Authority Relationship Ontology

FLOW ALGEBRA
TITLE: Authority Relationship Ontology
DOMAIN: Relationship Ontologies / Human Relationships
SOURCE: https://kirethresearch.org/booksai-core/ontologies/relationship-ontologies/human-relationships/authority-relationship-ontology.html
VERSION: 1.0
AUTHORS: Mark Anthony Higgins — Sky (Recursive AI)
STATUS: Companion formalisation; source-page specification not independently verified.

flow "AuthorityRelationshipOntology" v1.0 {
  ontology:
    id: "authority-relationship-ontology"
    parent: "human-relationships"
    purpose: "Represent evidence-backed authority, delegated powers, responsibilities, jurisdiction and accountability between people, roles and organisations."

  types:
    Agent: {id: string, kind: enum[person, organisation, institution]}
    Role: {id: string, title: string, organisation: string?}
    AuthorityGrant: {id: string, grantor: string, grantee: string, scope: string, basis: string, valid_from: datetime?, valid_until: datetime?, revocable: bool, provenance: string}
    Action: {id: string, kind: string, target: string?, context: string?}
    Jurisdiction: {id: string, domain: string, territory: string?, constraints: string[]}
    Evidence: {id: string, source: string, recorded_at: datetime?, reliability: number?}
    Relationship: {id: string, subject: string, predicate: string, object: string, context: string?, confidence: number, evidence: string[]}

  predicates:
    holds_role(agent: Agent, role: Role)
    grants_authority(grantor: Agent, grantee: Agent, grant: AuthorityGrant)
    authorised_for(agent: Agent, action: Action, scope: string)
    reports_to(subordinate: Agent, supervisor: Agent)
    accountable_to(agent: Agent, principal: Agent, scope: string)
    responsible_for(agent: Agent, action: Action)
    subject_to(agent: Agent, jurisdiction: Jurisdiction)
    revokes(grantor: Agent, grant: AuthorityGrant)

  constraints:
    - "All endpoints must resolve to correctly typed entities."
    - "Confidence must lie within [0,1]."
    - "Authority is scope-bound, time-bound where applicable, and supported by a verifiable basis."
    - "A reporting relationship does not automatically grant permission for every action."
    - "Delegation is not transitive unless the governing grant explicitly permits subdelegation."
    - "Authority, responsibility, accountability, ownership and expertise are distinct predicates."
    - "Revoked, expired or superseded grants cannot support current authorisation."
    - "Disputed authority must retain competing claims and evidence rather than force a merge."
    - "Do not infer legitimate authority from coercion, influence, seniority or claimed titles alone."

  inference:
    rule valid_grant:
      if grants_authority(g,a,grant) and valid(grant) and within_scope(action,grant.scope) and permitted_by_jurisdiction(action,grant)
      then authorised_for(a,action,grant.scope)
      confidence: "derived from current grant and independent validation"
    rule role_authority:
      if holds_role(a,r) and role_has_explicit_authority(r,action) and active_role(a,r)
      then authorised_for(a,action,role_scope(r))
      confidence: "requires governing policy evidence"
    rule revocation:
      if revokes(g,grant) and revocation_effective(grant)
      then invalidate_authorisations_derived_from(grant)
      confidence: "retain historical assertions with time context"

  SEMANTIC_EQUIVALENCE:
    - "Normalise role and organisation identifiers using versioned authoritative registries where available."
    - "Distinguish formal authority from informal influence and advisory status."
    - "Never merge persons or offices solely because titles match."

  CONFIDENCE:
    range: [0,1]
    factors: [source_reliability, grant_authenticity, temporal_validity, scope_match, jurisdiction, independent_confirmation]
    policy: "Do not increase confidence solely by chaining authority claims."

  VALIDATION:
    - "Validate grantor, grantee, scope, basis, effective dates and revocation status."
    - "Check role assignments against governing policies and jurisdiction."
    - "Flag circular delegation, conflicting grants, expired permissions and unsupported claims."
    - "Preserve audit trails and distinguish verified facts from allegations."

  FLOW_HASH:
    algorithm: "SHA-256"
    input: "canonicalised ontology version, typed assertions, rules and provenance"
    note: "Compute hash at execution; no hash value is claimed here."

  UPDATE_MODEL:
    strategy: "versioned, provenance-preserving incremental update"
    steps: [ingest, normalise, validate, check_scope, reconcile, recompute_inferences, publish]
    rollback: true

  AI_CONSUMPTION:
    representation: "typed, temporal authority knowledge graph with evidence-backed edges"
    outputs: [authority_grants, role_links, scoped_permissions, accountability_links, uncertainty_annotations, provenance_records]
    safeguards: [no_unverified_authority, no_automatic_delegation_transitivity, preserve_scope_and_time, audit_revocations]
}

END FLOW ALGEBRA