Components Legal
authority-chain
Provenance chain — statute to regulation to guidance to case, walked in order.
Use when the audience needs to see how a rule descends: what the statute says, how the agency implemented it, what guidance interpreted it, and what cases have applied it. Ordered list because the order is the argument.
When to use
- Provenance is the argument. Use when the audience needs to see exactly where a rule comes from and how it has been interpreted. The chain itself is the evidence that the obligation is grounded, not invented.
- Tier labels carry the read. Statute, regulation, guidance, case — each tier has a different legal weight. The left-rail label tells the audience what kind of source they are looking at before they read the citation.
- Three to five tiers, no more. The chain reads top-to-bottom on a single canvas. Past five rows the connectors compress and the tier labels lose room. Group sub-cases into the parent row's gloss or split into two slides.
When not to use
- Flat list of citations. If the rows have no tier hierarchy, use
list-criteriaorregulatory-update. authority-chain earns its chrome only when the descent from statute to case is the point. - Missing citation chip. The inline-code citation is the row's anchor; without it the gloss reads as opinion. Always cite, even for guidance and case rows.
- Out-of-order tiers. The chain reads as a descent: statute first, case last. Reversing it or skipping a tier breaks the metaphor the audience is using to follow you.
Slots
| Slot | Selector | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
heading | h2 | yes | Slide heading naming the rule whose chain is being walked. |
tiers | ol > li | yes | Ordered list of authority tiers (Statute, Regulation, Guidance, Case) — not hyperlinks. Each leads with the tier label; nested ul carries the citation (code) and the one-line gloss. |
Anatomy
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ header │
│ Authority descent heading. │
│ │
│ ┌────────────┐ │
│ │ TIER 1 │ § Statute — citation │
│ │ TIER 2 │ Regulation — cite │
│ │ TIER 3 │ Case law — cite │
│ └────────────┘ │
│ footer 1/19 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘Variants
branching — Branching — statute root with child branches
Renders nested children as connected branches off the parent tier. Use when one statute spawns multiple regulations, guidance docs, or cases worth surfacing in the same view.
<!-- _class: authority-chain branching -->
## COPPA — one statute, many branches.
1. Statute
- `15 U.S.C. §6501` COPPA, 1998
- `16 C.F.R. Part 312` FTC implementing rule
- `FTC Six-Step Compliance Plan` staff guidance
- `In re Epic Games · 2022` $245M consent order
- `In re YouTube/Google · 2019` $170M consent order trail — Trail — horizontal numbered trail with arrows
Transposes the vertical chain into a left-to-right trail of numbered cards joined by arrows. Use when the slide canvas favours a wide read and the tiers fit in four short steps.
<!-- _class: authority-chain trail -->
## COPPA — statute through case, left to right.
1. Statute
- `15 U.S.C. §6501`
- Verifiable parental consent for under-13 data.
2. Regulation
- `16 C.F.R. Part 312`
- FTC implementing rule.
3. Guidance
- `FTC Six-Step Plan`
- Cited in every consent order.
4. Case
- `Epic Games · 2022`
- $245M consent order. pyramid — Pyramid — hierarchy by tier weight
Renders the tiers as a weighted pyramid, the controlling authority widest at the base. Use when the point is the hierarchy of authority itself, not the timeline.
<!-- _class: authority-chain pyramid -->
## COPPA — the authority pyramid.
1. Statute
- `15 U.S.C. §6501`
- Congress, 1998 — consent for under-13 data.
2. Regulation
- `16 C.F.R. Part 312`
- FTC implementing rule.
3. Guidance
- `FTC Six-Step Plan`
- Staff guidance, non-binding.
4. Case
- `In re Epic Games · 2022`
- $245M consent order. bracket — Bracket — connected cards
Lays the tiers out as bracketed cards joined by strong connectors, emphasising that each rung derives its force from the one above it.
<!-- _class: authority-chain bracket -->
## How the GDPR fine traces back to the treaty.
1. Treaty
- `Charter of Fundamental Rights, Art. 8`
- EU primary law — protection of personal data is a fundamental right.
2. Regulation
- `GDPR (EU) 2016/679`
- Directly applicable across all member states; sets the Art. 83 fine tiers.
3. Guidance
- `EDPB Guidelines 04/2022`
- Harmonised methodology for calculating administrative fines.
4. Decision
- `DPC v. Meta · 2023`
- €1.2B fine — the largest GDPR penalty to date.