Abstract
In this paper, we present an informal introduction to Logical English (LE) and illustrate its use to standardise the legal wording of the Automatic Early Termination (AET) clauses of International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Agreements. LE can be viewed both as an alternative to conventional legal English for expressing legal documents, and as an alternative to conventional computer languages for automating legal documents. LE is a controlled natural language (CNL), which is designed both to be computer-executable and to be readable by English speakers without special training. The basic form of LE is syntactic sugar for logic programs, in which all sentences have the same standard form, either as rules of the form conclusion if conditions or as unconditional sentences of the form conclusion. However, LE extends normal logic programming by introducing features that are present in other computer languages and other logics. These features include typed variables signalled by common nouns, and existentially quantified variables in the conclusions of sentences signalled by indefinite articles. Although LE translates naturally into a logic programming language such as Prolog or ASP, it can also serve as a neutral standard, which can be compiled into other lower-level computer languages.
Highlights
Logical English (LE) (Kowalski 1982, 1990, 2019, 2020) is a work in progress, intended as syntactic sugar for logic programs, which consist of “atomic sentences”, such as: IsdaAgreement is dated as of 03/10/2020. and conditional sentences, such as1: A Transaction is governed by IsdaAgreement if a confirmation of the Transaction states that the Transaction is governed by IsdaAgreement and IsdaAgreement is dated as of a time T1 and the Transaction commences at a time T2 and T1 ≤ T2
In the remainder of the paper, we present an overview of International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Master Agreements, an overview of LE and its treatment of rules and exceptions, the LE representation of Section 6(a) of the ISDA Master Agreement, which deals with Automatic Early Termination, and the LE representation of a sample of AET Schedule clauses, followed by a discussion of related work, and some final thoughts in the Conclusion
3 The dictionary needs to include type declarations, for example to indicate that both Bob’s account and Alice’s account are types of accounts. We ignore this issue in this paper, because it is not important for the ISDA Master Agreement examples we investigate in this paper
Summary
Logical English (LE) (Kowalski 1982, 1990, 2019, 2020) is a work in progress, intended as syntactic sugar for logic programs, which consist of “atomic sentences”, such as: IsdaAgreement is dated as of 03/10/2020. and conditional sentences (or rules), such as1:. ISDA Master Agreements are complex legal documents for governing over-thecounter (OTC) derivatives transactions Despite their complexity, it is possible to analyse their logic without having a deep understanding of their financial markets and legal content, similar to the way in which it is possible for a computer to execute a program without the computer understanding the meaning of the program. It is possible to analyse their logic without having a deep understanding of their financial markets and legal content, similar to the way in which it is possible for a computer to execute a program without the computer understanding the meaning of the program It is with this initial and limited understanding of ISDA Master Agreements that the first author undertook the first phase of the work reported in this paper. In the remainder of the paper, we present an overview of ISDA Master Agreements, an overview of LE and its treatment of rules and exceptions, the LE representation of Section 6(a) of the ISDA Master Agreement, which deals with Automatic Early Termination, and the LE representation of a sample of AET Schedule clauses, followed by a discussion of related work, and some final thoughts in the Conclusion
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