De Jure Conditions

Determinants of legitimate governance at binding

1. Canonical Definition

De Jure Conditions are the constitutive conditions that must be satisfied at binding for Action-Governing Meaning to govern under a Post-Closure Meaning Regime (PCMR). These conditions determine whether governance is legitimate by right within a declared system boundary. Failure of any condition results in governance under a De Facto Meaning Regime (DMR).

2. Phase and Preconditions

• Operates: event-internal (at binding)

• Requires: binding within an active interpretive jurisdiction

• Does not require: closure, crystallization, persistence, agreement, or enforcement success

3. Scope and Exclusions

De Jure Conditions are not:

• operational or effectiveness criteria

• post-event persistence tests

• guarantees of compliance or stability

• evaluative variables or diagnostics

• moral endorsements or outcome judgments

They classify authorization, not performance.

4. Structural Role

De Jure Conditions determine whether a binding is authorized to govern action within a declared system. They classify the meaning regime under which Action-Governing Meaning operates. These conditions apply only at the moment meaning becomes action-governing and are not created, repaired, or overridden by persistence, enforcement, or repetition.

5. Authority and Legitimacy Status

• Authority relation: constitutive

• Legitimacy relation: determinative

All De Jure Conditions must be satisfied at binding for PCMR to exist. If any condition fails, governance proceeds under DMR regardless of effectiveness or persistence.

6. The Four De Jure Conditions

Legitimate governance exists only if all four conditions are satisfied at binding:

• Standing
  Specifies who is admissible to bind. Standing determines whether an agent or body is recognized as a legitimate participant in governance for the relevant system and reference condition.

• Authority
  Specifies what scope of obligation a standing agent may impose. Authority determines whether the agent is permitted to require, forbid, permit, or constrain action within a defined boundary.

• Traceability
  Specifies whether the binding decision can be reconstructed as an authorized act. Traceability requires that the reference conditions, constraints applied, and responsible agents are reconstructable after the fact.

• Correctability
  Specifies whether binding can be revised under authorized conditions. Correctability requires the existence of legitimate pathways for challenge, revision, override, or appeal.

These conditions are independently violable, non-substitutable, and jointly sufficient.

7. Common Category Errors

• Treating enforcement success as evidence of legitimacy

• Evaluating legitimacy after persistence rather than at binding

• Treating partial satisfaction as sufficient

• Collapsing legitimacy into power or effectiveness

8. Canonical Cross-References

Meaning Regimes (PCMR / DMR) • Binding • Action-Governing Meaning (AGM) • Interpretive Jurisdiction • Crystallization • Response Routing

9. Plain Statement

De Jure Conditions determine whether meaning governs by right or only by fact.