Re: [legalruleml] Version Control Commit by taraathan

[Tara Athan <taraathan@gmail.com>]

Hi, all. I've been trying to incite some discussion on the skype chat, 
but got no takers. I'll embed and extend my skype comments here, for the 
record and for the agenda of the next meeting.

I've just posted the Glossary document in the repo, and I have been 
going through it and the RDFS schemas while preparing my slides on the 
metamodel. The definitions in the Glossary don't all make sense to me, 
especially when considered as the basis of a taxonomy, as embodied in 
the metamodel. Here are some particular questions.

[7/5/13 6:41:15 PM] Tara Athan: In the Glossary, we define Authority as 
"any body with the power to create, endorse, or enforce legal norms" but 
we don't say what a "body" is. Would it be correct to replace "body" 
with the generic "entity", or is there some implicit restriction 
associated with "body"?

[7/5/13 6:48:45 PM] Tara Athan: Regarding "AuxiliaryParty - a entity in 
addition to the bearer of a deontic specification", isn't this a role? 
It is a different kind of role than the metadata <lrml:Role>, but 
nevertheless it is not an essential characteristic of an entity, but is 
a part that some entity plays (i.e. a role that it fills) relative to a 
particular deontic specification, for some time period that is a part, 
typically not the entirety, of its history.

Suggestion:

Bearer - a role of a deontic specification filled by the entity to which 
the specification is primarily directed
AuxiliaryParty - a role of a deontic specification filled by entities to 
which the specification is related, but not primarily directed
[7/5/13 7:12:06 PM] Tara Athan: "Compliance - a situation …"  - is there 
a neutral concept of "situation" that I could reference in the 
metamodel, or would this be better left as a subclass of "Thing"?
[7/5/13 7:46:29 PM] Tara Athan: Bearer - a role *in* a deontic 
specification filled by the entity to which the specification is 
primarily directed
AuxiliaryParty - a role *in* a deontic specification filled by entities 
to which the specification is related, but not primarily directed
[7/5/13 8:00:43 PM] Tara Athan: "LegalSource - Any source of legal norms 
represented in any format."
I don't understand this definition as written.

As we've constructed the syntax, Isn't the legal norm (playing the role 
of) a source, and if so, in relation to what (a LegalRuleML text)?

But this definition gives the impression that the legal norm *has* the 
source (from "source of legal norms" --> the source belongs to the legal 
norm, the legal norm has the source)

Some other suggestions, beyond what was in the Skype chat

FactualStatement - a statement that expresses a fact.
This wording helps our taxonomy - it tells us what FactualStatement is a 
subclass of - Statement. One question for clarification - is there any 
distinction between "legal" factual statements and those that do not 
have legal status? If a factual statement is formalized in LegalRuleML, 
can it be assumed to have legal status?

Regarding the glossary entry for lrml:Context, I believe we discussed 
earlier the idea that

{Text} + {Context} = {Rule}

However, this is not reflected in the Glossary definition.
Also the Glossary definition gives an impression, to me, that a context 
is only applicable to a single text.

Suggestion:

Original
Context - a context or legal interpretation that applies associations of 
the proper author, authorities, jurisdiction, source, and other 
characteristics to a rule and/or to parts of a rule.
-->
Context - a context or legal interpretation that may apply associations 
of the proper author, authorities, jurisdiction, source, and other 
characteristics to texts and/or to parts of texts, and through this 
application, generate rules.

Question: is there ever a case when a context is modular - that certain 
characteristics are specified in one block, other characteristics in 
another, and the rule is generated by the application of both? 
Alternately, can a context "import" another context, perhaps through the 
key/keyref mechanism?

Tara