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+ Historical version of the Constitution for the Debian Project (v1.2)
+
+ Version 1.2 ratified on October 29^th, 2003. Supersedes Version 1.1
+ ratified on June 21^st, 2003, which itself supersedes Version 1.0
+ ratified on December 2^nd, 1998. Superseded by version 1.3, ratified
+ on September 24^th, 2006.
+
+1. Introduction
+
+ The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made
+ common cause to create a free operating system.
+
+ This document describes the organisational structure for formal
+ decision-making in the Project. It does not describe the goals of the
+ Project or how it achieves them, or contain any policies except those
+ directly related to the decision-making process.
+
+2. Decision-making bodies and individuals
+
+ Each decision in the Project is made by one or more of the following:
+ 1. The Developers, by way of General Resolution or an election;
+ 2. The Project Leader;
+ 3. The Technical Committee and/or its Chairman;
+ 4. The individual Developer working on a particular task;
+ 5. Delegates appointed by the Project Leader for specific tasks;
+ 6. The Project Secretary.
+
+ Most of the remainder of this document will outline the powers of
+ these bodies, their composition and appointment, and the procedure for
+ their decision-making. The powers of a person or body may be subject
+ to review and/or limitation by others; in this case the reviewing body
+ or person's entry will state this. In the list above, a person or body
+ is usually listed before any people or bodies whose decisions they can
+ overrule or who they (help) appoint - but not everyone listed earlier
+ can overrule everyone listed later.
+
+ 2.1. General rules
+
+ 1. Nothing in this constitution imposes an obligation on anyone to do
+ work for the Project. A person who does not want to do a task
+ which has been delegated or assigned to them does not need to do
+ it. However, they must not actively work against these rules and
+ decisions properly made under them.
+ 2. A person may hold several posts, except that the Project Leader,
+ Project Secretary and the Chairman of the Technical Committee must
+ be distinct, and that the Leader cannot appoint themselves as
+ their own Delegate.
+ 3. A person may leave the Project or resign from a particular post
+ they hold, at any time, by stating so publicly.
+
+3. Individual Developers
+
+ 3.1. Powers
+
+ An individual Developer may
+ 1. make any technical or nontechnical decision with regard to their
+ own work;
+ 2. propose or sponsor draft General Resolutions;
+ 3. propose themselves as a Project Leader candidate in elections;
+ 4. vote on General Resolutions and in Leadership elections.
+
+ 3.2. Composition and appointment
+
+ 1. Developers are volunteers who agree to further the aims of the
+ Project insofar as they participate in it, and who maintain
+ package(s) for the Project or do other work which the Project
+ Leader's Delegate(s) consider worthwhile.
+ 2. The Project Leader's Delegate(s) may choose not to admit new
+ Developers, or expel existing Developers. If the Developers feel
+ that the Delegates are abusing their authority they can of course
+ override the decision by way of General Resolution - see §4.1(3),
+ §4.2.
+
+ 3.3. Procedure
+
+ Developers may make these decisions as they see fit.
+
+4. The Developers by way of General Resolution or election
+
+ 4.1. Powers
+
+ Together, the Developers may:
+ 1. Appoint or recall the Project Leader.
+ 2. Amend this constitution, provided they agree with a 3:1 majority.
+ 3. Override any decision by the Project Leader or a Delegate.
+ 4. Override any decision by the Technical Committee, provided they
+ agree with a 2:1 majority.
+ 5. Issue, supersede and withdraw nontechnical policy documents and
+ statements.
+ These include documents describing the goals of the project, its
+ relationship with other free software entities, and nontechnical
+ policies such as the free software licence terms that Debian
+ software must meet.
+ They may also include position statements about issues of the day.
+ 1. A Foundation Document is a document or statement regarded as
+ critical to the Project's mission and purposes.
+ 2. The Foundation Documents are the works entitled "Debian
+ Social Contract" and "Debian Free Software Guidelines".
+ 3. A Foundation Document requires a 3:1 majority for its
+ supersession. New Foundation Documents are issued and
+ existing ones withdrawn by amending the list of Foundation
+ Documents in this constitution.
+ 6. Together with the Project Leader and SPI, make decisions about
+ property held in trust for purposes related to Debian. (See §9.1.)
