Normative Multi-Agent Systems and Kelsenian Jurisprudence

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a collection of autonomous entities, called agents, that interact to fulfil the system’s intended behavior. When regulated by a collection of rules, also called norms, such a system is referred as a Normative MAS (NorMAS). The standard technique to reason on NorMAS uses Deontic Logic as underlying logic where norms becomes formulae in the associated theory. However, it is known to fail on the modeling of contrary-to-duty scenarios, also called deontic paradoxes, since the resulting theories turn out to be inconsistent. In this paper, we propose a new approach to reason on NorMAS, based on Intuitionistic Hybrid Logic (IHL) and Kelsenian Jurisprudence. Essentially, norms are represented as nominals in the associated IHL theory. We discuss normative conflict identification according to Hill’s functional taxonomy, that generalizes from standard identification by impossibility-of-jointcompliance test. Norm conflicts are resolved by norm precedence, naturally captured by the underlying Heyting algebra.