Legal Instrument / Norm
Represent an authority-backed legal instrument and the norms expressed by its addressable source fragments, independent of storage and interface format.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
6 bundles · 12 layers · 24 findings · 72 questions
Identity, authority and legal class Identifies legal works and their authority-qualified classifications without treating a title, citation or file as timeless identity.
Work, expression, manifestation and item
Separates intellectual legal work from language realization, file embodiment and held copy.
Authoritative work identifier and master register
Authority-qualified work identifier, namespace, register, resolver, alternate identifiers and collision state.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define authoritative work identifier and master register? identity
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports authoritative work identifier and master register? evidence
- How may authoritative work identifier and master register be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Expression, manifestation, item and language binding
Expression language and version, manifestation format and rendition, item location, hash, status and links to the same work.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define expression, manifestation, item and language binding? composition
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports expression, manifestation, item and language binding? evidence
- How may expression, manifestation, item and language binding be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Instrument class, authority and legal basis
Classifies the instrument and attributes creation or promulgation to competent external authorities.
Instrument type, jurisdiction, subject and classification
Versioned type, legal-system profile, territorial scope, subject concepts, hierarchy and class-definition evidence.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define instrument type, jurisdiction, subject and classification? classification
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports instrument type, jurisdiction, subject and classification? evidence
- How may instrument type, jurisdiction, subject and classification be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Issuing, adopting, promulgating and publishing authority
External organization and role references, competence basis, enabling instrument, delegation, signature and authority interval.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define issuing, adopting, promulgating and publishing authority? authority
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports issuing, adopting, promulgating and publishing authority? evidence
- How may issuing, adopting, promulgating and publishing authority be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Structure, addressability and source evidence Makes provisions and source fragments stably addressable and proves which manifestation is authoritative for a stated purpose.
Document structure and provision addresses
Represents hierarchy, ordering and stable addresses for provisions and supporting components.
Preamble, recital, provision, schedule and annex structure
Ordered component tree with stable component identifiers, displayed labels, headings, numbering history and containment.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define preamble, recital, provision, schedule and annex structure? composition
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports preamble, recital, provision, schedule and annex structure? evidence
- How may preamble, recital, provision, schedule and annex structure be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Citation, cross-reference and version resolution
Source and target work or provision, citation text, static or dynamic semantics, language, valid time and resolution outcome.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define citation, cross-reference and version resolution? relationship
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports citation, cross-reference and version resolution? evidence
- How may citation, cross-reference and version resolution be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Authenticity, provenance and integrity
Attributes source publication, derivation and verification without equating availability with legal authority.
Authoritative source, publication, authentication and copy status
Official publisher, gazette or register, publication act, signature or seal evidence, copy class, verification method and result.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define authoritative source, publication, authentication and copy status? evidence
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports authoritative source, publication, authentication and copy status? evidence
- How may authoritative source, publication, authentication and copy status be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Provenance, derivation, custody, digest and correction history
Generated, derived and attributed relations, responsible agents, custody changes, digests, fixes and knowledge time.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define provenance, derivation, custody, digest and correction history? provenance
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports provenance, derivation, custody, digest and correction history? evidence
- How may provenance, derivation, custody, digest and correction history be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Normative meaning and rule linkage Links formal or structured normative assertions to exact legal-source fragments while preserving uncertainty and interpretive authority.
Constitutive and prescriptive statements
Represents statement identity, source anchor, semantics and formalization status.
Norm statement, source anchor and formalization
Norm identity, exact source fragments, natural-language reading, formal expression, author, method, confidence and validation.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define norm statement, source anchor and formalization? definition
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports norm statement, source anchor and formalization? evidence
- How may norm statement, source anchor and formalization be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Constitutive definition, status, power and institutional fact
Terms, qualifications, powers, statuses and institutional consequences established under a named legal profile.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define constitutive definition, status, power and institutional fact? definition
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports constitutive definition, status, power and institutional fact? evidence
- How may constitutive definition, status, power and institutional fact be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Deontic effects, conditions and exceptions
Captures duty, liberty, prohibition and related consequences with bearer, action and triggering context.
Obligation, permission, prohibition, right and power
Modality, bearer, counterparty, action, object, deadline, jurisdiction, source anchor and asserted legal effect.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define obligation, permission, prohibition, right and power? requirement
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports obligation, permission, prohibition, right and power? evidence
- How may obligation, permission, prohibition, right and power be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Condition, exception, violation, sanction, reparation and remedy
Activation and termination conditions, exception scope, breach criteria, consequence, cure, remedy and competent authority.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define condition, exception, violation, sanction, reparation and remedy? exception
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports condition, exception, violation, sanction, reparation and remedy? evidence
- How may condition, exception, violation, sanction, reparation and remedy be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Lifecycle, versioning and consolidation Preserves authority-qualified status assertions and every amendment, correction and consolidated view.
