AE-LEG-0011 — Evidence & Admissibility

1. Purpose & Scope

1.1. This instrument defines what makes a League evidence package hold — admissible where it will be tested, credible where it will be reported, and beyond impeachment where it will be doubted. It governs all collection conducted under the Intervention Doctrine, from a single photograph at Observe to a seized ledger at Direct Action.

1.2. Two distinct uses are served, and they hold to different standards (§5): formal use in a cooperating jurisdiction, and non-judicial use by a regulator or the press. A package built to the higher standard serves both; a package built only to the lower one is never elevated to the higher.

2. The Four Pillars

2.1. Every package rests on four pillars. A package missing any pillar is graded INADMISSIBLE for formal use regardless of how compelling its content.

• Chain of custody. Unbroken, time-stamped, signed custody from the moment of collection to the point of handover — no gap, no anonymous link.
• Independent re-test. Any analytical claim (species ID, toxin, catch composition) is reproducible by a party with no League affiliation, from a retained sample or original medium.
• No League contamination. No member alters, stages, or "improves" a scene; the package shows the world as found, including facts inconvenient to the League.
• Provenance disclosure posture. The collection method is documentable to the degree the intended use requires, without exposing members or methods beyond need (§6).

3. Chain of Custody

3.1. Custody opens at the instant of collection — not at handover, not at port. Each transfer is logged with collector, receiver, time, hash (for digital media), and seal state (for physical samples). Per the collection SOP, custody is opened on the same form that authorises the operation.

3.2. Digital media is hashed at capture on the collecting device; the hash is the exhibit's fingerprint and any later copy is verified against it. Physical samples are sealed, split where possible into a working portion and a retained portion, and the retained portion is never opened except under independent observation.

4. Independent Re-Test & Non-Contamination

4.1. The League's own analysis is never the last word. Every claim the League will assert publicly must be reproducible by an independent laboratory or expert from the retained sample or original medium. Where re-test is impossible (a fleeting event), the package is downgraded to corroborative and must be paired with an independently-verifiable element (AIS track, satellite pass, third-party witness).

4.2. Non-contamination is absolute. No member stages a scene, plants gear, edits media beyond disclosed format conversion, or omits exculpatory facts. A package found to be contaminated is destroyed, the operation is reported under AE-LEG-0013, and the responsible member is removed from collection duty. The League's credibility is a single-use asset; one staged scene poisons every true one.

5. Admissibility Standards by Use

6. Provenance, Deniability & Member Protection

6.1. The League discloses collection method only to the degree the intended use requires (§5). Members are shielded by default; identities surface only under court protection and only where the member consents and Counsel certifies the protection is real. No package is built in a way that forces a member to choose between the case and their safety.

6.2. Where formal use would require exposing methods or members beyond what the jurisdictional analysis (AE-LEG-0014) makes safe, the package is held to non-judicial use. Deniability is a protection for people, not a tool for deception — it is never used to conceal a fact from the body the evidence is offered to.

7. Cross-References

7.1. Collection and handover procedures are specified in the operational SOPs. This instrument sets the standard; the SOPs set the steps.

8. Revision History