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16 A.I. & L. 1 (2008)

handle is hein.journals/artinl16 and id is 1 raw text is: Artif Intell Law (2008) 16:1-5 DOI 10.1007/s10506-008-9061-9 Preface Rossella Rubino - Giovanni Sartor Published online: 18 March 2008 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 1 Agents and Al & Law In the last years there has been a significant and increasing convergence between research on multiagent systems and research on Al & Law. Not only results originated in one research community have been used by the other, but a number of researchers have been actively involved in both communities, contributing to an increasing cross-fertilisation. We believe that this trend is not taking place by mere chance; on the contrary it is rooted in the complementary nature of the two disciplines, and in the increasing significance or issues pertaining to their intersection (contracts between agents, the emergence of norms out of agents' interactions, the establishment and enforcement of norms in agents' societies). Research on multiagent systems requires the contribution of Al & Law when it addresses the issue of the coordination of autonomous agents. If such agents are really autonomous-namely if each one of them is trying to achieve his own interest his own way (Smith 1997, p. 687)-the issue of coordinating their interaction requires considering under what conditions such agents may interact without unduly damaging one another, while at the same time preserving and enhancing certain global properties (common interests) of the system as a whole. But this is exactly the social problem that the law has been trying to solve for thousands of year, by building a set of solutions (legal norms and institutions) and theories about them. This social problem necessarily emerges in each society of R. Rubino (E) CIRSFID, Alma Mater Studiorum - Universiti di Bologna, Via Galliera, 3, 40121 Bologna, Italy e-mail: rossella.rubino@unibo.it G. Sartor European University Institute, Badia Fiesolana, Via dei Roccettini 9, San Domenico di Fiesole, 50016 Florence, Italy e-mail: giovanni.sartor@eui.eu I Springer

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