In this short paper we present the current status on formal languages and models for contracts. By a formal model is meant an unambiguous and rigorous representation of contracts, in order to enable their automatic validation, execution, and analysis — activates that are collectively referred to as contract lifecycle management (CLM). We present a set of formalism requirements, which represent ...

Research on outsourcing governance has focused on two modes: formal governance based on a legally binding contract, and relational governance based on a psychological contract between the vendor’s relationship manager and the client’s project manager. Some researchers argue that the two forms of governance are substitutes for each other. Others model them as complements. Here, we find empirical...

⁎ Corresponding author. School of Economics and F E-mail address: [email protected] (L.D. Qiu). 1 In law, a contract is “an agreement which is legall define a contract as an agreement that “specifies a mec cannot be verified in court” (MacLeod, 2002, p. 217). 2 In this paper, we use the term formal contract to contract. 3 It is incorrect to think that not having formal con Japanese businesses (As...

This paper presents a formal system for reasoning about violations of obligations in contracts. The system is based on the formalism for the representation of contrary-to-duty obligations. These are the obligations that take place when other obligations are violated as typically applied to penalties in contracts. The paper shows how this formalism can be mapped onto the key policy concepts of a...

Reuse by contract is the application of formal methods to software reuse: software components are associated with contracts|formal models of their functional behaviour|and administered , retrieved, and reused by these. We argue that reuse by contract is necessary for safe reuse in a formal process model, but is helpful even for more traditional software development. We discuss some obstacles ag...

This Article studies the relationship between formal and informal contract enforcement. The theoretical literature treats the two strategies as separate phenomena. By contrast, a rich experimental literature considers whether the introduction of formal contracting and state enforcement “crowds out” the operation of informal contracting. Both literatures focus too narrowly on how formal contract...