Registry Pattern

Register identity and constituting act

A register is a named, individually identified book of entries constituted by an instrument that names an accountable keeper and, where public, derives its powers from a referenced mandate. ISO/TC 211 separates the register owner from the register manager and the control body; UNIDROIT separates the Supervisory Authority from the Registrar; INSPIRE shows the operator can change while item URIs persist. The constitution is therefore distinct from both the operator and the storage.

1. Which instrument constitutes this register and what does it authorise the register to contain? authority
2. What identifier distinguishes this register from every other register, including from the registry that operates it? identity
3. Which distinct parties hold register ownership, register management and control-body review for this register? ownership
4. What happens to register identity and item references if the operating organisation changes? lifecycle

Field of application and completeness claim

The register's declared subject-matter boundary, its territorial or jurisdictional reach, and how strong a completeness claim it makes. A register that claims to hold every instance of its subject supports negative inference ('not registered means not existing'); one that does not must say so, because search results are otherwise misread.

1. What classes of item does this register admit, and what closely similar items does it explicitly exclude? classification
2. Over which jurisdiction, territory or namespace does this register claim authority? spatial
3. Does absence of an entry permit a negative inference, and under what conditions? constraint
4. What events compel registration, and what remains voluntary? requirement

Registration policy and submission rights

The rule fixing who may cause an entry to exist and how much review precedes it. RFC 8126 sets out an explicit strictness ladder from Private Use through First Come First Served and Expert Review to Standards Action, advises choosing the least strict policy that suits the register, and requires a named change controller; UNCITRAL by contrast permits registration by any authorised registrant without document lodgement.

1. Which registration policy governs each range or class of this register, and why is that strictness chosen? decision
2. Who is entitled to submit a registration request, and must the submitter be the affected subject? authority
3. Who controls later changes to an individual registered value once it exists? ownership
4. May an entry be registered provisionally and later converted to permanent status? state

Item class and required attribute set

ISO 19135 organises a register into item classes, each fixing the attributes a conforming item must carry; RFC 8126 likewise requires a registry definition to state the required information, size, format and syntax of entries plus initial assignments and reservations. Item classes are the register's contract with submitters and consumers alike.

1. For each item class, which attributes are mandatory, which are optional, and what syntax constrains them? composition
2. Which values in this register are reserved, pre-assigned or set aside for private use? constraint
3. May an item class be extended by adopters, and what stays fixed under extension? interoperability
4. In which languages must item names and definitions be supplied, and which language is authoritative? quality

Entry identifier binding and reuse rule

Every entry carries an identifier that locates it in the book. ISO/TC 211 treats identifier assignment as the minimum service delegated to the register manager; ISO/IEC 11179-6 requires internationally unique item identification. What is register-owned here is the binding, the uniqueness scope and the reuse-after-retirement rule — RFC 8126 warns that reclaiming assigned values breaks deployed consumers.

1. From which governed identifier scheme is an entry identifier drawn, and who assigns the value? identity
2. Within what scope must an entry identifier be unique — the register, the registry, or globally? constraint
3. May an identifier be reassigned after its entry is retired or cancelled? exception
4. Is an entry identifier resolvable to a published representation, and does resolution survive operator change? interoperability

Entry composition and subject binding

An entry binds a content payload to a subject. UNCITRAL notices carry grantor and secured-creditor identifiers plus a collateral description sufficient for identification, without the underlying agreement; company registers hold a file of prescribed particulars per company. Not every field is equally authoritative: some are the registered fact, others are contact or administrative carriage.

1. What real-world subject is this entry about, and how is that subject identified? identity
2. Which fields of the entry are the registered fact and which are administrative carriage? classification
3. May one entry cover an aggregate of subjects, and how is the aggregate delimited? composition
4. Does the entry restate content from a lodged instrument or only reference it? provenance

Entry status binding and publication consequence

ISO 19135 distinguishes notValid, valid, superseded, retired and invalid, exposes valid, superseded and retired publicly, keeps proposed and unaccepted items for management only, and retains no-longer-valid items so that data produced earlier can still be interpreted. INSPIRE similarly retains deprecated items for backward compatibility. The status vocabulary and its transitions are governed by WM-XCT-021; what is register-owned is the mapping from state to publication and to permitted use.

