Authority boundaries that live only in prose

What it looks like. Who may act on what is described in policy documents and org charts. There is no machine-readable graph of jurisdictions, so "is this within their remit?" is answered by reading and judgment.

Why it fails. Boundaries stated in prose can be read narrowly or broadly depending on need, and neither reading leaves a trace. Reach expands or protection contracts without an edit anyone reviews.

Instead. Maintain the authority graph with explicit jurisdictional edges. Verify that each exercised authority traces to a granted edge, and alert when a new transitive edge appears.