Non-Override Condition: Constraint Integrity Under Irreversible Execution

This paper introduces the Non-Override Condition (NOC), a structural admissibility invariant governing internal control behavior in systems subject to externally binding, irreversible constraints. Control is defined minimally as any internal process that selects actions or state transitions, and is explicitly separated from legitimacy, authority, governance, permission, or justification. The invariant states: in any irreversible system with externally binding constraints, no internal control process may override those constraints without rendering the system inadmissible. Override is defined structurally as any expansion of reachable states that includes constraint-violating states, regardless of intent, justification, frequency, or outcome. Where constraint violation fixes irreversible consequences that cannot be corrected from within the system, admissibility is binary and admits no degrees. NOC is strictly negative and classificatory. It introduces no mechanisms, designs, optimization methods, or enforcement procedures, and makes no claims about correctness, safety, effectiveness, or legitimacy. It applies only where constraints function as antecedent structural facts under irreversibility, and is silent in reversible, advisory, or non-binding contexts. The paper identifies a forbidden class of systems in which optimization, adaptation, or correction processes internally enable constraint bypass under irreversible execution, even when those processes function exactly as designed. Conversely, it specifies the admissible class: control that operates fully within the constraint surface, preserving reachability boundaries while remaining active and adaptive. A structural falsifiability boundary is provided: NOC would be refuted only by an irreversible system in which internal control can override binding constraints while preserving admissibility. The paper terminates deliberately at this boundary, establishing a permanent limit on internal control under irreversibility without appeal to normative or evaluative criteria.