A Petri Net-Based Notation for Normative Modeling: Evaluation on Deontic Paradoxes

Abstract

Developing systems operating in alignment with norms is not a straightforward endeavour. Part of the problems derive from the suggestion that law concerns a system of norms, which, in abstract, in a fixed point in time, could be approached and expressed atemporally, but, when it is contextualized and applied, it deals with a continuous flow of events modifying the normative directives as well. The paper presents an alternative approach to some of these problems, exemplified by well-known deontic puzzles, by extending the Petri net notation, most common in process modeling, to Logic Programming Petri Nets. The resulting visual formalism represents in a integrated, yet distinct fashion, procedural and declarative aspects of the system under study, including normative ones.