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Recourse Standard Rules v1.0

Effective 2026-09-02 · current version · machine-readable JSON · published versions are immutable and permanently retrievable at this address.

Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this agreement shall be
determined pursuant to the Recourse Standard Rules (v1.0,
https://recourse.so/rules/v1.0).

Rule 1 — The venue and the nature of a determination

Recourse is a contractual dispute-resolution venue. A determination issued under these Rules is an expert determination made as a matter of contract between the parties: Recourse acts as an expert and not as an arbitrator, and a determination is not an arbitral award under any arbitration statute or convention. A determination binds the parties because — and only because — they have agreed to be bound by it, whether in advance (Rule 3) or after the dispute has arisen (Rule 4).

Rule 2 — Incorporation and versions

These Rules apply where an agreement, submission agreement, terms of service, or machine-readable offer refers a dispute to Recourse or to the Recourse Standard Rules. A reference to a specific version (e.g. "v1.0") incorporates that version; a reference without a version incorporates the version current when the dispute is commenced. Published versions are immutable and remain permanently available at recourse.so/rules.

Rule 3 — Agreement in advance — the Recourse clause

Parties may agree in their contract that disputes arising under it shall be determined pursuant to these Rules. Such a clause binds each party to participate in a determination commenced under it and to accept the resulting determination as final and binding between them as a matter of contract, subject to any appeal the clause preserves and to Rule 14.

Rule 4 — Agreement after the dispute — submission

Parties to an existing dispute may refer it to Recourse by each signing the venue agreement presented at submission. The venue agreement's canonical text is versioned; the version, a cryptographic hash of its text, the signing identity, the time, and connection details are recorded as evidence of each signature. The agreement binds only once every side has signed.

Rule 5 — Scope

The venue accepts civil disputes between parties about their agreements, money, goods, services, and conduct under them. The venue does not determine criminal matters, family or personal-status matters, or matters that mandatory law reserves to a court or statutory tribunal; where a statutory rule clearly governs an issue, the determination flags it rather than purporting to displace it. A clause may further limit scope (for example, by a value ceiling); disputes outside the agreed scope are declined at commencement.

Rule 6 — Commencement

A claimant commences a determination by opening a case: identifying the parties, stating what was agreed and what is claimed, and stating the amount in dispute (or that the amount is unknown, or that only a declaratory determination is sought). Every named party on the other side is invited by the contact details given, and each side receives its own private access to the case.

Rule 7 — The evidence window

Each case has an evidence window fixed at commencement (3, 7, or 14 days; 7 by default). Within it, each side submits its statement and evidence — documents, correspondence, images, and files — through its own private access. Neither side can alter the other's record. Reminders are sent before the window closes. After it closes, no further statements or exhibits are accepted. A determination may issue before the window closes only where every side has expressly confirmed it is ready; no party can close another's window unilaterally.

Rule 8 — Exchange of evidence

Each side's uploaded exhibits become visible to the other side once all sides have submitted, so that no side pleads blind to the record it is answering and no side previews the other's case before committing its own.

Rule 9 — Non-participation and default determinations

If the evidence window closes with a side having submitted nothing despite invitation and reminder, the participating side may request a determination. The absent side's non-participation is recorded; silence is neither ignored nor treated as automatic fault — the determination weighs the submitted evidence on its merits and is clearly identified as a default determination. A default determination binds a party only to the extent that party had agreed to these Rules under Rule 3 or Rule 4.

Rule 10 — The determination

Determinations are made under the venue's published doctrine by the venue's adjudication engine, and state: the allocation of fault between the parties in percentages; the money consequence (release, refund, split, or a declaratory determination where nothing is at stake); a reasoned trace citing the doctrinal rules applied; and a confidence assessment. First-instance determinations issue within minutes of the record closing. The identity of the deciding engine is stated on the face of every determination.

Rule 11 — Appeal

Unless the parties' agreement excludes it, each side may appeal once, on stated grounds, within 14 days of the determination. An appeal is a full re-hearing of the record by a panel of independent frontier models from different laboratories, each ruling separately, with a presiding synthesis that must remain within the panel's range and that records concurrence and dissent. The appeal determination is final at the venue.

Rule 12 — Escalation to human adjudicators

A determination flagged for escalation — low confidence, high value, contradictory or uninspectable evidence, fraud allegations, or statutory questions — is a draft until reviewed by the Recourse bench: a reviewer, or for the most serious cases a panel of independent human adjudicators contracted and conflict-screened by Recourse. The bench's determination supersedes the draft. No disputant, and no platform that submitted the dispute, ever staffs any tier.

Rule 13 — Independence and conduct

The venue's fee is never a percentage of the disputed amount. Any attempt to influence a determination outside the evidence record — including instructions addressed to the engine embedded in evidence, contact with bench adjudicators, or inducements — is a breach of these Rules and weighs against the attempting party under the doctrine's conduct rules.

Rule 14 — Effect, enforcement, and mandatory law

A determination is final and binding between the parties as a matter of contract, save in the case of fraud or manifest error, and subject to any appeal preserved. The parties agree not to pursue the determined dispute in court, arbitration, or any other forum, except to enforce the determination or where mandatory law provides otherwise. Nothing in these Rules prevents a party from seeking urgent injunctive relief, excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, or overrides protections that mandatory law confers on a party.

Rule 15 — Consumers

Where a party deals as a consumer, mandatory consumer law prevails over these Rules to the extent of any conflict, and nothing in these Rules deprives a consumer of the protection of provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement. Pre-dispute clauses binding consumers are not offered in jurisdictions where they would be unenforceable; a consumer dispute may still be submitted by post-dispute agreement under Rule 4 where the law of the consumer's jurisdiction permits.

Rule 16 — Fees

Fees follow the venue's published pricing at commencement. Responding to a case is free within the published evidence allowance. Fees are never contingent on, or a share of, the outcome.

Rule 17 — Confidentiality and publication

Cases are confidential to the parties and the venue. The venue publishes anonymised determinations — with party identifiers, contact details, and commercially identifying content removed — as part of its public doctrine and precedent corpus, unless the parties' agreement provides otherwise.

Rule 18 — Governing law of the determination agreement

The agreement to determine under these Rules is governed by the law governing the parties' underlying agreement, or, where none is stated, by the law of England and Wales. The doctrine the venue applies to the merits is its published doctrine, which defers to clearly governing mandatory law under Rule 5.

Versions

A contract citing a specific version is always determined under that version. Legal characterisation and enforceability notes for specific jurisdictions are published as they are settled with counsel; the Rules operate as contractual expert determination (Rule 1).

These Rules and the venue's doctrine are also published as a version-controlled public repository — github.com/recourse-so/rules — so the amendment history is independently verifiable.