1. Which governed status vocabulary does this register bind to, and which of its values does it actually use? state
2. For each status value, is the entry exposed in the public face of the register? access
3. For each status value, may the entry still be used to produce new data or new reliance? constraint
4. Who may cause an entry's status to change, and does that differ by status value? authority

Entry temporal model

An entry carries several times that must not be collapsed: when the act was received and stamped, when the entry became effective in the register, the period for which registration remains effective, and when the fact it records took place. UNCITRAL limits effectiveness to a stated period extendable by amendment; Cape Town makes registrations searchable in chronological order of receipt.

1. Which distinct time values does an entry carry, and which of them is decisive for effect? temporal
2. Does registration lapse after a fixed period, and how is it extended? lifecycle
3. Can an entry take effect from a time earlier than its registration, and on what basis? exception
4. Can the register state as at a past instant be reconstructed, and to what granularity? evidence

Supersession, retirement and continuity chains

ISO 19135 distinguishes replacement by an alternative (supersession) from simple withdrawal (retirement), and keeps both in the register. Continuity must be traceable in both directions, and registers of composite subjects additionally need split and merge relations so that a successor entry can be reached from any predecessor.

1. When an entry is superseded, how is the successor entry linked and is the link bidirectional? relationship
2. What distinguishes retirement from supersession and from invalidation in this register? classification
3. How are split and merge of a registered subject represented across entries? composition
4. Are closed entries still retrievable, and by which access route? retention

Registration ordering and priority rank

Where a register allocates rank, the order of registration is decisive: a registered interest takes priority over later registrations and over unregistered interests regardless of knowledge, and registrations are searchable in chronological order of receipt. Priority protection windows let a search freeze rank for a short period before the act is lodged. This ordering is register-owned and must not be confused with event-log ordering.

1. Does this register allocate rank, and is rank derived from time of registration or from another criterion? constraint
2. At what granularity is the ordering stamp recorded, and how are simultaneous receipts broken? measurement
3. Can a search or notice reserve rank before the substantive act is lodged? process
4. What happens to rank when an entry is amended, corrected or superseded? exception

Registration act typology

The closed set of operations that can change a register: addition, clarification (a change that does not alter meaning), amendment, supersession, retirement, invalidation, cancellation, correction of registry error and lapse on expiry. Distinguishing clarification from amendment matters because only one of them disturbs reliance.

1. Which act types can change this register, and which are unavailable by design? classification
2. How does this register distinguish a clarification that preserves meaning from an amendment that changes it? definition
3. What makes a submitted act a duplicate of one already applied? validation
4. How does an applied act reference the request and the decision that authorised it? provenance

Act authority and role binding

Competence to apply an act is distributed across roles. ISO/TC 211 separates the register manager from the control body that reviews proposals and constrains the manager's delegated authority; UNIDROIT separates the Supervisory Authority that appoints the Registrar and approves regulations from the Registrar that operates the registry. This model records the binding, not the mandate lifecycle.

1. Which role is competent to apply each act type in this register? authority
2. Which registrar functions are delegated, and which are reserved to the constituting authority? ownership
3. What bounded time is allowed for review before an act must be applied or refused? process
4. How is a reviewer's conflict of interest handled for a specific proposal? exception

Examination depth and rejection grounds

Registers differ sharply in how much they check. A notice-filing registry accepts a notice without the underlying agreement and rejects only on narrow formal grounds; a title register examines substance before conferring a conclusive effect; a protocol registry may accept on first-come-first-served or require a permanent public specification. Examination depth is the single strongest predictor of how far an entry may be relied on.

