DEON 2016 - Second Call for Paper

13th International Conference on Deontic logic and Normative Systems (DEON 2016)

18-21 July 2016, Bayreuth, Germany

The biennial DEON conferences are designed to promote interdisciplinary cooperation amongst scholars interested in linking the formal-logical study of normative concepts and normative systems with computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, organization theory and law.
In addition to these general themes, DEON 2016 will encourage a special focus on the topic:

“Reasons, Argumentation and Justification”

There have been twelve previous DEON conferences: Amsterdam, December 1991; Oslo, January 1994; Sesimbra, January 1996; Bologna, January 1998; Toulouse, January 2000; London, May 2002; Madeira, May 2004; Utrecht, July 2006; Luxembourg, July 2008; Fiesole, July 2010; Bergen, July 2012; Ghent, July 2014.

General Themes

The Program Committee invites papers concerned with the following topics (non-exclusive list):
  • - the logical study of normative reasoning, including formal systems of deontic logic, defeasible normative reasoning, logics of action, logics of time, and other related areas of logic
  • - the formal analysis of normative concepts and normative systems
  • - the formal specification of aspects of norm-governed multi-agent systems and autonomous agents, including (but not limited to) the representation of rights, authorization, delegation, power, responsibility and liability
  • - the normative aspects of protocols for communication, negotiation and multi-agent decision making
  • - the formal analysis of the semantics and pragmatics of deontic and normative expressions in natural language
  • - the formal representation of legal knowledge
  • - the formal specification of normative systems for the management of bureaucratic processes in public or private administration applications of normative logic to the specification of database integrity constraints
  • - game theoretic aspects of deontic reasoning
  • - emergence of norms
  • - deontic paradoxes

Special Focus

DEON 2016’s special focus is “Reasons, Argumentation and Justification”. Reasons play a prominent role in the  normative study of action, belief, intention, and the emotions, as well as in everyday justification and argumentation. Recent years have seen numerous fruitful exchanges between deontic logicians, computer scientists, and philosophers on the nature of reasons and their role in practical and theoretical deliberation. There have also been multiple applications of formal frameworks for the study of reasons in areas of interest to linguists and philosophers of language. The goal of DEON 2016’s special focus is to continue this positive trend by encouraging submissions that explore the significance of deontic logic for the study of reasons and their connection with justification and argumentation (and vice versa).
Topics of interest in this special theme include, but are not limited to:
  • - the role of general (though perhaps defeasible) principles in justification and argumentation
  • - the relation between practical and epistemic reasons
  • - the formal analysis of reasons and of reasoning about reasons
  • - the role of justification in multi-agent systems
  • - the connection between justification and argumentation
We welcome theoretical work (formal models, representations, logics, specifications, verification), implementation-oriented work (programming languages, design models, simulations, prototype systems) and empirically driven work (linguistics) on these specific topics.

Invited Speakers

  • - John Broome (Oxford)
  • - Janice Dowell (Syracuse)
  • - Xavier Parent (Luxembourg)
  • - Gabriella Pigozzi (Paris)

Submission Details

Authors are invited to submit an original, previously unpublished, short paper pertaining to any of these topics. The paper should be in English, and should be no longer than about 15 pages when formatted according to the 12pt LaTeX specification that will be sent to all authors of accepted papers. The first page should contain the full name and contact information of at least one of the authors, and it should contain an abstract of no more than ten lines. Authors should submit their papers electronically using Easychair:


Each submitted paper will be carefully peer-reviewed by a panel of PC members based on originality, significance, technical soundness, and clarity of exposition and relevance for the conference.

For each accepted paper, at least one author is required to register for the conference and should plan to present the paper.

Publication

  • The proceedings will be published with College Publications. Copies of the proceedings will be provided to all participants.
  • In addition, we anticipate that revised versions of selected papers from the workshop will subsequently be published in a special issue of the deontic corner of the Journal of Logic and Computation.

Important Dates

Abstract Submission Deadline: February 23, 2016

Paper Submission Deadline: March 1, 2016
Notification: May 1, 2016
Camera Ready: June 1, 2016

Chairs of the Program Committee

  • Allard Tamminga, University of Groningen and Utrecht University
  • Malte Willer, University of Chicago

Chair of the Local Organizing Committee

  • Olivier Roy, University of Bayreuth