BECAUSE

Provides a reason or justification for a breach in regulative rules. Used with BREACH to document why a violation occurred.

Syntax

BREACH BECAUSE reason
BREACH BY party BECAUSE reason

Where:

party - The party responsible for the breach (optional)
reason - A STRING explaining why the breach occurred

Purpose

BECAUSE serves two purposes in L4:

Documentation - Records the legal reason for a breach, useful for generating explanations and audit trails
Specificity - Distinguishes between different types of breaches in complex contracts

Examples

Example file:

-- BECAUSE Keyword Examples
-- Demonstrates breach reasons in regulative rules

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Type Declarations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DECLARE Person IS ONE OF Seller, Buyer, Employee, Employer, Tenant, Landlord

DECLARE Action IS ONE OF
  `deliver goods`
  `pay amount` HAS amount IS A NUMBER
  `pass inspection`
  `disclose information`
  `pay rent` HAS amount IS A NUMBER
  `maintain property`
  smoke

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Basic BECAUSE Usage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Simple breach with reason only
`delivery with reason` MEANS
  PARTY Seller
  MUST `deliver goods`
  WITHIN 14
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BECAUSE "delivery deadline exceeded"

-- Full form: BY party BECAUSE reason
`delivery full form` MEANS
  PARTY Seller
  MUST `deliver goods`
  WITHIN 14
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BY Seller BECAUSE "failed to deliver within contractual period"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Distinguishing Different Breach Types
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Payment deadline breach
`payment deadline` MEANS
  PARTY Buyer
  MUST `pay amount` 1000
  WITHIN 30
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BY Buyer BECAUSE "payment received after deadline"

-- Quality inspection failure
`quality check` MEANS
  PARTY Seller
  MUST `pass inspection`
  WITHIN 7
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BY Seller BECAUSE "goods failed quality inspection per spec A.3"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Referencing Legal Text in Reasons
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Reference to contract section
`nda obligation` MEANS
  PARTY Employee
  SHANT `disclose information`
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BY Employee BECAUSE "violated NDA section 3.2"

-- Reference to lease agreement
`subletting prohibition` MEANS
  PARTY Tenant
  SHANT `disclose information`
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BY Tenant BECAUSE "violated lease agreement section 8"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Chained Obligations with Different Reasons
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

`rental agreement` MEANS
  PARTY Tenant
  MUST `pay rent` 2000
  WITHIN 5
  HENCE (
    PARTY Landlord
    MUST `maintain property`
    WITHIN 30
    HENCE FULFILLED
    LEST BREACH BY Landlord BECAUSE "failed to perform maintenance duties"
  )
  LEST BREACH BY Tenant BECAUSE "rent payment overdue"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- BECAUSE in Prohibition (SHANT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

`no smoking policy` MEANS
  PARTY Employee
  SHANT smoke
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BY Employee BECAUSE "violated workplace no-smoking policy"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Testing with #TRACE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Test 1: Obligation fulfilled (no breach)
#TRACE `delivery with reason` AT 0 WITH
  PARTY Seller DOES `deliver goods` AT 10

-- Test 2: Obligation breached (deadline passes without action)
-- This will show the BECAUSE reason in the breach output
#TRACE `delivery full form` AT 0 WITH

-- Test 3: Prohibition violated
#TRACE `no smoking policy` AT 0 WITH
  PARTY Employee DOES smoke AT 5

-- Test 4: Chained obligation - first party fulfills, second breaches
#TRACE `rental agreement` AT 0 WITH
  PARTY Tenant DOES `pay rent` 2000 AT 3

Basic BECAUSE

-- Breach with reason only
PARTY Seller
MUST `deliver goods`
WITHIN 14
LEST BREACH BECAUSE "failed to deliver within deadline"

Full Form: BY and BECAUSE

-- Breach with party and reason
PARTY Seller
MUST `deliver goods`
WITHIN 14
LEST BREACH BY Seller BECAUSE "failed to deliver within deadline"

