Our Role & Standards

NLI’s Public Engagement Constitution

The Natural Law Institute researches, teaches, and applies methods for improving decisions, institutions, and durable reciprocal cooperation.

This page states the commitments governing NLI’s public representations and applied work. Internal policies and written engagement scopes provide the detailed controls.

What NLI Is

NLI is a jurisprudential, analytical, research, writing, and institutional-strategy organization.

Depending on written scope, NLI may support:

• litigants and clients;
• attorneys and firms;
• courts through authorized amicus or subject-matter work;
• civic actors and institutions;
• organizations and founders;
• private and cooperative settlement processes.

NLI’s three applied practices are Adjudicative Architecture, Lawfare, and Settlement Services.

What NLI Does

NLI helps organize:

• records and chronology;
• evidence and custody;
• authority and jurisdiction;
• duties and affected interests;
• bounded legal and institutional questions;
• governing rules and procedures;
• remedies and restitution;
• enforcement and review;
• governance, succession, and separation;
• institutional learning.

The purpose is to make missing information, discretion, externalized costs, and failure visible—and to create work that responsible decision-makers can use.

Claims and Evidence

NLI distinguishes:

• established doctrine;
• public-record fact;
• NLI jurisprudential theory;
• working hypothesis;
• empirical claim;
• historical interpretation;
• policy proposal;
• commercial representation.

We will not knowingly:

• present theory as fact;
• present interpretation as record;
• present aspiration as demonstrated capacity;
• present participation as causation;
• present a working measurement framework as validated assessment science;
• claim that NLI can force an institution to act;
• claim an outcome we did not cause.

Material errors should be corrected and documented.

Truthful Record-Building

NLI does not knowingly assist:

• concealment;
• falsehood;
• alteration of evidence;
• omission of material adverse facts;
• fraudulent filings;
• witness intimidation;
• abusive process;
• malicious publication;
• narrative laundering;
• unlawful retaliation;
• harassment;
• evasion of lawful duties.

NLI may decline, suspend, or terminate work when the retaining party does not provide a materially complete and truthful record.

Relationship to Counsel

NLI is not a substitute for licensed counsel where legal representation is required.

Unless an authorized, licensed attorney separately assumes responsibility:

• NLI does not create an attorney-client relationship;
• NLI does not sign filings for a party;
• NLI does not appear as counsel;
• NLI does not control litigation decisions;
• NLI does not guarantee privilege;
• NLI does not carry counsel’s professional liability.

When NLI works with counsel:

• counsel retains the attorney-client relationship;
• counsel controls filing, service, privilege, advice, and professional judgment;
• counsel decides whether NLI’s involvement must be disclosed;
• NLI may participate as a subject-matter expert when lawful and permitted by counsel and the forum.

Client and Retaining-Party Responsibilities

The retaining party remains responsible for:

• complete and materially accurate information;
• all favorable and adverse facts;
• preserving original records;
• disclosing deadlines, orders, and communications;
• identifying filed, served, received, or relied-upon documents;
• identifying current and prior counsel;
• identifying public statements;
• complying with rules, orders, contracts, and law;
• retaining required professionals;
• authorizing, signing, filing, sending, publishing, or relying on work;
• agreed fees and hard costs.

Scope and Pricing

Before substantive work begins, the written scope should identify:

• the problem;
• selected practice and track;
• deliverables;
• dependencies;
• responsibilities;
• estimated or fixed fee;
• timing assumptions;
• revision terms;
• exclusions;
• responsible filer or decision-maker;
• confidentiality;
• termination.

Published prices are estimates unless the written scope says otherwise.

Confidentiality and Publication

NLI treats non-public engagement material as confidential except where:

• disclosure is authorized;
• disclosure is required by law;
• disclosure is necessary to perform the scope;
• disclosure is necessary to prevent or respond to misuse, fraud, or unlawful purpose;
• information is already public and unrestricted.

NLI does not publish client-identifying work as a sample or case study without permission unless public status and lawful use are confirmed.

Conflicts and Independence

NLI may decline work when:

• duties to another party create a conflict;
• the request compromises research integrity;
• acceptance would make NLI’s public commitments misleading;
• tactics violate NLI standards;
• NLI lacks competence or capacity.

Independence does not exempt NLI from truth, professional boundaries, client duties, or law.

No Outcome Guarantee

NLI does not guarantee:

• court acceptance;
• favorable judgment;
• settlement;
• dismissal;
• acquittal;
• agency action;
• counsel agreement;
• appellate success;
• Supreme Court review;
• institutional reform;
• political adoption;
• financial recovery;
• recurrence prevention.

NLI promises only the agreed work product and process, performed according to written scope and the record provided.

Correction

NLI maintains a process to:

• receive material error reports;
• preserve the challenged version;
• review the source;
• decide whether to clarify, correct, supersede, or withdraw;
• update canonical material;
• notify affected parties where appropriate;
• record what changed and why.

Institutional Learning

Where lawful and permitted, an engagement may produce an anonymized institutional-learning record describing:

• the problem;
• architecture used;
• missing information;
• what reduced uncertainty;
• what failed;
• unresolved questions;
• implications for future NLI work.

Confidentiality and client duties control what may be retained or published.

Refusal and Termination

NLI may decline, suspend, or terminate work when:

• material information is withheld or false;
• requested use is unlawful or abusive;
• conflict arises;
• NLI competence or capacity is insufficient;
• required counsel or professional support is unavailable;
• work is used outside scope to mislead;
• deadlines become impossible to meet responsibly.

Public Accountability

If NLI cannot operationally support a public promise, the promise must be narrowed or removed.

NLI’s website, internal policies, engagement scopes, records, review, and correction procedures should correspond.