Law of Official Instruments and Status

Section 1. Purpose

This law establishes document classes, required metadata, status language, enactment, amendment, publication, correction, and supersession.

Section 2. Official classes

The recognized classes are Constitution, Principal Law, Crown Act, judgment, charter, appointment, commission, delegation, procedure, standard, declaration, Registry entry, and certified public export.

Section 3. Identifier

Each official instrument shall receive a unique identifier appropriate to its class. Reuse of an identifier for a materially different instrument is prohibited.

Section 4. Required metadata

An official instrument shall identify:

1. title;
2. identifier;
3. class;
4. version;
5. status;
6. issuing or approving authority;
7. approval date, when applicable;
8. effective date, when applicable;
9. operative text;
10. relation to prior instruments;
11. Registry reference, when registered.

Section 5. Status by evidence

A status may be claimed only when the event creating that status is verified. Publication, upload, signature image, code commit, or verbal description does not substitute for the required act.

Section 6. Drafts

Drafts shall be visibly marked. A draft shall not direct an officer, bind a participant, alter an estate, or create a public right merely because it is accessible.

Section 7. Enactment and effect

An instrument is enacted only through the required authority. An enacted instrument is effective on its stated effective date. If no effective date is stated, it becomes effective upon verified enactment unless higher law requires otherwise.

Section 8. Amendment

An amendment shall preserve the prior text, identify the changed sections, state its authority, and create a new version or linked amendment record.

Section 9. Correction

Clerical correction may repair formatting, spelling, broken links, or metadata without changing legal meaning. A substantive correction requires the same level of authority as the original instrument unless higher law provides otherwise.

Section 10. Supersession and withdrawal

A superseded or withdrawn instrument shall remain discoverable with its status and successor record. It shall not be silently deleted from institutional history.