A formal approach to protocols and strategies for (legal) negotiation
Guido Governatori, Marlon Dumas, Arthur H. M. ter Hofstede, Phillipa Oaks · 2001
We propose a formal and executable framework for expressing protocols and strategies for automated (legal) negotiation. In this framework a party involved in a negotiation is represented through a software agent composed of four modules: (i) a communication module which manages the interaction with the other agents; (ii) a control module; (iii) a reasoning module specified as a defeasible theory; and (iv) a knowledge base which bridges the control and the reasoning modules, while keeping track of past decisions and interactions. The choice of defeasible logic is justified against a set of desirable criteria for negotiation automation languages. Moreover, the suitability of the framework is illustrated through two case studies.