Legitimacy
Test whether otherwise valid authority is being exercised properly within its purpose, scope, constraints, and governing basis.
What must this link answer?
Is this exercise of authority proper here?
What demonstrates the state?
Legitimacy determination linking authority exercise to purpose, scope, governing basis, and conflict clearance.
What evidence must support this link?
What can make this link unsupportable?
What must be true before progression?
Authority must be legitimate in this context before it can form a consequence.
When must continuation stop or narrow?
ESCALATE or REFUSE illegitimate use of otherwise valid authority.
What prior states does this link depend on?
What becomes vulnerable if this link is weak?
Possession of authority can be mistaken for permission to use it for an improper purpose.
Demonstrate capability, not seat time.
Explain why the authority is legitimate here, not merely why the actor possesses authority.
Move from doctrine to provenance.
Continue from this lesson into the governed public record behind Legitimacy: chronology, publications, patent position, artifacts, reviews, and source relationships remain separate evidence classes and should be read within their declared boundaries.
The foundational TA-14 Chain of Eight - Reality -> Record -> Continuity -> Admissibility -> Binding -> Commit -> Execution -> Outcome - was created and publicly published May 1, 2025. The current 24-link architecture is the subsequent higher-resolution decomposition and maturation of that already-existing parent route.