1. How far does this register examine a submission before the entry becomes authoritative? process
2. On what grounds may a submission be refused, and is that list exhaustive? constraint
3. How does examination depth constrain the effect the register may claim for an entry? decision
4. Are admitted entries ever re-examined after registration, and on what trigger? quality

Evidentiary requirement specification

What a register demands as grounds for an entry, expressed per item class: which evidence classes are required, whether originals or references suffice, and whether the register restates or merely points at them. Custody, verification workflow, sufficiency challenge and rationale are owned by WM-XCT-028; only the requirement and the binding sit here.

1. Which evidence classes must accompany an act for each item class in this register? requirement
2. Is lodged evidence retained inside the register, held elsewhere, or returned? retention
3. Is supporting evidence inspectable to the same extent as the entry it grounds? access
4. What may be registered when the required evidence cannot be produced? exception

Effect kind and commencement

Registration may be constitutive (the right exists only once registered), declaratory (registration records a right that already exists), evidentiary (registration raises a presumption), priority-conferring (registration fixes rank), or a notice function (registration makes an interest effective against third parties). These are not mutually exclusive and each has its own commencement instant.

1. Which effects does registration in this register produce, and are they cumulative? definition
2. From which instant does each effect run, and can it differ from the registration instant? temporal
3. What becomes of an effect when the entry is cancelled, retired or lapses? lifecycle
4. In which jurisdictions or contexts is the registered effect recognised? interoperability

Third-party reliance and its limits

Company-law disclosure makes documents opposable to third parties only once properly disclosed, and permits reliance on voluntarily published translations unless the company proves knowledge of the original; title registration makes registered proprietorship conclusive; Cape Town gives a registered interest priority irrespective of knowledge. Every regime nevertheless carries carve-outs — overriding interests, undisclosed particulars, and content the register expressly does not warrant.

1. Which register content may a third party rely on, and which content is expressly unwarranted? constraint
2. What binds a subject despite not appearing in the register? exception
3. Must a relying party act in good faith or without notice for reliance to hold? requirement
4. Where content is published in several languages, which version governs a reliance claim? quality

Error classification and rectification regime

Registers separate registry error (introduced by the registry itself) from submitted error (introduced by the requester), because only the first typically triggers the register's own liability. Title regimes provide for alteration and rectification with defined protection for the proprietor in possession; notice-filing regimes provide registrar correction of registry errors and amendment notices for the rest.

1. How does the register classify an inaccuracy as registry error, submitted error or a change of underlying facts? validation
2. Who may initiate rectification, and can the registrar act without a request? process
3. Does a rectification take effect retroactively, and what protects a party who relied in the interim? exception
4. Is the erroneous content preserved and visible after rectification? retention

Liability posture, indemnity and contested marking

A register that invites reliance must state what it answers for. Cape Town makes the Registrar liable in compensatory damages for loss directly resulting from registry error, omission or malfunction, while excluding liability for inaccurate information received; title regimes provide a statutory indemnity for loss from rectification or from an uncorrected mistake. Separately, an entry under challenge carries a contested marking that points at a case handled elsewhere.

1. For what failures does the register accept liability, and what is expressly excluded? authority
2. Who may claim indemnity for loss caused by the register, and how is entitlement reduced? requirement
3. How is an entry marked while it is under challenge, and what does the marking change? state
4. On what basis is a contested marking removed? event

Publicity classification and restriction

Publicity is graded, not binary, and is set per attribute rather than per register. The Court of Justice held that opening beneficial-ownership data to any member of the public was a serious interference with Charter rights that went beyond what was strictly necessary, and pointed to legitimate-interest gating, defined data categories, case-by-case exemptions and accountability for accessors as the safeguards that were missing. Access decisions themselves are evaluated by WM-XCT-002 and shaped by WM-XCT-003.

1. Which publicity tier applies to each attribute of an entry? access
2. Where access is gated on legitimate interest, how is that interest defined for this register? privacy
3. Can a registered subject obtain suppression of otherwise public content, and on what showing? exception
4. Does bulk or machine access carry different publicity limits from individual inspection? security

Fee and cost-recovery basis

Access to a public register is typically priced at cost rather than at value: company-law rules cap fees for copies at administrative cost and require core particulars to be free of charge, while registry regimes elsewhere set fees to sustain operation without unduly burdening users. Fee design is part of publicity because a prohibitive fee is a restriction by other means.

