models for ... [more ▼]

Normative systems are systems in the behavior of which norms play a role and which need normative concepts in order to be described or specified. A normative multi-agent system combines models for normative systems (dealing for example with obligations, permissions and prohibitions) with models for multi-agent systems. Norms have been proposed in multi-agent systems and computer science to deal with issues of coordination, security, electronic commerce and institutions, agent organization. However, due to the lack of a unified theory, many multi-agent system researchers are presently developing their own ad hoc concepts and applications. The aim of this Dagstuhl Seminar was to formulate a collective appraisal of the current perspectives in the field and the most promising venues for future activity. In particular, the seminar has been conceived for the writing of a volume titled "A Prospective view of Normative Multi Agent Systems" aimed to become a standard reference in the field and to provide guidelines for future research in normative multi-agent systems. [less ▲]

Time and Defeasibility in FIPA ACL Semantics

in Proceedings of WLIAMAS 2008 (2008)

Inferences about speech acts are often conditional, nonmonotonic, and involve the issue of time. Most agent communication languages, however, ignore these issues, due to the difficulty to combine them in ... [more ▼]

Inferences about speech acts are often conditional, nonmonotonic, and involve the issue of time. Most agent communication languages, however, ignore these issues, due to the difficulty to combine them in a single formalism. This paper addresses such issues in defeasible logic, and shows how to express a semantics for ACLs in order to make nonmonotonic inferences on the basis of speech acts. [less ▲]