The ELEANOR Governance Specification – Runtime Architecture v2.1

The ELEANOR Governance Specification – Runtime Architecture v2.1 defines the operational foundation for rights-based, decision-time governance in autonomous and semi-autonomous systems. ELEANOR (Ethical Leadership Engine for Autonomous Navigation of Rights-Based Reasoning) implements constitutional oversight at runtime through a multi-critic deliberation model that evaluates every decision across six ethical dimensions: Rights, Equity, Risk, Transparency, Pragmatism, and Context. Each critic produces structured verdicts that combine into machine-readable ethical case law, enabling federated learning and precedent-based refinement. Version 2.1 formalizes the full runtime schema, including critic definitions, escalation logic, precedent governance, uncertainty quantification, and migration protocols for forward compatibility. This specification transforms AI governance from static documentation into a live constitutional operating system — where each decision is explainable, auditable, and aligned with human rights. This document supplements the theoretical framework presented in “ELEANOR v5.5: A Constitutional Framework for Ethical AI Governance.”