Lex minus dixit quam voluit, lex magis dixit quam voluit: A formal study on legal compliance and interpretation

Abstract

This paper argues in favour of the necessity of dynamically restricting and expanding the applicability of norms regulating computer systems like multiagent systems, in situations where the compliance to the norm does not achieve the purpose of the norm. We propose a logical framework which distinguishes between constitutive and regulative norms and captures the norm change power and at the same time the limitations of the judicial system in dynamically revising the set of constitutive rules defining the concepts on which the applicability of norms is based. In particular, the framework is used to reconstruct some interpretive arguments described in legal theory such as those corresponding to the Roman maxims lex minus dixit quam voluit and lex magis dixit quam voluit. The logical framework is based on an extension of defeasible logic. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.