Legal Determination

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A Legal Determination records an authoritative conclusion concerning the legal status, effect, validity, enforceability, Rights, Obligations, or other legal consequences associated with a specified matter.

A court, tribunal, arbitrator, regulator, administrative authority, or other person or body authorized to decide the matter may make a Legal Determination.

A Legal Determination may concern:

• The validity or enforceability of an Agreement
• The interpretation of an Agreement Term
• The existence or scope of a Right or Obligation
• Whether a Party has performed or failed to perform an Obligation
• Whether a default, breach, termination, or other legal event has occurred
• The legal status or capacity of a Party
• The applicable law or jurisdiction
• The resolution of a Dispute

A Legal Determination is distinct from the operational or lifecycle state recorded by an information system. A modeled state may record information about an Agreement without determining its legal status, validity, or enforceability.

authoritative conclusion concerning the legal status, effect, validity, enforceability, rights, obligations, or other legal consequences of a specified matter

Adapted from:

• Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute: Decision
• Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute: Adjudicate
• Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute: Adjudication
• Financial Industry Business Ontology, Legal Core Ontology

This defines Legal Determination to distinguish an authoritative legal conclusion from a modeled operational or lifecycle state.

• A Legal Determination must identify the matter determined
• A Legal Determination should identify the person or body making the determination
• A Legal Determination should identify the authority under which the determination was made
• A Legal Determination may be final, interim, conditional, appealable, superseded, or vacated
• A Legal Determination may apply only within a specified jurisdiction or proceeding
• A legal opinion, allegation, claim, or system-generated assessment is not necessarily a Legal Determination
• A Legal Determination may affect an Agreement Lifecycle State but remains distinct from that state
• Recording a Legal Determination does not cause the information system itself to make the determination
• Evidence and provenance supporting the recorded determination should be preserved

A court determines that an Agreement is enforceable and that Party A failed to perform a specified Obligation.

The court's decision is a Legal Determination.

An information system may subsequently record the Agreement as disputed, in default, terminated, or subject to enforcement. Those modeled states are consequences or representations of the determination and are not the Legal Determination itself.