Functional equivalence
The medium is chosen according to function, not a paper fetish.
Electronic original · copy · printout
Digital and physical representation
Candeia adopts an architecture in which a document may originate digitally. Paper, card, PDF or an interface are presentation media and need not be treated as “more original” merely because they are physical.
In summary
The essentials
Electronic information may satisfy requirements of writing and original form when it is accessible, intact and capable of intelligible presentation. Format migration or re-encryption does not destroy its character as an electronic original if provenance, integrity and authenticity remain demonstrable.
How it works
The same status may have multiple representations
01Register/originalThe electronic legal object maintains its content and official chain of records.
02RenderingAn interface or PDF presents the content for reading.
03PhysicalA card or printout may carry references and verification elements.
04ReconciliationRepresentations must remain relatable to the source without creating silent divergence.
Principles
What makes a document trustworthy
Readability
The person must be able to access and understand the content.
Integrity
Transformations must not conceal a material alteration.
Provenance
Each representation must maintain a demonstrable link to the source.
Accessibility
Alternative formats may exist without losing essential content.
Preservation
Future migration must preserve the relationship with the historical object.
Representation and source
The source remains the source
A printed certificate or digital rendering may be verifiable and useful, but the official register remains with the competent service when the Constitution or law so provides.
In practice
When printing helps — and when it changes nothing
Printing may be useful for transport, reading, contingency or presentation. That does not automatically elevate the copy to the official source. Likewise, a digital document is not inferior merely because it has no paper original.
Limits
Protections and limits
Paper does not create validity that the electronic record does not possess.
A PDF or screenshot does not automatically replace a queryable official chain of records.
A physical format resembling a passport does not imply an internationally accepted travel document.
Constitutional basis
Read it in the full text
Consult the related provisions in the Proposed Constitution.
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