Abstract
A normative statement (or norm) is one whichshould hold orusually holds, as opposed to ordinary statements whichactually oralways hold. The need for normative statements in computer science specifications is described, and different kinds of norms that can occur in an action-based system are classified. A language and logic for expressing such norms is described, We show that it allows the specifier to reason about the system's behaviour even when it fails to satisfy the norms. The logic used is based on Modal Action Logic [6,4,7,11], and has two additions for expressing norms. The first of these additions is the use ofdeontic axioms. The second is the use of an ordering between axioms of a specification to stipulate priorities. Such orderings of axioms are calledordered theory presentations. We show that they arise naturally fromstructured specifications.
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The author acknowledges support of the British Science and Engineering Research Council on theForest project.
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Ryan, M. Towards specifying norms. Ann Math Artif Intell 9, 49–67 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531261
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531261