1. On what basis is a fee for register access or registration set? constraint
2. Which register content must be obtainable without charge? requirement
3. Do fees differ by requester class, channel or product type? classification

Index, search criteria and result completeness

A register is only as usable as its index. UNCITRAL requires the registry record to be indexed and searchable by the criteria that make notices findable — chiefly the grantor identifier — and Cape Town requires registrations to be searchable in chronological order of receipt. Where matching is exact, a small error in the indexed key can hide an entry entirely, so the register must state its matching rule and what a nil result means.

1. By which keys can the register be searched, and which key is authoritative for a definitive search? identity
2. Is matching exact, normalised or fuzzy, and who bears the risk of a near-miss? validation
3. What does an empty search result assert, and what does it not assert? evidence
4. To which instant is a search result current, and is there a gap for pending acts? temporal

Certified extract attestation and as-at instant

A certified extract is the registrar's attestation that stated content corresponded to the register at a stated instant. Company-law rules entitle a requester to certified or uncertified copies obtainable electronically; title regimes make official copies admissible in evidence to the same extent as the original. The shape and field selection of the extract are owned by WM-XCT-003; what is register-owned is the attestation, the as-at instant and the evidential claim.

1. What exactly does the registrar attest when certifying an extract? evidence
2. To which instant does a certified extract speak, and how long does it remain usable? temporal
3. What evidential status does the extract carry before a court or counterparty? authority
4. How can a recipient verify that an extract is genuine and unmodified? security

Registry instance and register hosting

A registry is the operating environment that holds one or more registers and offers registration and search services. Its properties — availability, service hours, operating language, publication endpoints and the commitment that references keep resolving after an operator change — are separable from the constitution of any register it hosts.

1. Which registers does this registry hold, and can a register move between registries? composition
2. What availability and service-hour commitments does the registry make? quality
3. What continuity commitments protect published references if the operator changes? lifecycle
4. Through which stable endpoints is register content published, and in what representations? interoperability

Register quality and currency measures

An authoritative record is expected to be authentic, reliable, complete and unaltered, and usable — locatable and interpretable for as long as needed. For a register these general properties become measurable: coverage against the declared field of application, lag between a real-world change and its registration, backlog of unapplied acts, and rate of established registry error.

1. How is the lag between a real-world change and its appearance in the register measured and reported? measurement
2. How is coverage against the declared field of application quantified? quality
3. Is the rate of established registry error tracked and published? validation
4. What ensures register content remains interpretable after schema or vocabulary change? retention

Cross-register reference and federation binding

Registers reference one another: an entry in one register may cite an identifier maintained in another, and independent registers may participate in an interconnection that distributes information in a standard message format. This model records which external register a reference resolves against and what freshness is expected; topology, routing, mirroring and drift are owned by WM-XCT-018.

1. Which external registers does this register cite, and for which fields? relationship
2. When a locally held value conflicts with the external register that owns it, which prevails? decision
3. Does this register participate in an interconnection or mirroring arrangement, and in what role? interoperability
4. Which identifier allows this register's entries to be matched unambiguously across borders or systems? identity

External registry vocabulary alignment

Several standards describe registers in overlapping but non-identical terms: ISO 19135 uses register manager, control body and item status; ISO/IEC 11179-6 separates registration status from administrative status and adds submitting organization and stewardship; RFC 8126 uses registration policy and change controller. These are alignments, not conformance claims, and their disagreements must be recorded rather than smoothed over.

1. Which external registry vocabularies does this register align to, and at which version? interoperability
2. How do local role and status terms map onto each aligned vocabulary? definition
3. Where aligned vocabularies disagree, which disagreement is recorded and how is it resolved locally? exception
4. What evidence would be needed before a conformance claim to an aligned standard could be made? evidence