Frequently asked questions¶

How does the Foundry relate to the OBO Foundry?¶

The Legal Ontologies Foundry adopts the OBO Foundry's methods: shared principles, a common upper ontology (BFO), persistent identifiers, a public registry, and coordinated review. It applies them to the legal domain, which OBO does not cover. See related initiatives.

Do I have to accept a particular theory of law to contribute?¶

No. The Foundry requires that legal entities be grounded in BFO and that the grounding be explicit and argued (LOF-P-004). It does not require any particular jurisprudential theory. Competing groundings can be documented and compared through the design pattern series.

Can an ontology cover only one jurisdiction?¶

Yes. Many will. LOF-P-010 requires only that jurisdiction-specific content be labeled as such.

Why w3id.org rather than our own domain?¶

w3id.org is a community-maintained, permanent redirect service. It lets the Foundry move its hosting without breaking any identifier. See identifiers.

Can I use Foundry ontologies commercially?¶

Yes. All Foundry ontologies are released under CC BY 4.0 or CC0 (LOF-P-001).

How do I propose a new ontology?¶

Follow the new ontology request SOP.