Specifying and Enforcing Norms in Artificial Institutions: A Retrospective Review

In this short contribution we explain how our research has evolved from the publication of the following paper [2] with respect to its relevant aspects. This paper proposes a model of norms whose content is related to time, which are specified at design time and therefore are expressed in terms of roles played by the agents. Those norms have an activation event that is used to express the template of the events that when happen, provided that certain conditions hold, transform the norm in a social commitment. This dynamic evolution of norms is formalized by means of ECA-rules. Another relevant contribution is that the model of norms presented in this paper makes it possible to specify two types of sanctions for norms enforcement: active sanctions and passive sanctions. © 2012 Springer-Verlag