SBVR16 — Rulebook is for governed community

In some situations, a community is governed by a rulebook owned by another community. This frequently occurs in contracts. For example:

• EU-Rent’s renters are governed by its rental contract. Like most contracts for services, it contains terms and conditions (respectively, the explicitly-defined vocabulary of the contract and the rules of the contract). The rental contract governs the ‘renter’ and ‘additional driver’ roles of its customers, but is owned by (is under the business jurisdiction of) EU-Rent. The rental contract is the rulebook for rental customers.

• Almost all over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading is conducted under the ISDA Master Agreement, which governs the counterparties in a trade but is owned by The International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

There are often rules for the owning and governed communities that are related. For example:

• EU-Rent has a rule in its rental contract (i.e. for renters): “The rented car of an open rental must not be outside the area authorized for the rental”. This would probably be stated in the contract as “You must not take your rented car outside the area authorized in your rental contract. If you do, your contract will be canceled.” or something similar. The second sentence is not a rule with which the renter must comply. It's a warning of the consequence of not complying with the rule. (Note: an open rental is a rental in which the renter has possession of the rented car).

• There is a related rule for EU-Rent staff: “If the rented car of an open rental is outside the area authorized for the rental then the rental contract must be canceled”. EU-Rent staff are not governed by the rule for renters (unless they have rented a car from the company).

The noun concept "governed community" and the verb concept "rulebook is for governed community" should be added to SBVR