LEI - Legitimacy Encoding Interface
The Legitimacy Encoding Interface is the deliberative engine of AMME. It translates contested ethical norms into enforceable clauses, weights, and remedies that can be executed by the rest of the system.
Treatise date: August 13, 2025.
Role in the enforcement loop
LEI is the entry point for legitimacy. It captures stakeholder testimony, deliberation records, and decision rationales, then converts them into a machine readable ethics pack. The treatise positions LEI as the primary mechanism for pluralism because it preserves competing values rather than forcing them into a single rule.
Inputs
- Stakeholder submissions and testimony
- Legal and cultural charters adopted by the community
- Prior enforcement decisions and dissent records
- Risk and impact assessments from PSE and AIL
Outputs
- Legitimacy weights and precedence rules
- Enforceable clauses with remedies and escalation triggers
- Deliberation transcripts and decision rationale bundles
- Amendment proposals for DPV versioning
Deliberative workflow
1. Intake and docketing
Claims, conflicts, and normative questions enter LEI through a docket process. Every submission is recorded with provenance so later enforcement can trace decisions to specific deliberation events.
2. Legitimacy calibration
LEI assigns legitimacy weights to stakeholders and evidence sources. These weights are stored with the ethics pack so downstream systems can evaluate enforcement choices against the values that authorized them.
3. Clause formation
Normative decisions are encoded into clauses with explicit thresholds, scopes, and remedies. Each clause is linked to a rationale record and a revision history.
4. Ratification and publication
Once ratified, the ethics pack is signed and sent to the DPV for versioning. LEI publishes a legitimacy bundle so auditors can verify the decision path.
Artifacts and proof bundles
LEI is accountable to evidence. The treatise emphasizes that legitimacy is not assumed, it is documented.
Case intake records and standing determinations.
Structured meeting records with votes and dissent.
Machine readable justification linked to each clause.
Declarations used to manage bias and influence.
Recorded weighting scheme for stakeholder authority.
Amendment trail synced to DPV versions.
Governance of legitimacy
Meta rules that audit LEI itself.
AMME Extensions introduce a meta legitimacy layer that evaluates how LEI decisions are made, not only what they decide. It defines invariants for representation, quorum, and dissent handling. These invariants are enforced as a second order ethics pack stored in the DPV and reviewed by the Ethics Court to ensure LEI does not drift into unaccountable authority.