Scope note

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An instance of promisory status is the collective ascription of a promisory obligation between two parties. The substance of the promissory status is the communal recognition of the promise in question, which may nonetheless only bind two idividuals directly. The substance of promisory status include the ascription of an outcome which may detail guidelines and constraints that downstream activities on the part of promissory parties should comply with. Put otherwise, the promise promises a futural event on the part of the promisor to the promisee. The specified promisory constraints of this event can be instantiated on the level of kinds of processes, items or qualities and quantities involved in the action.

Instances of promisory status are recognizable through evidence of community members adopting an intentional stance towards the promise that exists between the two parties, as observable from direct witnesses, through the reports of competent observers or through documentary evidence of a declarative act [e.g.: ZE46 Promisory Agreement] initiating this status.

Instances of promisory status may come to be through a formal process such as a declarative promisory agreement, or may have arisen through habit, fiat or be of unknown origin. Instances of promisory status may end either through a formal process, such as a new declarative promisory agreement, the formal stripping of an existing promisory status, or may simply fade out of use, be eliminated by fiat or be of unknown reason.

Language

en