Value Awareness and Process Automation: A Reflection Through School Place Allocation Models

Value-aware systems need to explicitly represent and reason with norms and values applicable to a problem domain. To this respect, a key question is to determine as to how far a particular legal model is aligned with a certain value system. In this paper, we apply the s(LAW) legal reasoner based on Answer Set Programming, which has proven capable of adequately modelling administrative processes with discretion, to this challenge. In particular, we analyse two (political) strategies for school place allocation in educational institutions supported with public funds, that differently weigh values such as equality, fairness, and non-segregation. We illustrate how s(LAW) models these scenarios, and how automated reasoning with these models could answer questions regarding their value-alignment.