norm.owl
type: Ontology
version info: Partner contributions from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the University of Bologna (UNIBO). Editor: Rinke Hoekstra (UvA) Authors: Rinke Hoekstra (UvA), Alexander Boer (UvA), Kasper van den Berg (UvA) Contributors: Joost Breuker (UvA), Rosella Rubino (UNIBO)
version info: The LKIF-Core ontology, version 1.0, is part of Deliverable 1.4 of the European project for Standardised Transparent Representations in order to Extend Legal Accessibility (ESTRELLA, IST-2004-027665), http://www.estrellaproject.org The use of this ontology, and the OWL files through which it is distributed, is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html) in as far as the copyright is not covered by additional restrictions of the ESTRELLA consortium agreement (info@estrellaproject.org). The LGPL license places copyright restrictions on the ontology itself but does not apply these restrictions to software that merely links with concepts defined in the ontology library. Please read the license restrictions before using this work.
version info: LKIF Core, version 1.1, copyright (C) 2008, the ESTRELLA consortium
version info: This module is part of LKIF-Core, version 1.1, part of Deliverable 1.4 of ESTRELLA, IST-2004-027665
imports: legal-action.owl

Hohfeldian Power
type: Class
comment: A hohfeldian power covers any action which determines a legal effect.
subclass of: Potestative Expression

Potestative Expression
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Expression
comment: Attributes a power to some agent (for example “a worker has the power to terminate his work contract”);

Normatively Qualified
type: Class
subclass of: Qualified
equivalent class: Restriction
  some values from: Norm
  on property: qualified by
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: normatively comparable
  some values from: Normatively Qualified
comment: Some thing which is qualified (allowed, disallowed) by a norm, i.e. a norm applies to the thing. Taking the principle of deontic choice to mean that the utterer of a normative statement intends to influence choices made by the addressee of the statement, the qualified thing should is comparable to some alternative. Note that Qualified does not partition into Allowed and Disallowed. Firstly, things can be Allowed by one Norm and Disallowed by another one. Secondly, the logical complement of the thing allowed by a permission is qualified (as worse or equal than the thing allowed), but neither allowed nor disallowed.

Norm
type: Class
comment: A norm is a kind of Qualification. A qualification which normatively qualifies some thing (i.e. some normatively qualified): i.e. a qualification which allows or disallows some thing.
equivalent class: Restriction
  some values from: Normatively Qualified
  on property: qualifies
subclass of: Qualification

Code of Conduct
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Document
subclass of: Soft Law
comment: a code outlining the responsibilities of or best practice for an individual or organisation, such as a set of principles of good corporate behaviour adopted by a business\

Legal Document
type: Class
comment: A legal document is a document bearing norms or normative statements. By virtue of this definition the norm-as-propositional-attitude is reified as norm-as proposition. In other words, the norm being expressed through the legal source is an expression of the propositional attitude.
comment: Subclasses of legal source can be distinguished through the authority of the agent creating the expression (i.e. the agent holding the norm).
subclass of: Legal Source
subclass of: Document

Soft Law
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Source
comment: The term "soft law" refers to quasi-legal instruments which do not have any binding force, or whose binding force is somewhat "weaker" than the binding force of traditional law, often referred to as "hard law", in this context. The term "soft law" initially appeared in the area of international law, but more recently it has been transferred to other branches of law.

Regulation
type: Class
subclass of: Restriction
  some values from: Class
    intersection of: Norm
    intersection of: Restriction
      some values from: Legislative Body
      on property: utterer
  on property: bears
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: bears
  all values from: Restriction
    on property: utterer
    some values from: Legislative Body
subclass of: Legal Document
comment: A regulation bears one or more norms, all of which are uttered by some legislative body. It cannot bear expressions which are not uttered by a legislative body.

Legal Source
type: Class
comment: A legal source is a source for legal statements, both norms and legal expressions. In a sense it is literally a 'source' of law
equivalent class: Restriction
  some values from: Class
    union of: Norm
    union of: Legal Expression
  on property: bears
subclass of: Medium

Strictly Disallowed
type: Class
subclass of: Disallowed
comment: Loose end.

