Definition
Halt authority tiered by blast radius, so that the power to stop grows with the size of what is stopped. A frontline operator pausing one case, a supervisor halting a queue, and a steward halting the whole system use different instruments, with different recovery paths, notification duties, and evidence demands. Stratification is what keeps per-case procedural force from becoming system-wide friction.
It matters because veto-point proliferation — the usual objection to contestability — is what happens when every party holds the same maximal instrument and no one holds a graduated one. Tiering does not remove halt points; it prices them: the power to stop scales with the size of what is being stopped, and the smallest tiers stay cheap enough that people use them.
Tests that show it is in place
- Each halt tier names who can fire it, what it stops, and the recovery path at that tier.
- A tier-1 halt can be used without escalating to a tier-3 authority.
- Restoration capacity is provisioned at each tier, not only at the top.
Evidence to keep
- Artifact: A halt tier register: tiers, authorized roles, blast radius, recovery path, and notification duty per tier.
- Behavior: A halt used at a low tier that resolves without escalation to a higher tier.
- Metric: Share of halts resolved at the tier where they originated.
References
- Challenge density · Theory
- Laws · Doctrine