Agents and Norms

My interest in normative multi-agent systems and legal reasoning has also led me to study logical accounts of norms as applied to (human or artificial) agents. This includes the study of deontic logic, the logic of such modalities as 'obligatory', 'permitted' and 'forbidden'. Deontic logic has important applications in computer science, since computer systems, and their interaction with other systems and with humans can be regarded as norm-governed. (See the DEON workshops, e.g. DEON-2006.)

In [Prakken 1994] I explained my view on formalizing defeasible deontic reasoning: just combine any deontic logic you like with any nonmonotonic logic you like ... . With Marek Sergot I studied the logic of `contrary-to-duty obligations' (e.g. "You should keep your promises, but if you don't keep them, pay for damages caused"). Our point of departure was that such obligations should not be confused with defeasible or prima facie obligations, since contrary-to-duty obligations are not invalidated by violating them. See [Prakken & Sergot 1996] and [Prakken & Sergot 1997].

Associations, interest groups, resources ...

• The Deontic Logic Website, by Davide Grossi and Leon van der Torre.

Workshops and Conferences

• International Conference on Formal Ethics(Formal Ethics 2014), Rotterdam (The Netherlands), 30-31 May 2014.

• 12th International Conference on Deontic Logic (DEON 2014), Ghent (Belgium), 12-15 July 2014.

• International Workshops/Conferences on Deontic Logic in Computer Science (DEON): Amsterdam 1991, Oslo 1994, Sesimbra 1996, Bologna 1998, Toulouse 2000, London 2002, Madeira 2004, Utrecht 2006, Luxembourg 2008, Florence 2010, Bergen 2012.
• Symposium on Norms, Actions, Games (NAG 2014)
  London (UK), 21 April 2014.
• ECAI 2012 Workshop on Rights and Duties of Autonomous Agents
  Montpellier (France), 28 August 2012.
• 5th International Workshop on Normative Multiagent Systems (NorMAS 2010), Leicester, 29-30 March 2010.
• 3rd International Workshop on Normative Multiagent Systems (NorMAS 2008), Luxemburg, 15-16 July 2008.
• Workshop on Formal Models of Norm Change , Luxemburg, 29-30 November 2007.
• RUC_ILLC Workshop on Deontic Logic, Roskilde (Denmark), 8-9 November 2007.

Books and journals

• Donald Nute (ed.), Defeasible Deontic Logic.
  Abstracts of chapters. Publisher's information.
• Paul McNamara & Henry Prakken (eds.) Norms, Logics and Information Systems. New Studies in Deontic Logic and Computer Science. IOS Press, Amsterdam, 1999.
  [Contents] [Publisher's information]. Revised versions of selected papers from DEON '98.
  
• John. F. Horty, Agency and Deontic Logic. Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Sven Ove Hansson, The Structure of Values and Norms. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Researchers