Mandate

A mandate is the right to act on a matter, in defined limits. A mandate is a logical consequence of sovereignty in the Ultimate Law, not a gift from rulers, votes, or attackers. Each agent is sovereign in their own body, property, agreements, and moral debt. From that sovereignty, mandates follow in two manners. One: when an agent crosses a boundary without consent, the agent with the boundary at stake holds a self-sourced mandate. That mandate is to stop the violation while it continues, as in self-defense. The defender requires no external permission, because the right follows from Self-Ownership and from the fact of harm that continues. Two: when harm already occurred, the sovereign mandate of the victim can extend to a different agent, who acts as a proxy. The mandate authorizes a punisher to close the moral debt only as the victim commands, in proportion, through retribution, restitution, or release. A mandate is invalid in duress. It is invalid when a vote or an authority commands it against an agent who does not agree. It is invalid where the agent did not freely consent. An action out of the limits of a mandate is coercion, with a new victim. Delegation in voluntary trade or cooperation follows the same logic: a different agent can act for you only in the limits that you consented to.