Multiple Breach Types

BECAUSE allows distinguishing between different breach scenarios:

-- Different breach reasons for different conditions
`delivery obligation` MEANS
  PARTY Seller
  MUST `deliver goods` qty PROVIDED qty AT LEAST 100
  WITHIN 14
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BY Seller BECAUSE "insufficient quantity delivered"

`quality obligation` MEANS
  PARTY Seller
  MUST `pass inspection`
  WITHIN 7
  HENCE FULFILLED
  LEST BREACH BY Seller BECAUSE "goods failed quality inspection"

Usage Patterns

With LEST (Most Common)

BECAUSE typically appears in the LEST clause to explain what went wrong:

PARTY Employee
SHANT `disclose confidential information`
HENCE FULFILLED
LEST BREACH BY Employee BECAUSE "violated NDA section 3.2"

With HENCE (Unusual but Valid)

In rare cases, BECAUSE can appear with HENCE when exercising a permission itself triggers a breach:

-- Smoking is permitted but still recorded as a policy violation
PARTY Employee
MAY smoke
WITHIN 30
HENCE BREACH BY Employee BECAUSE "smoking policy violation logged"

In Chained Obligations

`payment chain` MEANS
  PARTY Buyer
  MUST `pay deposit` 1000
  WITHIN 7
  HENCE (
    PARTY Buyer
    MUST `pay balance` 9000
    WITHIN 30
    HENCE FULFILLED
    LEST BREACH BY Buyer BECAUSE "failed to pay balance"
  )
  LEST BREACH BY Buyer BECAUSE "failed to pay deposit"

BREACH Forms

BREACH can be used in several forms:

Form	Example	Description
Simple	`BREACH`	Anonymous breach
With party	`BREACH BY Seller`	Identifies responsible party
With reason	`BREACH BECAUSE "reason"`	Documents why
Full form	`BREACH BY Seller BECAUSE "reason"`	Complete breach info

Best Practices

1. Be Specific

-- ✅ Good: Specific reason
LEST BREACH BY Seller BECAUSE "delivery exceeded 14-day SLA"

-- ❌ Vague: Doesn't help with analysis
LEST BREACH BECAUSE "failed"

2. Reference Legal Text

-- ✅ Good: References contract section
LEST BREACH BY Tenant BECAUSE "violated lease agreement section 8.3"

-- ✅ Also good: References regulation
LEST BREACH BY Employer BECAUSE "non-compliance with Employment Act s.42"

3. Use Meaningful Party Names

-- ✅ Good: Clear party identification
LEST BREACH BY `The Borrower` BECAUSE "exceeded debt covenant"

-- Less clear
LEST BREACH BY x BECAUSE "exceeded debt covenant"

4. Distinguish Breach Types

When a contract has multiple potential breaches, use BECAUSE to distinguish them:

-- Payment late vs. payment insufficient
LEST BREACH BY Buyer BECAUSE "payment received after deadline"

-- vs.

LEST BREACH BY Buyer BECAUSE "payment amount below minimum"

Type Checking

The BECAUSE clause must be a STRING type:

-- ✅ Valid: String literal
LEST BREACH BECAUSE "reason text"

-- ✅ Valid: String expression
LEST BREACH BECAUSE (CONCAT "failed to pay ", TOSTRING amount)

-- ❌ Invalid: Not a string
-- LEST BREACH BECAUSE 42

Evaluation and Tracing

When tracing regulative rules, BECAUSE reasons appear in the output:

#TRACE obligation AT 0 WITH
  -- No action taken, deadline passes
-- Output includes: BREACH BY Seller BECAUSE "failed to deliver"

This helps with:

Debugging contracts during development
Explainability when generating reports
Audit trails for compliance

BREACH - The violation marker
BY - Identifies the breaching party
LEST - Breach consequence clause
HENCE - Fulfillment consequence