+
+ 4.2. Procedure
+
+ 1. The Developers follow the Standard Resolution Procedure, below. A
+ resolution or amendment is introduced if proposed by any Developer
+ and sponsored by at least K other Developers, or if proposed by
+ the Project Leader or the Technical Committee.
+ 2. Delaying a decision by the Project Leader or their Delegate:
+ 1. If the Project Leader or their Delegate, or the Technical
+ Committee, has made a decision, then Developers can override
+ them by passing a resolution to do so; see §4.1(3).
+ 2. If such a resolution is sponsored by at least 2K Developers,
+ or if it is proposed by the Technical Committee, the
+ resolution puts the decision immediately on hold (provided
+ that resolution itself says so).
+ 3. If the original decision was to change a discussion period or
+ a voting period, or the resolution is to override the
+ Technical Committee, then only K Developers need to sponsor
+ the resolution to be able to put the decision immediately on
+ hold.
+ 4. If the decision is put on hold, an immediate vote is held to
+ determine whether the decision will stand until the full vote
+ on the decision is made or whether the implementation of the
+ original decision will be delayed until then. There is no
+ quorum for this immediate procedural vote.
+ 5. If the Project Leader (or the Delegate) withdraws the
+ original decision, the vote becomes moot, and is no longer
+ conducted.
+ 3. Votes are taken by the Project Secretary. Votes, tallies, and
+ results are not revealed during the voting period; after the vote
+ the Project Secretary lists all the votes cast. The voting period
+ is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up to 1 week by the Project
+ Leader.
+ 4. The minimum discussion period is 2 weeks, but may be varied by up
+ to 1 week by the Project Leader. The Project Leader has a casting
+ vote. There is a quorum of 3Q.
+ 5. Proposals, sponsors, amendments, calls for votes and other formal
+ actions are made by announcement on a publicly-readable electronic
+ mailing list designated by the Project Leader's Delegate(s); any
+ Developer may post there.
+ 6. Votes are cast by email in a manner suitable to the Secretary. The
+ Secretary determines for each poll whether voters can change their
+ votes.
+ 7. Q is half of the square root of the number of current Developers.
+ K is Q or 5, whichever is the smaller. Q and K need not be
+ integers and are not rounded.
+
+5. Project Leader
+
+ 5.1. Powers
+
+ The Project Leader may:
+ 1. Appoint Delegates or delegate decisions to the Technical
+ Committee.
+ The Leader may define an area of ongoing responsibility or a
+ specific decision and hand it over to another Developer or to the
+ Technical Committee.
+ Once a particular decision has been delegated and made the Project
+ Leader may not withdraw that delegation; however, they may
+ withdraw an ongoing delegation of particular area of
+ responsibility.
+ 2. Lend authority to other Developers.
+ The Project Leader may make statements of support for points of
+ view or for other members of the project, when asked or otherwise;
+ these statements have force if and only if the Leader would be
+ empowered to make the decision in question.
+ 3. Make any decision which requires urgent action.
+ This does not apply to decisions which have only become gradually
+ urgent through lack of relevant action, unless there is a fixed
+ deadline.
+ 4. Make any decision for whom noone else has responsibility.
+ 5. Propose draft General Resolutions and amendments.
+ 6. Together with the Technical Committee, appoint new members to the
+ Committee. (See §6.2.)
+ 7. Use a casting vote when Developers vote.
+ The Project Leader also has a normal vote in such ballots.
+ 8. Vary the discussion period for Developers' votes (as above).
+ 9. Lead discussions amongst Developers.
+ The Project Leader should attempt to participate in discussions
+ amongst the Developers in a helpful way which seeks to bring the
+ discussion to bear on the key issues at hand. The Project Leader
+ should not use the Leadership position to promote their own
+ personal views.
+ 10. Together with SPI, make decisions affecting property held in trust
+ for purposes related to Debian. (See §9.1.)
+
+ 5.2. Appointment
+
+ 1. The Project Leader is elected by the Developers.
+ 2. The election begins nine weeks before the leadership post becomes
+ vacant, or (if it is too late already) immediately.
+ 3. For the following three weeks any Developer may nominate
+ themselves as a candidate Project Leader.
+ 4. For three weeks after that no more candidates may be nominated;
+ candidates should use this time for campaigning (to make their
+ identities and positions known). If there are no candidates at the
+ end of the nomination period then the nomination period is
+ extended for three further weeks, repeatedly if necessary.
