Decision Closure Framework (DCF): Specification and Companion Paper

This record contains the Decision Closure Framework (DCF) specification (Committee Draft v1.3) together with its companion paper. The Decision Closure Framework defines a formal model for continuous decision legitimacy in AI and socio-technical systems. It introduces three core concepts: - Continuous Closure: the requirement that decision legitimacy must persist throughout execution, not only at the point of decision - Authority Rebinding: the explicit reassignment of decision authority when legitimacy conditions fail during runtime - Failure Transition Control (FTC): a governance layer that regulates system behavior during transitions from legitimate to illegitimate execution states The framework addresses a critical gap in current AI governance approaches. Existing systems focus on decision correctness, constraint enforcement, and post-hoc accountability, but do not formally govern what happens when the conditions underpinning a decision change during execution. DCF shifts the focus from: "How do we ensure decisions are correct?" to: "What determines whether a decision is allowed to be executed at all—and who has authority when that condition changes?" The included Committee Draft provides a normative specification aligned with emerging standards in AI governance (including ISO/IEC 42001 and the EU AI Act), while the companion paper offers conceptual grounding, problem framing, and interpretative context. This work is part of a broader governance architecture including: - system-level capability certification - decision-level identity and legitimacy protocols - observation-level drift and integrity diagnostics Status: Committee Draft (CD). This document is released for public review, discussion, and iterative refinement. It must not be cited as a finalized standard.