We present a knowledge representation framework with an associated run-time support infrastructure that is able to compute, for the benefit of the members of a norm-governed multi-agent system, physically possible and/or permitted actions current at each time, as well as sanctions that should be applied to violations of prohibitions. Experimental results on a benchmark scenario indicate how by ...

Excise taxes on sugary beverages have been proposed as a method to replicate the public health success of tobacco control and to generate revenue. As policymakers increase efforts to pass sugary beverage taxes, they can anticipate that manufacturers will emulate the strategies employed by tobacco companies in their attempts to counteract the impact of such taxes. Policymakers should therefore c...

The article surveys the changing risk environment for corporations from their employees’ electronic communications. It identifies the types of liabilities that corporations can incur from such employee communications. It discusses the objectives of corporate internet use policies and the types of provisions such policies should contain. It suggests an alternative risk-based approach to corporat...

This paper presents ongoing work in the definition of a contracting language, which can be used not only to specify agreed behaviour in service-oriented architectures but also for agentmediated systems. The contract clauses are based in deontic notions such as obligations, permissions and prohibitions. The language not only covers the contract document itself but several layers of communication...

With the explosion of connected devices to automate tasks, manually governing interactions among such devices—and associated services—has become an impossible task. This is because devices have their own obligations and prohibitions in context, and humans are not equipped to maintain a bird’s-eye-view of the environment. Motivated by this observation, in this paper, we present an ontology-based...

This Article attempts to untangle Jewish law regarding assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), namely artificial insemination with husband’s sperm, artificial insemination with donor sperm, and in vitro fertilization. The author examines teachings by prominent Jewish law scholars and clarifies basic schools of thought regarding each method. He explores Jewish law prohibitions on incest and a...

Senator Pete Stark, sponsor of the Physician Self-Referral Law, was recently quoted as saying he wished he had never sponsored the law due to its now complex requirements and iterations imposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The new Stark II Phase III rules further muddy the waters. This article reviews the basic Stark prohibitions and provides an overview of Stark II Phase III.

In the framework of a geographic application displaying maps, there are several solutions for protecting a sensitive object. Sensitive objects can be hidden, masked, blurred or even replaced by fake objects. In this paper we suggest a framework to specify protection mechanisms to enforce whenever a prohibition is derived from the security policy. This framework includes (i) logical rules allowi...

Naive set theory is the typical background or foundation for constructing more complicated structures, in a century-old tradition. The modifier naive denotes an informal and non-axiomatic treatment, in contrast to versions of set theory specifically aimed at preventing paradoxes by limiting constructions. Part of the set theory tradition demands that any mathematical discussion be compatible wi...

This article deals with the interrelation of deontic operators in contracts – an aspect often neglected when considering only one of the involved parties. On top of an automata-based semantics we formalise the onuses that obligations, permissions and prohibitions on one party impose on the other. Such formalisation allows for a clean notion of contract strictness and a derived notion of contrac...