Distributed Legal Infrastructure for a Trustworthy Agentic Web

2026-03-06

AI Summary

This work addresses the inadequacy of existing legal frameworks in effectively governing emergent networked environments composed of autonomous AI agents, particularly highlighting critical gaps in identity, authorization, and accountability mechanisms. To bridge these gaps, the paper proposes a Distributed Legal Infrastructure (DLI) grounded in a five-layer interlocking architecture: self-sovereign soulbound identities, AI cognitive constraints, decentralized dispute resolution, insurance-based market regulation, and a portable institutional framework. This design embeds legality intrinsically within distributed AI systems, establishing a governance foundation that ensures agent accountability, enables contestability, and aligns with the rule of law. By doing so, the DLI facilitates the compliant evolution of AI-driven societies while supporting cross-system legal interoperability.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: AI & Law, Justice, Regulation & Governance
• Multiagent Systems: Agent/AI Theories and Architectures
• Intelligent Robots: Embodied AI

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Applied ML and AI for Web-based mobile applications

Abstract

The agentic web marks a structural transition from a human-centered information network to a digital environment populated by artificial intelligence (AI) agents that perceive, decide, and act autonomously. As delegated action unfolds at machine speed, exceeds discrete moments of human judgment, and distributes decision-making across non-human actors, existing legal frameworks face growing strain, creating an urgent need for new mechanisms capable of sustaining legality in this emerging order. A trustworthy agentic web therefore depends on the infrastructuring of legality through interoperable protocols that organize identity, delegation, and accountability across systems, enabling coherent governance beyond isolated platforms. Towards this end, this article advances a distributed legal infrastructure (DLI), a governance paradigm composed of five interlocking layers: (1) self-sovereign, soulbound agent identities; (2) cognitive AI logic and constraint systems; (3) decentralized adjudication mechanisms for dispute resolution; (4) bottom-up agentic market regulation to mitigate information asymmetries and network effects, including insurance-based models; and (5) portable institutional frameworks that enable legal interoperability while preserving plural sources of authority. This reference framework contributes to emerging research on embedding legality within agentic web infrastructure, aligning distributed technical systems with accountability, contestability, and rule-of-law principles.

Problem

• agentic web
• legal infrastructure
• AI agents
• accountability
• distributed governance

Innovation

• Distributed Legal Infrastructure
• Agentic Web
• Self-Sovereign Identity
• Decentralized Adjudication
• Legal Interoperability