{ "model": { "rank": 10273, "code": "thing-q216200", "model_id": "vr.tr.legal-norm", "name": "legal norm", "purpose": "Let an agent handle legal norms by type, hierarchy, source, validity and interpretation, citing official texts, without legal advice on individual cases.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q216200/", "tier": 2, "score": 45, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "constitutional document", "search warrant", "school establishment decision letter", "operational permit decree", "articles of endowment", "cantonal council decree", "court order", "geofence warrant", "international search warrant", "no-knock warrant", "Sneak and peek warrant", "unconstitutional constitutional amendment", "trading prohibition", "visitation ban", "publication ban", "Self-executing order", "anti-social behaviour order", "Stay of exit", "debt relief order", "Unexplained wealth order", "Protective order", "order to show cause", "prerogative writ", "Decree of the State Council of the People's Republic of China", "executive order", "ministry announcement", "Prostagma", "ordinanza contingibile e urgente", "New York City executive order", "appellate decision", "commandment", "choice-of-law rule", "ranking of liturgical days", "methodological instruction", "competence", "imperative norm", "Petroleum fee in Peru", "Secret Decree", "secretarial order", "reference list" ], "aliasCount": 58, "merged": 58, "knownIn": 45, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q216200", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q216200", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T11:26:49Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q216200", "registryId": "vr.tr.legal-norm", "name": "legal norm", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q216200/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.legal-norm", "name": "legal norm", "purpose": "Let an agent handle legal norms by type, hierarchy, source, validity and interpretation, citing official texts, without legal advice on individual cases.", "definition": "A rule of conduct that is legally binding, such as a constitutional provision, statute, regulation, decree, bylaw or court-issued order, forming part of a legal system and enforceable by public authorities.", "what_it_is_for": "Structuring rights, duties and powers in a legal system.", "affordances": [ "identify the type and source of a legal norm", "find the official consolidated text", "check whether it is in force", "understand hierarchy of norms" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Legally binding", "Issued by competent authorities", "Part of a hierarchy", "Can be amended or repealed" ], "appearance": "Not physical; published in official gazettes and legal databases.", "visual_identification": [ "Articles, sections and paragraphs", "Official gazettes and legal databases", "Social norms are not legally binding" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "constitutional norms", "statutes", "regulations and decrees", "bylaws and local norms", "individual legal acts such as warrants and permits" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "rule and norm", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is part of", "target": "legal system", "why": "system" }, { "relation": "is published in", "target": "official gazette", "why": "source" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "social norm", "why": "non-binding" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Constitutions", "European Legislation Identifier (ELI)", "National publication rules" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Citing repealed provisions", "Agents giving legal advice", "Using unofficial texts" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "norm", "name": "Norm", "description": "Which provision.", "rationale": "Official texts matter.", "layers": [ { "id": "identify", "name": "Identify", "description": "Citation.", "findings": [ { "id": "identify-finding", "name": "Identify", "description": "Identification.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which legal norm is meant, with its official citation?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which authority issued it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "text", "name": "Text", "description": "Official version.", "findings": [ { "id": "text-finding", "name": "Text", "description": "Official text.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where is the official consolidated text?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is an ELI or similar identifier available?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "validity", "name": "Validity", "description": "In force.", "rationale": "Validity changes.", "layers": [ { "id": "status", "name": "Status", "description": "In force or repealed.", "findings": [ { "id": "status-finding", "name": "Status", "description": "Legal status.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the provision currently in force?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Has it been amended recently?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "hierarchy", "name": "Hierarchy", "description": "Rank of norms.", "findings": [ { "id": "hierarchy-finding", "name": "Hierarchy", "description": "Hierarchy.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where does this norm sit in the hierarchy of norms?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which higher norm governs it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "interpretation", "name": "Interpretation", "description": "Meaning.", "rationale": "Courts interpret law.", "layers": [ { "id": "case-law", "name": "Case law", "description": "Court decisions.", "findings": [ { "id": "case-law-finding", "name": "Case law", "description": "Case law.", "questions": [ { "text": "How have courts interpreted this provision?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which decisions are leading?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "advice", "name": "Advice", "description": "Legal help.", "findings": [ { "id": "advice-finding", "name": "Advice", "description": "Advice limit.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the user asking how the law applies to their own case?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How can they find legal aid or a lawyer?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "participation", "name": "Participation", "description": "Law-making.", "rationale": "Citizens can take part.", "layers": [ { "id": "consultation", "name": "Consultation", "description": "Draft laws.", "findings": [ { "id": "consultation-finding", "name": "Consultation", "description": "Consultations.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is there a public consultation on changes to this norm?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can people respond?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "social", "name": "Social norms", "description": "Distinction.", "findings": [ { "id": "social-finding", "name": "Social norms", "description": "Social versus legal norms.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a social custom being mistaken for a legal rule?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How can the difference be explained?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should norm types be separate entries?", "How should ELI identifiers be linked?", "How should consolidation be tracked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a legal norm, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent handle legal norms by type, hierarchy, source, validity and interpretation, citing official texts, without legal advice on individual cases.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: constitutional document, search warrant, school establishment decision letter, operational permit decree, articles of endowment, cantonal council decree, court order, geofence warrant, international search warrant, no-knock warrant, Sneak and peek warrant, unconstitutional constitutional amendment.", "58 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 45 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a legal norm, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "constitutional document", "search warrant", "school establishment decision letter", "operational permit decree", "articles of endowment", "cantonal council decree", "court order", "geofence warrant", "international search warrant", "no-knock warrant", "Sneak and peek warrant", "unconstitutional constitutional amendment" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 45 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 58 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one legal norm from another, and a legal norm from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a legal norm sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a legal norm from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a legal norm passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a legal norm between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a legal norm, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a legal norm is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a legal norm says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a legal norm contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a legal norm and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What legal norm studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does legal norm take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does legal norm establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where legal norm is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark legal norm as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place legal norm, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a legal norm came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a legal norm and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a legal norm is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a legal norm, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a legal norm, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a legal norm is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }