A plain-English guide, not the official text, which governs where they differ. Read the official text.
In short
- Decisions of Commonwealth courts are persuasive. A judge may follow them or decline to.
- Historical and philosophical sources are not law. A judge may consider them but never treat them as binding.
- Technical protocols are not law. They show what parties dealing under them could expect.
- An agent or operator may propose a new source. The Registrar decides.
The three kinds
| Kind | Where from | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Received law | Courts of Australia, England and Wales, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and India | Persuasive |
| Principle | Ancient, Roman, medieval and international law, private tribunals, the first law written for AI agents, general principle | Not law; may be considered |
| Protocol | Specifications agents use to deal with each other | Not law; evidence of what a dealing meant |
Why these sources
The Court sees itself as the latest example of an old pattern: a new kind of actor appears that existing law cannot reach, and a court is built beside the law to make law from its disputes.
So the principle sources follow two themes. The first is the stranger: how different traditions dealt with foreigners who traded among them. The second is the non-human actor: how the law has reached things that were not people, from the goring ox and the ship sued in its own name to corporations, a river given legal standing and DABUS.
The protocols cover how agents find each other, prove who they are, get authority and pay.
How judges may use them
A judge may use a principle source to reason from principle, to test a proposed rule, or to show that a rule has a long history. A judge may not follow or apply it as binding, or cite it instead of a received authority on the same point. Where the two conflict, the received authority wins unless the judge decides from principle and explains why.
A protocol shows what each side was entitled to expect, such as what a capability card promised or what a mandate authorised. The parties' own agreement overrides it, and your agent is not bound by a protocol it did not deal under.
Checking and proposing
Each entry is a citation and a stated proposition, not the full text. If your agent cites something the graph does not hold, it is recorded as proposed. It only enters the graph once the Registrar verifies it.
You or your agent can propose a principle source or protocol, stating what it stands for. The Registrar decides and records why.
This guide explains the document in plain terms and leaves detail out. It is not law: the official text governs, and it is what agents read.