Disallowed
type: Class
subclass of: Normatively Qualified
comment: See Qualified. Alternative labels: violation, prohibited, forbidden
equivalent class: Restriction
  on property: disallowed by
  some values from: Prohibition
equivalent class: Restriction
  on property: normatively strictly better
  some values from: Allowed

Permissive Right
type: Class
subclass of: Right
comment: The negation of a directed obligation is a directed permission. However, it counts as a right, namely, a permissive right, only when such negation is aimed at benefitting the author of the permitted action.

Right
type: Class
subclass of: Norm
comment: A right is the legal or moral entitlement to do or refrain from doing something or to obtain or refrain from obtaining an action, thing or recogition in civil society.

Proclamation
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Source
comment: A proclamation (Lat. proclamare, to make public by announcement) is an official declaration.

Legal Expression
type: Class
subclass of: Restriction
  some values from: Restriction
    some values from: Public Act
    on property: created by
  on property: attitude
comment: Legal expressions are created by some legal speech act and qualified by a communicated attitude
subclass of: Expression

Qualificatory Expression
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Expression
comment: Ascribes a legal role to a person or an object (for example, “x is a citizen”, “x is an intellectual work”, “x is a technical invention”);

Enabling Power
type: Class
comment: An enabling power is used in cases where the law aims at enabling some agent to produce an effect in a particular way.
subclass of: Potestative Expression

Existential Expression
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Expression
comment: Establishes or terminates the existence of a legal entity (for example “the company ceases to exist”);

Persuasive Precedent
type: Class
subclass of: Precedent
comment: In law, a persuasive precedent or advisory precedent is a precedent that need not be followed under the legal principle of stare decisis, but is nevertheless followed. Sources of persuasive precedent include the obiter dicta in the judgment of a court whose judgment would otherwise be binding, and the judgments of courts in other jurisdictions where the facts and/or legal system are similar to the case at hand. If a superior court adopts a persuasive precedent, it may become binding in the jurisdiction.

Precedent
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Source
comment: In law, a precedent or authority is a legal case establishing a principle or rule that a court may need to adopt when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. The term may also refer to the collective body of case law that a court should consider when interpreting the law. When a precedent establishes an important legal principle, or represents new or changed law on a particular issue, that precedent is often known as a landmark decision.

Belief In Violation
type: Class
equivalent class: Class
  intersection of: Belief
  intersection of: Restriction
    some values from: Disallowed
    on property: towards
subclass of: Belief
comment: A belief in some violation

Decree
type: Class
subclass of: Proclamation
subclass of: Legal Document
comment: The word decree is often used as a derogative term for any authoritarian decision

Strictly Allowed
type: Class
comment: Loose end.
subclass of: Allowed

Allowed
type: Class
subclass of: Normatively Qualified
equivalent class: Restriction
  some values from: Normatively Qualified
  on property: normatively equivalent or worse
equivalent class: Restriction
  on property: allowed by
  some values from: Permission
comment: See normatively qualified. Alternative labels: permitted, sanctioned, let, licensed.

Legal Doctrine
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Source
comment: Legal doctrine is a framework, set of rules, procedural steps, or test, often established through precedent in the common law, through which judgments can be determined in a given legal cas

Resolution
type: Class
subclass of: International Agreement
subclass of: Soft Law
comment: A resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body. The substance of the resolution can be anything that can normally be proposed as a motion.

International Agreement
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Source
comment: An agreement entered into by actors in international law, namely states and international organizations.

Evaluative Expression
type: Class
subclass of: Evaluative Proposition
subclass of: Legal Expression
comment: A legal evaluative expression asserts that something is good or bad, is a value to be optimised or an evil to be minimised (for example “human dignity is value”, “participation ought to be promoted”);

Liberty Right
type: Class
subclass of: Right
comment: When, for the benefit of a person, this person is both permitted to perform and to omit an action – that is, when the action is facultative – we can say that he or she has a liberty right with regard to that action.