+ 5. The next three weeks are the polling period during which
+ Developers may cast their votes. Votes in leadership elections are
+ kept secret, even after the election is finished.
+ 6. The options on the ballot will be those candidates who have
+ nominated themselves and have not yet withdrawn, plus None Of The
+ Above. If None Of The Above wins the election then the election
+ procedure is repeated, many times if necessary.
+ 7. The decision will be made using the method specified in section
+ §A.6 of the Standard Resolution Procedure. The quorum is the same
+ as for a General Resolution (§4.2) and the default option is "None
+ Of The Above".
+ 8. The Project Leader serves for one year from their election.
+
+ 5.3. Procedure
+
+ The Project Leader should attempt to make decisions which are
+ consistent with the consensus of the opinions of the Developers.
+
+ Where practical the Project Leader should informally solicit the views
+ of the Developers.
+
+ The Project Leader should avoid overemphasizing their own point of
+ view when making decisions in their capacity as Leader.
+
+6. Technical committee
+
+ 6.1. Powers
+
+ The Technical Committee may:
+ 1. Decide on any matter of technical policy.
+ This includes the contents of the technical policy manuals,
+ developers' reference materials, example packages and the
+ behaviour of non-experimental package building tools. (In each
+ case the usual maintainer of the relevant software or
+ documentation makes decisions initially, however; see 6.3(5).)
+ 2. Decide any technical matter where Developers' jurisdictions
+ overlap.
+ In cases where Developers need to implement compatible technical
+ policies or stances (for example, if they disagree about the
+ priorities of conflicting packages, or about ownership of a
+ command name, or about which package is responsible for a bug that
+ both maintainers agree is a bug, or about who should be the
+ maintainer for a package) the technical committee may decide the
+ matter.
+ 3. Make a decision when asked to do so.
+ Any person or body may delegate a decision of their own to the
+ Technical Committee, or seek advice from it.
+ 4. Overrule a Developer (requires a 3:1 majority).
+ The Technical Committee may ask a Developer to take a particular
+ technical course of action even if the Developer does not wish to;
+ this requires a 3:1 majority. For example, the Committee may
+ determine that a complaint made by the submitter of a bug is
+ justified and that the submitter's proposed solution should be
+ implemented.
+ 5. Offer advice.
+ The Technical Committee may make formal announcements about its
+ views on any matter. Individual members may of course make
+ informal statements about their views and about the likely views
+ of the committee.
+ 6. Together with the Project Leader, appoint new members to itself or
+ remove existing members. (See §6.2.)
+ 7. Appoint the Chairman of the Technical Committee.
+ The Chairman is elected by the Committee from its members. All
+ members of the committee are automatically nominated; the
+ committee votes starting one week before the post will become
+ vacant (or immediately, if it is already too late). The members
+ may vote by public acclamation for any fellow committee member,
+ including themselves; there is no default option. The vote
+ finishes when all the members have voted, or when the voting
+ period has ended. The result is determined using the method
+ specified in section A.6 of the Standard Resolution Procedure.
+ 8. The Chairman can stand in for the Leader, together with the
+ Secretary
+ As detailed in §7.1(2), the Chairman of the Technical Committee
+ and the Project Secretary may together stand in for the Leader if
+ there is no Leader.
+
+ 6.2. Composition
+
+ 1. The Technical Committee consists of up to 8 Developers, and should
+ usually have at least 4 members.
+ 2. When there are fewer than 8 members the Technical Committee may
+ recommend new member(s) to the Project Leader, who may choose
+ (individually) to appoint them or not.
+ 3. When there are 5 members or fewer the Technical Committee may
+ appoint new member(s) until the number of members reaches 6.
+ 4. When there have been 5 members or fewer for at least one week the
+ Project Leader may appoint new member(s) until the number of
+ members reaches 6, at intervals of at least one week per
+ appointment.
+ 5. If the Technical Committee and the Project Leader agree they may
+ remove or replace an existing member of the Technical Committee.
+
+ 6.3. Procedure
+
+ 1. The Technical Committee uses the Standard Resolution Procedure.
