Strata of intervenient concepts in normative systems

Abstract

Writing a contract of a specific content is a ground for purchase, purchase is a ground for ownership, ownership is a ground for power to dispose. Also power to dispose is a consequence of ownership, ownership is a consequence of purchase. etc. The paper presents a continuation of the authors' previous algebraic representation on ground - consequence chains in normative systems.The paper analyzes different kinds of "implicative closeness" between grounds and consequences in chains of legal concepts, in particular combinations of "weakest ground", "strongest consequence" and "minimal joining". The idea of a concept's being intermediate between concepts of two different sorts is captured by the technical notion of "intervenient", defined in terms of weakest ground and strongest consequence. A legal example concerning grounds and consequences of "ownership" and "trust" is used to illustrate the application of the formal theory. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.