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Abstract: Writing a contract with a specific content is a ground for purchase, purchase is a ground for ownership, ownership is a ground for power to dispose. Also power to dispose is a consequence of ownership, ownership is a consequence of purchase, etc. The paper presents a continuation of the authorsʼ previous work on the algebraic representation of ground-consequence chains in normative systems. The paper analyzes different kinds of “implicative closeness” between grounds and consequences in chains of legal concepts, in particular combinations of “weakest ground”, “strongest consequence” and “minimal joining”. The idea of a conceptʼs being intermediate between concepts of two different sorts is captured by the technical notion of “intervenient”, defined in terms of weakest ground and strongest consequence. Lattice theory is used for studying the links between different strata and the structure of intervenient strata. We focus on (1) intervenient minimality, (2) conjunctions and disjunctions of intervenients, (3) organic wholes of intervenients, and (4) a typology of different kinds of intervenients. Also (5), we pay attention to the properties of intervenients in a network of “strata”. A legal example concerning grounds and consequences of “ownership” and “trust” is used to illustrate the application of the formal theory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Many concepts in legal texts are “intermediaries”, in the sense that they serve as links between statements of legal grounds, on one hand, and of legal consequences, on the other. In our paper, an algebraic representation of normative systems is used for distinguishing between different kinds of intermediaries and making the idea of a joining between grounds and consequences more precise. In Section , the idea of intermediaries is presented and earlier discussions of the subjects are outlined. In Section , we introduce the algebraic framework and develop the formal theory. After introducing our approach to the representation of a normative system, we here present a theory of “intervenients”, seen as a tool for analysing intermediaries. In Section , dealing with applications, after presenting a model of the formal theory, suited for the analysis of concepts in normative systems, we apply the theory to a number of examples, introduced in the first part. Finally, in Section , we make some remarks on the methodology of intermediate concepts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]