Formal Aspects of Deontic Process Modeling: International Trade Procedures

Abstract

A deontic 'deep' structure approach to the analysis of business procedures is proposed. This approach, called deontic process modeling, maps ‘surface’ level documentary procedures, e.g. workflows, to a deontic procedure that represents the changes to the organization’s commitments performed by the actions in the documentary procedure. Deontic process modeling can have widespread application for the e-transformation of procedures, and for the exchange of control solutions among similar institutions.

The focus of this paper is on the formal foundations of deontic process modeling, based on so-called deontic interpreted systems, and a related modeling notation based on Petri nets.

Keywords: deontic interpreted systems, deontic process modeling, dynamic deontic logic, workflow, performative systems, Petri net, electronic contracting