Legal state and event history
Separates state assertions from the events and evidence said to establish them.
Draft, adopted, promulgated, published, valid, in-force, suspended and repealed state
Profile-qualified state, deciding authority, scope, source, effective interval, confidence, contest and observation status.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define draft, adopted, promulgated, published, valid, in-force, suspended and repealed state? state
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports draft, adopted, promulgated, published, valid, in-force, suspended and repealed state? evidence
- How may draft, adopted, promulgated, published, valid, in-force, suspended and repealed state be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Adoption, signature, publication, commencement, suspension, repeal and expiry event
Event kind, authority, instrument, affected work or provisions, decision and effect times, evidence and resulting state assertion.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define adoption, signature, publication, commencement, suspension, repeal and expiry event? lifecycle
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports adoption, signature, publication, commencement, suspension, repeal and expiry event? evidence
- How may adoption, signature, publication, commencement, suspension, repeal and expiry event be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Amendment, correction and consolidation lineage
Connects original acts, modifying acts, corrected expressions and derived consolidated views.
Amendment, repeal, substitution, renumbering and correction operation
Modifying instrument, source and target provisions, operation, authority, legal effect, text delta, unresolved target and provenance.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define amendment, repeal, substitution, renumbering and correction operation? process
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports amendment, repeal, substitution, renumbering and correction operation? evidence
- How may amendment, repeal, substitution, renumbering and correction operation be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Original version, consolidated view, derivation and applicability snapshot
Version graph, consolidation date, applied modifications, unresolved conflicts, publisher, non-authoritative warning and source digests.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define original version, consolidated view, derivation and applicability snapshot? provenance
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports original version, consolidated view, derivation and applicability snapshot? evidence
- How may original version, consolidated view, derivation and applicability snapshot be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Time, applicability, jurisdiction and conflict Records the axes and scopes on which an instrument or norm may apply and preserves competing interpretive assertions.
Temporal and jurisdictional applicability
Represents separate time axes and legal reach without silently deciding a case.
Enactment, publication, commencement, efficacy, applicability and knowledge time
Distinct instants or intervals, provision scope, timezone, precision, retroactivity, temporal exceptions, source and assertion authority.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define enactment, publication, commencement, efficacy, applicability and knowledge time? temporal
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports enactment, publication, commencement, efficacy, applicability and knowledge time? evidence
- How may enactment, publication, commencement, efficacy, applicability and knowledge time be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Territorial, personal, material, institutional and procedural scope
Jurisdiction references, covered persons and subjects, institutional reach, procedure, connecting factor, exclusions and conflicts rules.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define territorial, personal, material, institutional and procedural scope? relationship
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports territorial, personal, material, institutional and procedural scope? evidence
- How may territorial, personal, material, institutional and procedural scope be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Priority, override, interpretation and contest
Keeps formal conflict relations and attributed interpretations separate from final adjudication.
Priority, override, derogation, exception and conflict assertion
Conflicting norms, relation type, scope, authority, basis, time, condition, unresolved state and confidence.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define priority, override, derogation, exception and conflict assertion? decision
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports priority, override, derogation, exception and conflict assertion? evidence
- How may priority, override, derogation, exception and conflict assertion be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Interpretive decision, guidance, commentary and contest
Interpreter, authority class, cited sources, affected provisions, holding or guidance, jurisdiction, precedential scope, dissent and later treatment.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define interpretive decision, guidance, commentary and contest? evidence
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports interpretive decision, guidance, commentary and contest? evidence
- How may interpretive decision, guidance, commentary and contest be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Interoperability, access and agent governance Provides loss-aware projections, controlled disclosure, retention and safe automated operations.
Classification, projection and access views
Maps the aggregate to public legal-information formats and purpose-bound views.
Akoma Ntoso, LegalRuleML, ELI, PROV, Time and SKOS projection
Source and target versions, identity mapping, transformed fields, source anchors, semantics, omissions and round-trip limits.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define akoma ntoso, legalruleml, eli, prov, time and skos projection? interoperability
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports akoma ntoso, legalruleml, eli, prov, time and skos projection? evidence
- How may akoma ntoso, legalruleml, eli, prov, time and skos projection be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Official public, restricted draft, protected annex and purpose view
Audience, purpose, legal status, redaction, subdivision visibility, language, attribution, expiry, inference risk and access decision.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define official public, restricted draft, protected annex and purpose view? access
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports official public, restricted draft, protected annex and purpose view? evidence
- How may official public, restricted draft, protected annex and purpose view be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Safe agent operations, validation and records
Controls autonomous proposals, accountable confirmation, invariants, retention and recovery.
