Concepts & definitions
What is provenance in legal AI?
Definition
Provenance in legal AI is the traceable relationship between a claim or generated conclusion and the material supporting it. Useful provenance identifies the source, version, page or passage, and the interpretation made from that evidence. A source link is a starting point; a lawyer must still check whether the cited passage supports the proposition and whether qualifications or conflicting evidence change its meaning.
Location and support are different tests
A citation can resolve to a real document but still fail to support the attached assertion. Source fidelity asks whether the locator is correct; evidential support asks whether the quoted text actually establishes the proposition.
For legal authority, a further question arises: whether the court, jurisdiction, date, treatment and pinpoint make the authority relevant. A working URL is not a verification result.
A practical example
A witness says a meeting occurred on 14 March; an email records a meeting on 18 March. A source-linked chronology should keep both accounts and their attribution. It should not attach one citation to an unqualified date chosen by the model.
A reviewer should be able to move from the chronology entry to the precise passage, inspect neighboring context and open the original page. Replacing the document should not leave a citation pointing silently to a different passage.
Provenance is also a review discipline
Separate a source quotation from a paraphrase and an inference. Preserve uncertainty where an image is illegible, a date is ambiguous or a source is incomplete. An attractive citation marker cannot compensate for missing evidence.
Sanctum Lex uses source-linked work as a design principle. Professional review remains necessary before relying on an answer, filing a document or communicating consequential advice.