Constitutional Self-Governance in ESS-MAI: Evidence-Bound Authority and an OPL2S Reference Capsule

Abstract

This paper proposes constitutional self-governance as a design discipline for systems in which computational capability must not confer permission to act. The proposed necessary condition binds an authoritative effect to an executable law, jurisdictional competence, and sufficient action-specific evidence. ESS-MAI names the constitutional composition GCL and separates coordination, reasoning, and adjudication across LIGHT, QUANTUM, and SHADOW. OPL2S, also called POC007, instantiates a bounded obligation–promise–fulfilment inquiry. Its intended contribution is the composition of witnessing, scoped negative knowledge, independent verification, and evidence-directed continuation, rather than the invention of hashes, access control, or failure memory. A small dependency-free Rust reference capsule exercises missing-evidence, negative-superior, and positive-superior fixture cases; a fresh local execution passes twelve tests. Separate internal R47 records describe a larger derivative runtime, including model-scoped acceptance and refusal, persistent continuation, and corruption probes. These evidence levels are explicitly separated: the public capsule does not reproduce the private runtime, and its SHADOW function is not a hostile-caller verification boundary. R47 also accepts a valid older memory snapshot, demonstrating an unresolved freshness limitation. We provide falsifiable review questions and delimit proposed theory, executed observations, and unproven generality.

Preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23597026. The software archive DOI identifies a separate artifact.

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Code, evidence and critical review

The public software bundle is a self-contained reference with twelve Rust tests and disclosed limitations. It is available for reproduction and criticism; it does not reproduce the larger private runtime.

• Runnable public release 0.1.2, archive and checksums
• Commands and reproduction evidence
• Known limitations
• Working method and human/AI assistance disclosure
• Voluntary independent review protocol

A DOI, archive entry or search listing identifies an artifact; it does not establish correctness, novelty or independent review.

Predecessor and provenance

This work derives from the ESS-MAI project. The earlier ESS-MAI Executable Prior Art v1.1.1 archive covers POC003–006. That DOI belongs to the predecessor; it is not the DOI of this manuscript or POC007.

The manuscript includes the full references and separates established foundations, the author's proposed contribution, executed observations and unproven generality.