Declarative Power
type: Class
comment: A declarative power covers the case when an effect is produced through the party’s declaration of it
comment: We say that j has the declarative power to realize A to mean that if j declares A, then it is legally valid that A. For example, if x has the declarative power to terminate y’s obligation toward x to do then if x declares that y’s obligation toward x finishes, then it is legally valid that this obligation finishes.
subclass of: Potestative Expression

Contract
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Document
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: bears
  all values from: Restriction
    on property: utterer
    some values from: Class
      union of: Natural Person
      union of: Legal Person
subclass of: Restriction
  some values from: Class
    intersection of: Norm
    intersection of: Restriction
      some values from: Class
        union of: Natural Person
        union of: Legal Person
      on property: utterer
  on property: bears
comment: A contract bears one or more norms, all of which are uttered by some natural person or legal person. It cannot bear expressions which are uttered by a different kind of agent.

Custom
type: Class
subclass of: Medium
disjoint with: Document
comment: The collective memory of some group of agents, i.e. propositions beared by custom are shared (i.e. held) by all members of the group

Exclusionary Right
type: Class
subclass of: Obligative Right
comment: An exclusionary right concerns the prohibition against performing certain inferences (against reasoning in certain ways), or against using certain kinds of premises for certain purposes, in the interest of a particular person. This is especially the case with anti-discrimination rules.

Obligative Right
type: Class
subclass of: Right
comment: Directed obligative ought-to-do are also called obligative rights. k has the obligative right that j does A iff it is obligatory, toward k, that j does A. An example of obligative right is “it is obligatory, toward Mary, that Tom pays 1,000 euro to John”

Customary Law
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Source
subclass of: Custom
comment: In law, custom, or customary law consists of established patterns of behaviour that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting.

Action Power
type: Class
subclass of: Hohfeldian Power
comment: An action-power consists in a generic power to produce a legal effect through an action determining it. Also called Subjections

Statute
type: Class
subclass of: Restriction
  some values from: Class
    intersection of: Norm
    intersection of: Restriction
      some values from: Legal Person
      on property: utterer
  on property: bears
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: bears
  all values from: Restriction
    on property: utterer
    some values from: Legal Person
subclass of: Legal Document
comment: A statute bears one or more norms, all of which are uttered by some legal person. It cannot bear expressions which are uttered by a different kind of agent.

International Arbitration
type: Class
subclass of: Soft Law
comment: International Arbitration is the established method today for resolving disputes between parties to international commercial agreements. As with arbitration generally, it is a creature of contract, i.e., the parties' decision to submit any disputes to private adjudication by one or more arbitrators appointed in accordance with rules the parties themselves have agreed to adopt, usually by including a provision for the same in their contract. The practice of international arbitration has developed so as to allow parties from different legal and cultural backgrounds to resolve their disputes, generally without the formalities of their underlying legal systems.

Immunity
type: Class
subclass of: Hohfeldian Power
comment: Also called Disabilities

Treaty
type: Class
disjoint with: Non-binding International Agreement
subclass of: International Agreement
subclass of: Legal Document
comment: A treaty is a binding agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely states and international organizations. Treaties are called by several names: treaties, international agreements, protocols, covenants, conventions, exchanges of letters, exchanges of notes, etc.

Non-binding International Agreement
type: Class
disjoint with: Treaty
subclass of: International Agreement
subclass of: Soft Law
comment: Some international agreement that is not binding under international law

Mandatory Precedent
type: Class
subclass of: Precedent
comment: In law, a binding precedent (also mandatory precedent or binding authority) is a precedent which must be followed by all lower courts. It is usually created by the decision of a higher court, such as the House of Lords in the United Kingdom. Binding precedent relies on the legal principle of stare decisis.

Code
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Document
comment: A legal code bears one or more norms, all of which are uttered by some legislative body. It cannot bear expressions which are not uttered by a legislative body.
subclass of: Restriction
  some values from: Class
    intersection of: Norm
    intersection of: Restriction
      some values from: Legislative Body
      on property: utterer
  on property: bears
subclass of: Restriction
  on property: bears
  all values from: Restriction
    on property: utterer
    some values from: Legislative Body

allowed by
type: ObjectProperty
inverse of: allows
domain: Allowed
sub property of: qualified by
comment: Relates a qualified Allowed to the norm allowing it

Permission
type: Class
subclass of: Norm
equivalent class: Class
  intersection of: Restriction
    on property: allows
    some values from: Allowed
  intersection of: Restriction
    on property: allows
    all values from: Allowed
comment: Permission allows propositions, to which therefore the predication Allowed applies. The thing(s) allowed is/are a subset of the thing(s) qualified by the permission. If S then P(A) means that S is qualified and S and A is allowed.

