Abstract We revise our logic for contrary-to-duty (CTD) conditionals, showing how to adjust our logical models in such a way as to avoid the counterintuitive results pointed out by Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen, but keep the main results that support our logical analysis of CTD scenarios.

EQUALS is the legal decision support component of a larger project to support individuals with mental health problems in employment or seeking employment. The decision-aid uses an interactive interview session to generate legal advice for its user. The EQUALS decision-aid was subjected to two rounds of user acceptance testing (UAT), with the assistance of domain experts. This paper discusses results from the UAT, based on which the potential and feasibility of legal decision aids are discussed.

Journal Article Completeness and decidability results for a logic of contrary-to-duty conditionals Get access José M. C. L. M. Carmo, José M. C. L. M. Carmo Centre of Exact Sciences and Engineering, University of Madeira, Campus Universitario da Penteada, 9020-105 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Andrew J. I. Jones Andrew J. I. Jones Department of Informatics, King's College London Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Logic and Computation, Volume 23, Issue 3, June 2013, Pages 585–626, https://doi.org/10.1093/logcom/exs009 Published: 25 April 2012 Article history Received: 01 September 2011 Published: 25 April 2012

Increasingly, software engineering involvesopensystems consisting of autonomous and heterogeneous participants oragentswho carry out loosely coupled interactions. Accordingly, understanding and specifying communications among agents is a key concern. A focus on ways to formalizemeaningdistinguishes agent communication from traditional distributed computing: meaning provides a basis for flexible interactions and compliance checking. Over the years, a number of approaches have emerged with some essential and some irrelevant distinctions drawn among them. As agent abstractions gain increasing traction in the software engineering of open systems, it is important to resolve the irrelevant and highlight the essential distinctions, so that future research can be focused in the most productive directions. This article is an outcome of extensive discussions among agent communication researchers, aimed at taking stock of the field and at developing, criticizing, and refining their positions on specific approaches and future challenges. This article serves some important purposes, including identifying (1) points of broad consensus; (2) points where substantive differences remain; and (3) interesting directions of future work.