Governance Rules Theory: Rule Lifecycle, Consistency Measurement, and Safe Withdrawal Conditions in Multi-Agent Systems
Bin Seol · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
Governance Rules Theory specifies a candidate framework for recursive rule governance across agents, groups, and groups of groups. It connects rule formation, validation, revision, and retirement to evidence for reduced oversight and bounded re-engagement. Version 2.0 defines rule-status constraints, compatibility and unaided-recovery measurements, five-condition withdrawal gates, and a phased oversight procedure. Its principal hypothesis concerns reliability and oversight cost relative to matched adaptive-assurance alternatives. Revised metric normalization and decision logic replace unreproducible illustrative results with prospective evaluation designs. Historical comparative predictions remain unconfirmed, and external mechanism analogues do not validate the complete framework. AI use disclosure. Generative AI (GPT-6.0, OpenAI) was used substantively in preparing this work, including source comparison, drafting and editing, and, where applicable, mathematical and counterexample checks and the writing and running of supplementary code. The research questions, framework and final claims were directed and reviewed by the author, who takes full responsibility for the content, including the accuracy of all references and reported numbers.