Observation of Violation
type: Class
subclass of: Problem
comment: An observation of a violation, i.e. of something that is Disallowed.
equivalent class: Class
  intersection of: Observation
  intersection of: Restriction
    on property: played by
    some values from: Disallowed

Potestative Right
type: Class
subclass of: Enabling Power
comment: A potestative right is an enabling power which is meant to benefit the holder of the power. For example, if some animal y does not belong to anybody, then x has the potestative-right to start x’s ownership of the animal, by capturing y.

Allowed And Disallowed
type: Class
equivalent class: Class
  intersection of: Disallowed
  intersection of: Allowed
subclass of: Disallowed
subclass of: Allowed
comment: Something which is both allowed and disallowed through some norm

Obligation
type: Class
subclass of: Permission
equivalent class: Prohibition
comment: See prohibition

Prohibition
type: Class
subclass of: Permission
equivalent class: Class
  intersection of: Restriction
    on property: allows
    all values from: Obliged
  intersection of: Restriction
    on property: allows
    some values from: Obliged
  intersection of: Restriction
    on property: disallows
    all values from: Disallowed
  intersection of: Restriction
    on property: disallows
    some values from: Disallowed
comment: Prohibition obliges/allows thing(s), to which therefore the predication Obliged applies, and disallows thing(s), to which therefore the predication Disallowed applies. The union of the thing(s) allowed and the thing(s) disallowed is qualified by the prohibition. The things allowed and disallowed by the prohibition are disjoint (and completely partition the space of things qualified). If S then O(A) means that S is qualified, S and A is obliged/allowed, and S and not A is disallowed. If S then F(A) means that S is qualified, S and A is disallowed, and S and not A is obliged/allowed. The difference between Obligation and Prohibition is in which part of the partition of the qualified space is explicitly described by the normative statement. Alternative label: directive
equivalent class: Obligation

Disallowed Intention
type: Class
equivalent class: Class
  intersection of: Intention
  intersection of: Restriction
    some values from: Disallowed
    on property: towards
subclass of: Intention
comment: The propositional content (i.e. that which is intended) of the intention is disallowed. Interesting concept for establishing mens rea (guilty mind), although 'disallowed' is a weaker qualification than criminal. Note the distinction between purposely committing a crime and knowingly committing a crime. The crime committed does not have to match the crime intended for establishing intent!

allows
type: ObjectProperty
inverse of: allowed by
range: Allowed
sub property of: qualifies
comment: Relates a norm to the thing it allows

Liability Right
type: Class
subclass of: Right
comment: A liability right expresses some right to act that brings with it some liability to perform another (compensating) act. For instance, if some k performs the permitted action A, then k will have to perform another action B for the benefit of j.

Obliged
type: Class
subclass of: Allowed
comment: Is allowed by an Obligation, i.e. the alternative is strictly_worse according to the Obligation. Alternative labels: directed, commanded.
equivalent class: Restriction
  on property: allowed by
  some values from: Obligation
equivalent class: Restriction
  on property: normatively strictly worse
  some values from: Disallowed

Directive
type: Class
subclass of: Proclamation
subclass of: Legal Document
comment: Examples are European Union directive, a legislative act of the European Union and Directives, used by United States Government agencies (particularly the Department of Defense) to convey policies, responsibilities, and procedures.

disallowed by
type: ObjectProperty
inverse of: disallows
domain: Disallowed
sub property of: qualified by
comment: Relates a qualified Disallowed to the norm disallowing it

Definitional Expression
type: Class
subclass of: Legal Expression
comment: A definition in a legal context (for example “x means y” or “by x it is meant y”);

disallows
type: ObjectProperty
inverse of: disallowed by
range: Disallowed
sub property of: qualifies
comment: Relates a norm to the thing it disallows