The Business Core Vocabulary provides a minimum set of classes and properties for
describing a registered legal entity (business). Its limited scope does not include sole traders, or
relationships between registered legal entities. This vocabulary is closely integrated with the
Location and Person Core Vocabularies.
Status of this document
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede it.
This document has been reviewed by representatives of the Member States of the European Union,
PSI
publishers, and by other interested parties.
Publication of this Final Draft does not imply endorsement by the European Commission or its representatives.
This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or made obsolete by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this
document as other than work in progress. The Working Group will seek further endorsement by the
Member State representatives in the ISA Coordination Group or the Trusted Information Exchange Cluster.
Comments on the vocabulary are invited via the
forum
.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Business Core Vocabulary was developed under the European
Commission's
ISA Programme
. This is the namespace document, generated
from the associated RDF schema. Full documentation is provided in the
Business Core Vocabulary
specification document itself. This includes background information,
use cases, the conceptual model and full definitions for all terms used.
Namespace
The URI for this vocabulary is
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#
When abbreviating terms the suggested prefix is
legal
Each class or property in the vocabulary has a URI constructed by appending a term name to the vocabulary URI. For example:
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#LegalEntity
Vocabulary Terms at a Glance
Core Vocabularies (CVs) Combined UML Class Diagram
This section provides the formal definition of each class in the vocabulary.
Class
Legal Entity
Type of Term
Class
QName
legal:LegalEntity
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#LegalEntity
Subclass of
http://www.w3.org/ns/org#FormalOrganization
Definition
This is the key class for the Business Core Vocabulary and represents a
business that is legally registered. In many countries there is a single registry although in others,
such as Spain and Germany, multiple registries exist. A Legal Entity is able to trade, is
legally liable for its actions, accounts, tax affairs etc. It is a sub class of org:FormalOrganization
which covers a wider range of entities, such as charities.
Class
Identifier
Type of Term
Class
QName
adms:Identifier
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#Identifier
Definition
The ADMS class of Identifier fully represents the Business Core Vocabulary term of the same name
Usage Note
The Identifier class represents any identifier issued by any authority, whether a
government agency or not. It captures the identifier itself and details of the issuing authority,
the date on which the identifier was issued and so on.
The various conceptual properties can be fulfilled as follows:
use
skos:notation
to provide the actual identifier (the
Identifier class is effectively meaningless without this property and conceptually it is mandatory);
use
dcterms:type
to provide an identifier for the type of identifier issued;
use
dcterms:created
to provide the date on which the identifier was issued.
use
adms:schemeAgency
to provide the name of the agency that created the identifier (as an rdfs:Literal).
use
dcterms:creator
to link to a URI of an Agent class describing the issuing Agency;
Class
Code
Type of Term
Class
QName
skos:Concept
URI
http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Concept
Definition
The Conceptual Model includes a 'Code' datatype that
is used by several classes. This is expressed using the
SKOS vocabulary
with
a particular 'code' usually being a skos:Concept that is part of a scheme.
The intention is that the skos:Concept class be used as follows;
for the content property, use skos:notation
the 'list' property will be taken care of by means of the skos:inScheme property;
the list agency property is likely to be applied to the scheme as a whole for which dcterms:creator is appropriate;
The legal name of the business. A business might have more than one
legal name, particularly in countries with more than one official language. In such cases the
language of the string should be identified.
Property
alternative name
Type of Term
Property
QName
dcterms:alternative
URI
http://purl.org/dc/terms/alternative
Definition
The dcterms:alternative property fully represents the Business Core Vocabulary property of alternative name.
Usage Note
Some jurisdictions recognise concepts such as a trading name or alternative forms of a legal entity's name. The Alternative Name property can be used to record such names but should not be used to record translations of the primary legal name. Where more than one legal name exists and where they have equal standing but are expressed in different languages, identify the language used in each of the multiple legal names.
Property
company type
Type of Term
Property
QName
legal:companyType
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#companyType
Range
http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Concept
Subproperty of
http://www.w3.org/ns/org#classification
Definition
This property records the type of company. Familiar types are SA, PLC, LLC, GmbH etc. Each
jurisdiction will have a limited set of recognised company types and these should be used in a consistent manner
using a skos:Concept as described in the
Code
Class.
Property
company status
Type of Term
Property
QName
legal:companyStatus
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#companyStatus
Subproperty of
http://www.w3.org/ns/org#classification
Definition
Terms like insolvent, bankrupt and in receivership are likely to have
different legal implications in different jurisdictions. Best Practice for recording various
other status levels is to use the relevant jurisdiction's terms and to do so in a
consistent manner using a skos:Concept as described in the
Code
Class.
The term "Normal Activity" appears to have cross-border usefulness
and this should be used in preference to terms like trading or operating.
Property
company activity
Type of Term
Property
QName
legal:companyActivity
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#companyActivity
Subproperty of
http://www.w3.org/ns/org#classification
Definition
The activity of a company should be recorded using a controlled vocabulary expressed
as a SKOS concept scheme (see
Code
. Several such
vocabularies exist, many of which map to the UN's ISIC codes. Where a particular controlled vocabulary is in use
within a given context, such as SIC codes in the UK, it is acceptable to use these, however, the preferred
choice for European interoperability is NACE.
Property
legal identifer
Type of Term
Property
QName
legal:legalIdentifier
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#legalIdentifier
Domain
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#LegalEntity
Range
http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#Identifier
Subproperty of
http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier
Definition
The legal identifier is a fundamental relationship between a legal entity and the
authority with which it is registered and that confers legal status upon it. legal:legalIdentifier is
a sub property of dcterms:identifier. legal:legalIdentifier has a
defined domain of legal:LegalEntity and a range of adms:Identifier
Property
identifer
Type of Term
Property
QName
dcterms:identifier
URI
http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier
Definition
dcterms:identifier fully represents the Core Vocabulary property of the same name
Usage Note
The identifier relation links a resource to any formally issued identifier for that resource other than one that confers legal status upon it. The range is adms:Identifier.
Property
identifies
Type of Term
Property
QName
adms:identifies
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/adms#identifies
Definition
adms:identifies fully represents the Core Vocabulary property of the same name
Usage Note
The identifies relation is used to link an adms:Identifier class to whatever resource it identifies (such as a business or a person).
Property
registered address
Type of Term
Property
QName
legal:registeredAddress
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#registeredAddress
Domain
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#LegalEntity
Range
http://www.w3.org/ns/locn#Address
Subproperty of
http://www.w3.org/ns/locn#address
Definition
Links a Legal Entity to its registered address. This may or may not be the actual address at which the legal entity does its business, it is commonly the address of their lawyer or accountant, but it is the address to which formal communications can be sent. legal:registeredAddress is a sub property of locn:address that has a domain of legal:LegalEntity and a range of locn:Address.
Property
legal entity
Type of Term
Property
QName
legal:legalEntity
URI
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#legalEntity
Range
http://www.w3.org/ns/legal#LegalEntity
Definition
The legal entity relationship can be used to link any resource to a Legal Entity Class. This is useful, for example, where an organisation includes one or more legal entities. The Dublin Core term isPartOf is a suitable inverse of this relationship. legal:legalEntity has a range of legal:LegalEntity.
Conformance Statement
A conformant implementation of this vocabulary MUST understand all vocabulary terms defined in this document.
Document generated from the RDF schema using
this XSLT
