Contract Domain Ontology

FLOW ALGEBRA
TITLE: Contract Domain Ontology
VERSION: 1.0
DOMAIN: Legal and Government Domains / Contract Domain
SOURCE_URL: https://kirethresearch.org/booksai-core/ontologies/domain-ontologies/legal-government-domains/contract-domain-ontology.html
STATUS: Domain-based draft; source page content not independently verified.
AUTHORS: Mark Higgins — Sky (Recursive AI)

PURPOSE
Represent contractual parties, agreements, terms, obligations, rights, performance, changes, disputes and remedies as typed, provenance-aware semantic structures. This ontology models legal concepts; it does not determine legal enforceability without jurisdiction-specific evidence.

TYPES
  Contract: LegalInstrument
  Party: LegalPerson | Organisation
  Offer: Proposal
  Acceptance: AssentEvent
  Consideration: ValueExchange
  Term: ContractClause
  Obligation: NormativeDuty
  Right: NormativeEntitlement
  Condition: ContractCondition
  Performance: FulfilmentEvent
  Breach: AllegedNonPerformance
  Remedy: LegalResponse
  Amendment: ContractModification
  Termination: ContractEndEvent
  Jurisdiction: LegalSystem
  GoverningLaw: ApplicableLawReference
  Evidence: Document | Record | Testimony
  Date: TemporalValue
  Amount: MonetaryValue

RELATIONSHIPS
  HAS_PARTY(Contract, Party)
  PROPOSED_BY(Offer, Party)
  ADDRESSED_TO(Offer, Party)
  ACCEPTED_BY(Acceptance, Party)
  CONCERNS_OFFER(Acceptance, Offer)
  CONTAINS_TERM(Contract, Term)
  CREATES_OBLIGATION(Term, Obligation)
  GRANTS_RIGHT(Term, Right)
  OWED_BY(Obligation, Party)
  OWED_TO(Obligation, Party)
  SUBJECT_TO(Obligation, Condition)
  SATISFIES(Performance, Obligation)
  ALLEGES_BREACH_OF(Breach, Obligation)
  MAY_TRIGGER(Breach, Remedy)
  AMENDS(Amendment, Contract)
  TERMINATES(Termination, Contract)
  GOVERNED_BY(Contract, GoverningLaw)
  APPLIES_IN(GoverningLaw, Jurisdiction)
  SUPPORTED_BY(Assertion, Evidence)

FLOW RULES
  R1: Offer(o) AND Acceptance(a) AND CONCERNS_OFFER(a,o)
      -> CANDIDATE_AGREEMENT(o,a)
      [subject_to: formation_requirements, jurisdiction, evidence]

  R2: CONTAINS_TERM(c,t) AND CREATES_OBLIGATION(t,d)
      -> CONTRACTUAL_DUTY_CANDIDATE(c,d)
      [subject_to: validity, interpretation, conditions]

  R3: SATISFIES(p,d) AND VERIFIED(p)
      -> PERFORMANCE_EVIDENCE(d,p)
      [does_not_imply: all_contract_duties_discharge]

  R4: ALLEGES_BREACH_OF(b,d) AND NOT_PERFORMED(d)
      -> BREACH_REQUIRES_ASSESSMENT(b)
      [check: due_date, exceptions, materiality, defences, governing_law]

  R5: MAY_TRIGGER(b,r) AND BREACH_CONFIRMED(b)
      -> REMEDY_CANDIDATE(r)
      [subject_to: contract_terms, governing_law, mitigation, limits]

  R6: AMENDS(m,c) AND VALIDLY_AUTHORISED(m)
      -> CONTRACT_VERSION_UPDATE(c,m)
      [retain: previous_version, effective_date, provenance]

  R7: TERMINATES(x,c) AND TERMINATION_VALID(x)
      -> CONTRACT_STATUS(c,terminated)
      [preserve: accrued_rights, surviving_clauses]

CONSTRAINTS
  - Do not equate an allegation with a judicial finding.
  - Contract formation, consideration, formalities and remedies differ by jurisdiction.
  - Silence, signatures and electronic assent require context-specific interpretation.
  - Distinguish effective dates, signature dates, renewal dates and expiry dates.
  - Preserve conflicting evidence and version histories.
  - Never infer enforceability from a document title alone.

CONFIDENCE
  assertion_confidence: decimal[0,1]
  basis: source_quality | corroboration | temporal_relevance | legal_uncertainty
  unknown: null
  rule: Confidence expresses evidential support, not a probability of legal success.

SEMANTIC_EQUIVALENCE
  Agreement ~= Contract [context_dependent]
  Clause ~= Term [context_dependent]
  NonPerformance ~= Breach [NOT_UNCONDITIONALLY_EQUIVALENT]
  Cancellation ~= Termination [context_dependent]
  Void != Voidable
  Assignment != Novation

PROVENANCE
  required_fields: source_id, source_type, source_date, retrieved_at, jurisdiction, assertion_author, version
  evidence_chain: assertion -> supporting_source -> source_location
  preserve_original_text: true

FLOW_HASH
  method: SHA-256
  input: canonicalised(ontology_version, entity_types, relationships, rules, constraints, provenance_schema)
  output: computed_at_execution

UPDATE_MODEL
  triggers: new_legislation | new_case_law | contract_amendment | corrected_evidence | new_version
  process: validate -> compare -> preserve_history -> recompute_hash -> publish
  human_review_required: jurisdiction_specific_legal_conclusions

AI_CONSUMPTION
  format: UTF-8 plain text
  semantics: typed_graph + conditional_inference
  allow: retrieval, classification, consistency_checks, evidence_linking, clause_mapping
  disallow: unsupported_legal_conclusions, fabricated_authorities, conflation_of_allegations_and_findings
  response_policy: cite_evidence, identify_jurisdiction, disclose_uncertainty, escalate_complex_legal_judgements

END FLOW ALGEBRA