Definition
A delegation that still holds today: the system's permission is in force, the evidence behind it has not expired, and the institution can still correct its errors. In the standards' records, that means an allowed grant state, an unexpired policy record, and a correction obligation the institution can still meet. Justification is a present-tense property, not a fact about the launch review.
It is the point-in-time test. Revisable delegation is the lasting property it tests for: the grant stays tied to the evidence that justified it, so it can be narrowed or withdrawn when that evidence changes. Ask whether a delegation is justified to grade it today; ask whether it is revisable to know whether the answer can be acted on at all.
It matters because most delegations fail by outliving their justification rather than by being wrong at the start. Asking whether a delegation is justified today is the operational form of treating authority as an authority lease.
What is justified delegation? — the explainer, with a worked example
Tests that show it is in place
- For any decision, the institution can show the grant was in an allowed state at the time it was made.
- Every grant names the policy records it depends on, and each has an unexpired validity date.
- A grant whose evidence basis has lapsed cannot authorize action until it is renewed.
Hypothetical example
- A claims triage delegation is suspended automatically when the population-drift policy record passes its review date, and resumes only after a fresh drift study is filed.
Evidence to keep
- Artifact: A grant record with state, evidence basis, expiry, and renewal basis fields populated.
- Behavior: An action refused because the grant authorizing it had lapsed into review_required.
- Metric: Share of consequential decisions taken under a grant that was in an allowed state.
- Threshold: Target 100%; any exception is an incident.
References
- STD-07 Revisable delegation record · Standard
- Delegation validity eval · Eval