Continuity Agent - Bryant McGill

# Continuity Agent **Entity class:** Concept or analytic term **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 is distinct from ownership, affiliation, funding, licensing, or control 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]] ## Relationships  This entry's documented connections are expressed in its definition and related-work routes, with provenance retained in the source-linked material.