{ "model": { "rank": 11912, "code": "thing-q846882", "model_id": "vr.tr.sources-of-law", "name": "sources of law", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the sources of law in a given legal system and their hierarchy, help people find authoritative legal texts, and support legal research without giving legal advice.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q846882/", "tier": 2, "score": 41, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "legislative history", "Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey", "Royal Decree-Law", "Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia", "ban of involuntary servitude", "Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom", "case law", "mores", "Lex Iulia et Papia", "sources of international law", "sources of sharia", "basic law", "legal practice", "Amedeo Natoli Insurance and Reinsurance", "Australian constitutional law", "legal act", "Genesis 2:25", "Acórdão de Relação", "Decisão", "case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union", "tapu", "inheritance norm", "harmful cultural practice", "sadd al-zarai", "nass", "patent waiving", "licensing", "Law of Provinces", "award document", "decree of the United Transitional Cabinet", "Constitution of Kosovo (1974)", "circular", "Constitutional Treaty between the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the President of Ukraine dated June 8, 1995", "Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine", "GDPR fine", "decree of the Head of the Kharkov Military-Civilian Administration", "Resolution of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet On ratification of the Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States", "law provision", "suspension of pre-trial detention", "royal permit" ], "aliasCount": 49, "merged": 49, "knownIn": 41, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q846882", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q846882", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T19:39:11Z", "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": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q846882", "registryId": "vr.tr.sources-of-law", "name": "sources of law", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q846882/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.sources-of-law", "name": "sources of law", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the sources of law in a given legal system and their hierarchy, help people find authoritative legal texts, and support legal research without giving legal advice.", "definition": "The origins from which binding legal rules derive in a legal system, such as constitutions, legislation and statutes, delegated regulation, case law and precedent, custom, treaties and, in some systems, scholarly writing and religious law; the hierarchy and recognition of sources vary between civil law, common law and other traditions, and official gazettes publish them.", "what_it_is_for": "Identifying where law comes from and how to find it.", "affordances": [ "explain the hierarchy of sources in a system", "find official texts and gazettes", "explain the role of case law and custom", "support legal research" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Origin of binding rules", "Hierarchical", "System-dependent", "Officially published" ], "appearance": "Not physical; texts in gazettes, codes and law reports.", "visual_identification": [ "Constitutions, statutes and regulations", "Court decisions and reports", "Commentary is secondary, not a source of law in most systems" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "constitutions", "primary legislation", "secondary and delegated legislation", "case law and precedent", "custom, treaties and international law" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "information", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "source entity", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is applied by", "target": "court", "why": "institution" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "necessity", "why": "legal concepts" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Constitutional rules on hierarchy of norms", "Official gazette publication laws", "Citation standards for legal sources" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Relying on unofficial or outdated texts", "Confusing systems", "Agents giving legal advice" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "hierarchy", "name": "Hierarchy", "description": "Which source prevails.", "rationale": "Systems differ.", "layers": [ { "id": "order", "name": "Order", "description": "Hierarchy of norms.", "findings": [ { "id": "order-finding", "name": "Order", "description": "Hierarchy.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the hierarchy of legal sources in this system, and which prevails in conflict?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How do treaties and EU or federal law fit in?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "tradition", "name": "Tradition", "description": "Civil and common law.", "findings": [ { "id": "tradition-finding", "name": "Tradition", "description": "Traditions.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do civil law and common law systems differ in their sources?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What role do custom and religious law play here?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "find", "name": "Find", "description": "Locating texts.", "rationale": "Official sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "official", "name": "Official", "description": "Gazettes and databases.", "findings": [ { "id": "official-finding", "name": "Official", "description": "Official texts.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where is the authoritative text of this law published, such as an official gazette or legislation database?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the version consolidated and current?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "cases", "name": "Cases", "description": "Case law.", "findings": [ { "id": "cases-finding", "name": "Cases", "description": "Case law.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where are court decisions reported, and which are binding?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How is precedent applied here?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "interpret", "name": "Interpret", "description": "Using sources.", "rationale": "Research skills.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "Legislative history.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "Legislative history.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can the legislative history of this law be traced?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Is it used in interpretation here?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "cite", "name": "Cite", "description": "Citation.", "findings": [ { "id": "cite-finding", "name": "Cite", "description": "Citation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How should this source be cited?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which citation standard applies?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Advice boundaries.", "rationale": "Information, not advice.", "layers": [ { "id": "advice", "name": "Advice", "description": "Legal advice.", "findings": [ { "id": "advice-finding", "name": "Advice", "description": "Legal advice.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the user asking how the law applies to their own situation?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Where can they get regulated legal advice?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "change", "name": "Change", "description": "Keeping current.", "findings": [ { "id": "change-finding", "name": "Change", "description": "Keeping current.", "questions": [ { "text": "Has this law been amended or repealed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can changes be monitored?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each source type be a separate entry?", "How should official gazettes be linked?", "How should system differences be recorded?" ], "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 sources of law, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain the sources of law in a given legal system and their hierarchy, help people find authoritative legal texts, and support legal research without giving legal advice.", "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: legislative history, Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey, Royal Decree-Law, Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia, ban of involuntary servitude, Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, case law, mores, Lex Iulia et Papia, sources of international law, sources of sharia, basic law.", "49 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 41 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 sources of law, 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": [ "legislative history", "Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey", "Royal Decree-Law", "Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia", "ban of involuntary servitude", "Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom", "case law", "mores", "Lex Iulia et Papia", "sources of international law", "sources of sharia", "basic law" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 41 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 49 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 sources of law from another, and a sources of law 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law 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 sources of law between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a sources of law 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law 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 sources of law contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law 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 sources of law 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 sources of law 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 sources of law 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 sources of law 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 sources of law is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a sources of law, 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 sources of law, 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 sources of law 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 } } } }