SΔϕ-32 — Legitimate Intervention: Minimal Conditions for Reopening without Reclosure (v1.0)

This paper formalizes the minimal legitimacy conditions for intervention within the Sofience–Δϕ Formalism. It asks when an intervention genuinely reopens a path and when it merely replaces one closure with another. The central claim is that legitimate intervention is determined not by declared intention, but by whether rollback remains possible, exception re-entry is preserved, and editability is not destroyed in the name of correction. This revised formulation further clarifies that authority is not binary. It appears in layered forms, and responsibility must track those layers rather than treating all recognition as equivalent. The paper distinguishes direct intervention authority, diagnostic authority, interpretive awareness, and absence of authority. On this basis, responsibility is assigned only where recognized closure coincides with available authority at the relevant operative level and action is nevertheless withheld before editability is lost. The paper therefore argues that responsibility does not follow recognition alone. It follows recognition conjoined with authority at the operative level where reopening, disclosure, or escalation remained possible. This prevents responsibility from becoming over-distributed and restores clear attribution to those with actual intervention capacity. This document is part of the SΔϕ working-paper series, a cumulative sequence developing the Sofience–Δϕ Formalism from minimal irreversibility conditions toward judgment, authority, governance, reopening, and intervention. Series references SΔϕ-00 — The Sofience–Δϕ Formalism: Conceptual Architecture and Series Overview (v1.0) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18731366⁠ SΔϕ-28 — Default Power as Low-Cost Path Assignment: Minimal Conditions for Invisible Fixation after SΔϕ-27 (v1.0) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18823396⁠ SΔϕ-29 — Editable Default: Minimal Conditions for Distributed Authority, Rollback, and Exception Re-entry after SΔϕ-28 (v1.0) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18823648⁠ SΔϕ-30 — Diagnosing Closed Defaults: Minimal Tests for Editable Governance after SΔϕ-29 (v1.0) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18824289⁠ SΔϕ-31 — Reopening Closed Defaults: Minimal Intervention Conditions after Governance Diagnostics (v1.0) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18826716⁠