Test 1: Infrastructures
We wanted to test whether establishing a legal architecture in synergy with governing, learning, organising and ecosystem strategy systems
What we tested
- Built a sandbox environment – a simplified version of a complex collaboration – to test the systems, including the legal architecture.
- Prototyped a contractual legal form (with the aim to not create an entity) where the funder could be a party, intending to replace the need for separate funding terms and conditions (aiming to still meet charitable obligations). Worked with funders to reduce risk of funder override of governance deep codes.
- Designed the legal architecture as part of a deeply coded wider “full stack” (governing, learning, organising and ecosystem strategy systems), laid out in a contract and a digital portal/directory. Collaborators were partly onboarded.
- Investigated the viability and limits of this legal form with tax and corporate law advisors.
- The wider systems have to date been part tested by the collaboration
What we didn't test
- Only gave minimal attention (“just enough”) to organising, learning and ecosystem strategy, to focus on legal architecture and governance.
- Did not test legal architecture in full complexity :
- Sectors: included philanthropic and civil society actors, but not public sector or universities.
- Jurisdictions: limited to England, Scotland and Wales.
- Risks: low exposure to data, safeguarding or IP risks.
- Scale: fewer than 10 organisations involved.
- Did not stress test legal mechanisms in court, so full legal implications and interpretations remain unknown.
- Did not stress test governing mechanisms such as evolving role cards or IP registers.
- Did not fully onboard collaborators into the daily operation of the system.
Related tools:
example
Experimenters logbook
Log book from the legal design perspective of the things tried and tested in the proof of possibility
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Many-to-Many Agreement
Showcases the contracting approach, the deep code shifts and the legal commitments made in our Proof of Possibility.
Open details →example
Role Cards for Flexible Governance
Supports the development of flexible power, responsibility, accountability and risk-holding.
Open details →