Abstract
Electronic institutions are software frameworks integrating normative environments where agents interact to create mutual commitments. Contracts are formalizations of business commitments among a group of agents, and comprise a set of applicable norms. An electronic institution acts as a trusted third-party that monitors contract compliance, by integrating in its normative environment the contractual norms, which are applicable to the set of contractual partners. In this paper we present and explore a contract model that facilitates contract establishment by taking advantage of an institutional normative background. Furthermore, the model is flexible enough to enable the expansion of the underlying normative framework, making it applicable to a wide range of contracting situations.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Arcos, J.L., Esteva, M., Noriega, P., Rodríguez-Aguilar, J.A., Sierra, C.: Environment engineering for multiagent systems. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 18, 191–204 (2005)
Artikis, A., Pitt, J., Sergot, M.: Animated specifications of computational societies. In: Castelfranchi, C., Johnson, W.L. (eds.) International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York 10036-5701, United States, Bologna, Italy, pp. 1053–1062 (2002)
Boella, G., van der Torre, L.: Contracts as Legal Institutions in Organizations of Autonomous Agents. In: Jennings, N.R., Sierra, C., Sonenberg, L., Tambe, M. (eds.) Third International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents & Multi Agent Systems, pp. 948–955. ACM Press, New York (2004)
Castelfranchi, C.: Engineering Social Order. In: Omicini, A., Tolksdorf, R., Zambonelli, F. (eds.) ESAW 2000. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 1972, pp. 1–18. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)
Craswell, R.: Contract Law: General Theories. In: Bouckaert, B., De Geest, G. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, pp. 1–24. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham (2000)
Daskalopulu, A., Maibaum, T.: Towards Electronic Contract Performance. In: 12th International Conference and Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications, pp. 771–777. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (2001)
Dignum, F., Broersen, J., Dignum, V., Meyer, J.-J.: Meeting the deadline: Why, when and how. In: Hinchey, M.G., Rash, J.L., Truszkowski, W.F., Rouff, C.A. (eds.) FAABS 2004. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3228, pp. 30–40. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Dignum, V., Meyer, J.-J.C., Dignum, F., Weigand, H.: Formal Specification of Interaction in Agent Societies. In: Hinchey, M.G., Rash, J.L., Truszkowski, W.F., Rouff, C.A., Gordon-Spears, D.F. (eds.) FAABS 2002. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2699, pp. 37–52. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Fornara, N., Viganò, F., Colombetti, M.: Agent Communication and Institutional Reality. In: van Eijk, R.M., Huget, M.-P., Dignum, F.P.M. (eds.) AC 2004. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3396, pp. 1–17. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Friedman-Hill, E.: Jess in Action, Manning Publications Co. (2003)
García-Camino, A., Rodríguez-Aguilar, J.A., Sierra, C., Vasconcelos, W.: Norm-Oriented Programming of Electronic Institutions: A Rule-Based Approach. In: Noriega, P., Vázquez-Salceda, J., Boella, G., Boissier, O., Dignum, V., Fornara, N., Matson, E. (eds.) COIN 2006. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4386, pp. 177–193. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Jones, A., Sergot, M.: A Formal Characterisation of Institutionalised Power. Logic Journal of the IGPL 4, 427–443 (1996)
Lopes Cardoso, H., Oliveira, E.: Electronic Institutions for B2B: Dynamic Normative Environments, Artificial Intelligence and Law (in press)
Lopes Cardoso, H., Oliveira, E.: Virtual Enterprise Normative Framework within Electronic Institutions. In: Gleizes, M.-P., Omicini, A., Zambonelli, F. (eds.) ESAW 2004. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3451, pp. 14–32. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Searle, J.R.: The Construction of Social Reality. Free Press, New York (1995)
Vázquez-Salceda, J., Aldewereld, H., Dignum, F.: Implementing norms in multiagent systems. In: Lindemann, G., Denzinger, J., Timm, I.J., Unland, R. (eds.) MATES 2004. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3187, pp. 313–327. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Weyns, D., Omicini, A., Odell, J.: Environment as a first class abstraction in multiagent systems. Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 14, 5–30 (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lopes Cardoso, H., Oliveira, E. (2008). A Contract Model for Electronic Institutions. In: Sichman, J.S., Padget, J., Ossowski, S., Noriega, P. (eds) Coordination, Organizations, Institutions, and Norms in Agent Systems III. COIN 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4870. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79003-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79003-7_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-79002-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-79003-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)