# Continuity Agent **Domain:** Continuity / Delegated Authority / Representation **Doc Type:** Canonical Legal Role **Maturity:** Proposed ## Definition A **Continuity Agent** is a person or institution authorized to make specified continuity decisions for a biological principal who cannot act contemporaneously, or to carry out ministerial acts required by that person's directive. The agent holds delegated authority. A [[wiki/Continuity Fiduciary|Continuity Fiduciary]] is defined by duties of loyalty, care, prudence, impartiality, recordkeeping and conflict management. One actor may occupy both roles, but authority and duty must be analyzed separately. ## Scope An instrument should state whether the agent may: - locate and authenticate an election; - choose among already authorized providers or custodians; - approve preservation or emergency transfer; - initiate adjudication of identity or standing; - inspect compliance records; - enforce service and financial obligations; and - consent to reconstruction, activation, copying or embodiment. Authority to preserve does not imply authority to activate. Authority to represent the biological principal does not imply ownership of a continuant. Conflicts, compensation, succession, removal and audit must be explicit. ## Authority Transition The agent's role is strongest while the principal cannot act and no autonomous continuant can speak. It becomes contestable and should contract when a continuant acquires independent agency and standing. [[wiki/Continuity Due Process|Continuity Due Process]] governs disputes between inherited proxy authority and emergent self-authorship. ## Key Insight **The agent speaks because the principal cannot; the role must end where the person can speak again.** ## Current-Law Analogues The Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act and Texas disposition-of-remains law illustrate bounded prospective agent authority and successor agents. They do not authorize computational continuation. - [Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act (2023)](https://www.uniformlaws.org/viewdocument/final-act-168?CommunityKey=3df274d6-776b-4780-8e4e-018a850ef44e) - [Texas Health and Safety Code § 711.002](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/?artSec=711.002&chapter=HS.711&code=HS&tab=1) ## Corpus Sources [[wiki/Black Mirror S3E4 — San Junipero|Black Mirror S3E4 — San Junipero]] ## See Also [[wiki/Continuity Election|Continuity Election]], [[wiki/Continuity Advance Directive|Continuity Advance Directive]], [[wiki/Representational Authority|Representational Authority]], [[wiki/Authority–Identity Separation|Authority–Identity Separation]], [[wiki/Successor Custodian|Successor Custodian]]