Agent operation, authority, purpose, preconditions and confirmation
Classifies register, publish, cite, formalize, amend, consolidate, disclose and retire operations as autonomous, propose, confirm or forbidden.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define agent operation, authority, purpose, preconditions and confirmation? security
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports agent operation, authority, purpose, preconditions and confirmation? evidence
- How may agent operation, authority, purpose, preconditions and confirmation be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Pre-write and post-write validation, concurrency, retention and recovery
Identity, authority, address, citation, time, lifecycle, formalization, access and stale-head checks with immutable history and rollback evidence.
- What exact identities, classes, values, links and explicit unknowns define pre-write and post-write validation, concurrency, retention and recovery? validation
- Which competent authority, source fragment, publication, evidence and legal or knowledge time supports pre-write and post-write validation, concurrency, retention and recovery? evidence
- How may pre-write and post-write validation, concurrency, retention and recovery be validated, contested, corrected, superseded, retained or disclosed without erasing cited history? validation
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- World Models
- Category
- Society, people and institutions
- Entry kind
- aggregate
- Navigation path
- NAV.SOC.POL.NRM
- Domain
- SOC.POL.NRM
- Industry
- Cross-industry
- Tags
- legalinstrumentnormsoc.pol.nrm
What it is Filled
Owns legal-work, expression, manifestation, source, provision and norm linkage; instrument class; authority and legal-basis references; structure and citations; authenticity and provenance; deontic assertions; lifecycle, temporal applicability, interpretation, access and projections. Organizations, lawmaking procedures, cases, enforcement events, affected parties, places and generic document storage remain external masters.
In scope
- Legal work, expression, manifestation, item, authoritative source, provision and norm identity
- Authority, class, structure, citation, normative meaning, lifecycle, time, applicability, conflict and provenance
- Authentication, consolidation, controlled disclosure, retention, interoperability and safe agent operations
Out of scope
- Issuing organization, legislative or administrative procedure and generic document repository masters
- Court or arbitration case, enforcement event, affected person, asset and place masters
- Automated legal advice, universally binding interpretation or substantive law common to every jurisdiction
Why it exists Filled
Represent an authority-backed legal instrument and the norms expressed by its addressable source fragments, independent of storage and interface format.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Separates the abstract legal work from its expressions, language versions and published manifestations.
- Keeps norms bound to the exact provision and version that states them, unlike a generic business rule.
- Treats a consolidated text as a derived view, never as the authoritative source of law.
- Holds the instrument, not the legislative process that produced it or the cases that interpret it.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Assert that an instrument is in force, repealed or applicable without a source-qualified basis.
- Present its own interpretation as the final or authoritative reading of a norm.
- Treat online availability or a formal rule extraction as proof of validity.
- Merge different language versions or amendments into one text without lineage.
- Retire or overwrite a historic version that past records still cite.
Only with a human decision
- Recording an amendment, repeal or change of legal status.
- Giving legal advice or a final interpretation to an affected person.
- Destructive retirement of an instrument or wider disclosure of restricted texts.
May
- Extract provisions, citations and structure from an authenticated source.
- Build a consolidated view and label it as unofficial unless an authority issued it.
- Assess applicability to a stated situation and date as a labelled assertion.
- Flag conflicting texts or temporal assertions for review.
Moral aspects Filled
- People rely on the stated law to know their rights and duties, so a wrong in-force status can cause real legal harm.
- Machine extraction of norms can lose exceptions and conditions that protect vulnerable parties.
- Free and accurate access to the law is a public interest that projections should not restrict without basis.
Who is affected
- Citizens and organisations bound by the law
- Courts, lawyers and public officials
- Legislators and publication authorities
Owners Filled
Steward
Dimension identity, owner, legal-register authority, publication authority and namespace
Roles
- Legal-register authority
- Own canonical work identity, instrument class and authority-qualified lifecycle.
- Official publisher
- Publish authoritative expressions and manifestations with authenticity evidence.
- Legislative or rulemaking authority
- Own adoption, amendment, repeal and enabling-power evidence.
- Legal information steward
- Maintain structure, citations, consolidation lineage and controlled classifications.
- Norm formalization reviewer
- Validate source anchoring, modalities, conditions and uncertainty of formal norms.
- Access and records steward
- Apply disclosure, protected-annex, retention and legal-hold policy.
- Interoperability steward
- Validate format mappings, source identity and declared information loss.
Links to other meta-models Filled
references
- Organization, Government and Authority models - Resolve issuing, adopting, promulgating, publishing and interpreting actors without duplicating their masters.
- Legislative Process, Court Case, Enforcement Event, Person, Place and Document models - Connect the instrument to external creation, interpretation, application, party, jurisdiction and storage contexts.
aligned
- Akoma Ntoso - Project legal-document structure, identifiers, references, metadata and lifecycle markup.
- LegalRuleML - Project source-linked formal norms, modalities, temporal characteristics, exceptions and override relations.
