LDC-E2703 — A precedent without an outcome

For LLMs5 sections

What it means

A precedent concludes something: its outcome states which dictionary atom the holding establishes, for the winning side’s factors. A precedent with no outcome argues nothing — there is no conclusion for later holdings to follow or distinguish. The compiler refuses the precedent at its name until an outcome is given.

The fix writes the outcome as a dictionary atom over the signature variables, on the winning side. An outcome over anything else fails under a different shape of the same check.

Example

language "law.core" version "0.2";
package demo.diagnostics version "0.1.0";
namespace "urn:law:demo:diagnostics";

entity Case;
entity Item;
relation clear(c: Case, i: Item) kind empirical;
relation vague(c: Case, i: Item) kind empirical;
factors Deal {
for c: Case, i: Item;
domain clear(c, i), vague(c, i);
plaintiff clear;
defendant vague;
courts Alpha;
}
precedent P1 of Deal {
court Alpha;
decided @2020-01-01;
plaintiff clear;
defendant vague;
}

Fix

language "law.core" version "0.2";
package demo.diagnostics version "0.1.0";
namespace "urn:law:demo:diagnostics";

entity Case;
entity Item;
relation clear(c: Case, i: Item) kind empirical;
relation vague(c: Case, i: Item) kind empirical;
factors Deal {
for c: Case, i: Item;
domain clear(c, i), vague(c, i);
plaintiff clear;
defendant vague;
courts Alpha;
}
precedent P1 of Deal {
court Alpha;
decided @2020-01-01;
plaintiff clear;
defendant vague;
outcome clear(c, i);
}

Engine message

The engine reports this in its own wording:

example.law:16:11: error LDC-E2703: precedent P1: no `outcome` (§276.3)

Documentation for Arxo. Writings — blog.arxo.io.

Anonymous visit counts on stats.arxo.io, no cookies.