Compliance checking in reified IO logic via SHACL

TL;DR

This paper introduces a methodology for compliance checking of reified I/O logic formulas by translating them into SHACL shapes and validating RDF graphs, enabling effective norm validation in natural language and legislative contexts.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to model and verify compliance of reified I/O logic formulas using SHACL shapes and RDF graph validation.

Findings

Effective translation of reified I/O logic into SHACL shapes

Successful validation of RDF graphs against compliance criteria

Enhanced modeling of natural language norms in legislative texts

Abstract

Reified Input/Output (I/O) logic[21] has been recently proposed to model real-world norms in terms of the logic in [11]. This is massively grounded on the notion of reification, and it has specifically designed to model meaning of natural language sentences, such as the ones occurring in existing legislation. This paper presents a methodology to carry out compliance checking on reified I/O logic formulae. These are translated in SHACL (Shapes Constraint Language) shapes, a recent W3C recommendation to validate and reason with RDF triplestores. Compliance checking is then enforced by validating RDF graphs describing states of affairs with respect to these SHACL shapes.