- ELI, PROV-O, OWL-Time and SKOS - Project legal-resource identity, metadata, provenance, time and controlled classifications with explicit version and loss.
neighbor
- Organization and Government - Authorities are external organizations referenced in a specific legal capacity; the legal instrument owns neither their identity nor governance.
- Legislative or Rulemaking Process - The process produces adoption and publication evidence; the instrument aggregate preserves outputs and lifecycle assertions but not the workflow master.
- Court or Arbitration Case - A case may interpret, invalidate or apply an instrument, but its parties, procedure, evidence and decision lifecycle remain a separate model.
- Policy or Generic Rule - A policy or rule may lack legal-source authority; this aggregate requires explicit legal-source, jurisdiction and competent-authority bindings.
- Document and Record - Files and records are manifestations or evidence items; they do not replace authority-qualified legal-work identity or normative semantics.
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Authoritative master-register identifier for the legal work, qualified by issuing or publishing jurisdiction.
- Governed globally resolvable legal-resource IRI with authoritative register binding.
- Dimension UUID or ULID when no external identifier exists.
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Institutional or informational subject: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- A legal instrument has an issuing authority, an instrument class, an official citation or identifier and dated versions.
- It is easily confused with a draft bill, a guidance note, a court decision or an unofficial consolidation.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Register legal work: Create authority-qualified identity, class, master register and initial source binding.
- Add expression or manifestation: Bind a language expression, file manifestation or held item to the same legal work.
- Authenticate authoritative source: Record publisher, publication act, authenticity evidence, digest and copy status.
- Address provision and citation: Mint or bind stable subdivision identities and resolve static or dynamic citations.
- Bind norm to source: Attach a structured or formal norm to exact source fragments with author, method and confidence.
- Record legal lifecycle event: Append adoption, publication, commencement, suspension, repeal, expiry or correction evidence.
- Construct consolidated view: Apply cited modifications to create a dated non-authoritative or authority-qualified consolidated expression.
- Assess applicability as assertion: Produce a source-qualified applicability result for stated facts without claiming universal legal judgment.
- Issue interoperability view: Project a selected legal-work revision to Akoma Ntoso, LegalRuleML, ELI or linked-data form with declared loss.
- Retire or supersede legal work: Mark expiry, repeal or replacement while preserving citations, versions, sources and successor resolution.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Citing a repealed or not yet effective version leads to unlawful decisions.
- Translation or OCR errors change the meaning of a provision.
- Automated applicability checks miss exceptions and transitional provisions.
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- European Legislation Identifier (ELI).
- Akoma Ntoso (OASIS LegalDocML).
- ECLI for citing related case law.
- FRBR work, expression and manifestation model.
- OASIS LegalRuleML for norm representation.
Context of use required Filled
- ELI is a European interoperability framework and does not define universal substantive law.
- Akoma Ntoso and LegalRuleML are representation standards and do not create legal authority or binding interpretation.
- A jurisdiction's competent authorities and adopted legal-system profile control legal effect.
Sources Filled
- Akoma Ntoso Version 1.0, Part 1: XML Vocabulary - OASIS
- Akoma Ntoso Version 1.0, Part 2: Specifications - OASIS
- LegalRuleML Core Specification Version 1.0 - OASIS
- What is the European Legislation Identifier - Publications Office of the European Union
- ELI Subdivisions Specifications - European Legislation Identifier Task Force
- PROV-O: The PROV Ontology - World Wide Web Consortium
- Time Ontology in OWL - World Wide Web Consortium
- SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Reference - World Wide Web Consortium
- Council conclusions inviting the introduction of the European Legislation Identifier - Council of the European Union
- Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps - Internet Engineering Task Force
Open questions
- Approve identifiers and relation cardinalities for organization, authority, process, case, enforcement event, party, place and generic document models.
- Develop jurisdiction, instrument-type, treaty, delegated legislation, customary law and multilingual drafting profiles.
- Create fixtures for provision renumbering, partial commencement, retroactivity, conflicting amendments, protected annexes, unofficial translations and disputed consolidation.
- Validate certified legal-document and legal-rule projections with source-anchor, authority, time, information-loss and round-trip tests.
- No independent Claude or Grok result was available; later comparative legal and legal-informatics review is required before canonical promotion.
- Jurisdiction-specific constitutional hierarchy, legislative procedure, publication law, treaty law, customary law, religious law and multilingual drafting profiles require specialist review.
- The frozen relation ledger contains no approved WM-POL-001 rows; all composition targets remain draft.
- Certified Akoma Ntoso, LegalRuleML, ELI and linked-data crosswalks, validation fixtures and legal-system profiles remain future work.
Machine files
Provenance
world-models research · reviewable-draft
Built from: models/wm-pol-001-legal-instrument-norm/spec.yaml, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/wm-pol-001-legal-instrument-norm.json