| name | folio-identify-legal-authority |
| description | Identify the type of legal authority (statute, regulation, case law, treaty, executive order, constitution, directive, precedent, etc.) using the FOLIO ontology's legal_authorities taxonomy (14 top-level types). Use when the user has a legal citation, rule, regulation, or source of law and needs to classify what type of authority it represents — for legal research, citation analysis, authority hierarchy, or source-of-law classification. |
Identify a Legal Authority Type with FOLIO
Identify the type of legal authority using the FOLIO ontology's legal_authorities taxonomy branch.
Workflow
Given a legal citation, rule, regulation, or source of law, follow these steps:
-
Search for matches: Use folio:search_concepts with the authority name or type to find candidate authority types in FOLIO.
-
Browse the authority taxonomy: Use folio:get_taxonomy_branch("legal_authorities") to review all 14 top-level authority types (e.g., Statutes, Regulations, Caselaw, Treaties, Executive Orders, Constitutions, etc.).
-
Drill into the best category: Use folio:get_children(iri) on the most promising category to find the specific authority subtype.
-
Get full details: Use folio:get_concept(iri) on the best match to retrieve the complete definition, translations, identifiers, and cross-references.
Output Format
Return the classification as:
- FOLIO Label: The official FOLIO concept name
- FOLIO IRI: The concept's unique identifier (e.g.,
https://folio.openlegalstandard.org/...)
- Definition: The FOLIO definition of this authority type
- Parent Category: The parent category in the taxonomy hierarchy
- Confidence: high / medium / low
- Reasoning: Brief explanation of why this classification was chosen
If the authority could be classified under multiple types (e.g., an administrative regulation with statutory authority), note both classifications.