+ A draft resolution or amendment may be proposed by any member of
+ the Technical Committee. There is no minimum discussion period;
+ the voting period lasts for up to one week, or until the outcome
+ is no longer in doubt. Members may change their votes. There is a
+ quorum of two.
+ 2. Details regarding voting
+ The Chairman has a casting vote. When the Technical Committee
+ votes whether to override a Developer who also happens to be a
+ member of the Committee, that member may not vote (unless they are
+ the Chairman, in which case they may use only their casting vote).
+ 3. Public discussion and decision-making.
+ Discussion, draft resolutions and amendments, and votes by members
+ of the committee, are made public on the Technical Committee
+ public discussion list. There is no separate secretary for the
+ Committee.
+ 4. Confidentiality of appointments.
+ The Technical Committee may hold confidential discussions via
+ private email or a private mailing list or other means to discuss
+ appointments to the Committee. However, votes on appointments must
+ be public.
+ 5. No detailed design work.
+ The Technical Committee does not engage in design of new proposals
+ and policies. Such design work should be carried out by
+ individuals privately or together and discussed in ordinary
+ technical policy and design forums.
+ The Technical Committee restricts itself to choosing from or
+ adopting compromises between solutions and decisions which have
+ been proposed and reasonably thoroughly discussed elsewhere.
+ Individual members of the technical committee may of course
+ participate on their own behalf in any aspect of design and policy
+ work.
+ 6. Technical Committee makes decisions only as last resort.
+ The Technical Committee does not make a technical decision until
+ efforts to resolve it via consensus have been tried and failed,
+ unless it has been asked to make a decision by the person or body
+ who would normally be responsible for it.
+
+7. The Project Secretary
+
+ 7.1. Powers
+
+ The Secretary:
+ 1. Takes votes amongst the Developers, and determines the number and
+ identity of Developers, whenever this is required by the
+ constitution.
+ 2. Can stand in for the Leader, together with the Chairman of the
+ Technical Committee.
+ If there is no Project Leader then the Chairman of the Technical
+ Committee and the Project Secretary may by joint agreement make
+ decisions if they consider it imperative to do so.
+ 3. Adjudicates any disputes about interpretation of the constitution.
+ 4. May delegate part or all of their authority to someone else, or
+ withdraw such a delegation at any time.
+
+ 7.2. Appointment
+
+ The Project Secretary is appointed by the Project Leader and the
+ current Project Secretary.
+
+ If the Project Leader and the current Project Secretary cannot agree
+ on a new appointment they must ask the board of SPI (see §9.1.) to
+ appoint a Secretary.
+
+ If there is no Project Secretary or the current Secretary is
+ unavailable and has not delegated authority for a decision then the
+ decision may be made or delegated by the Chairman of the Technical
+ Committee, as Acting Secretary.
+
+ The Project Secretary's term of office is 1 year, at which point they
+ or another Secretary must be (re)appointed.
+
+ 7.3. Procedure
+
+ The Project Secretary should make decisions which are fair and
+ reasonable, and preferably consistent with the consensus of the
+ Developers.
+
+ When acting together to stand in for an absent Project Leader the
+ Chairman of the Technical Committee and the Project Secretary should
+ make decisions only when absolutely necessary and only when consistent
+ with the consensus of the Developers.
+
+8. The Project Leader's Delegates
+
+ 8.1. Powers
+
+ The Project Leader's Delegates:
+ 1. have powers delegated to them by the Project Leader;
+ 2. may make certain decisions which the Leader may not make directly,
+ including approving or expelling Developers or designating people
+ as Developers who do not maintain packages. This is to avoid
+ concentration of power, particularly over membership as a
+ Developer, in the hands of the Project Leader.
+
+ 8.2. Appointment
+
+ The Delegates are appointed by the Project Leader and may be replaced
+ by the Leader at the Leader's discretion. The Project Leader may not
+ make the position as a Delegate conditional on particular decisions by
+ the Delegate, nor may they override a decision made by a Delegate once
+ made.
+
+ 8.3. Procedure
+
+ Delegates may make decisions as they see fit, but should attempt to
+ implement good technical decisions and/or follow consensus opinion.
+
+9. Software in the Public Interest
+
+ SPI and Debian are separate organisations who share some goals. Debian
+ is grateful for the legal support framework offered by SPI. Debian's
+ Developers are currently members of SPI by virtue of their status as
+ Developers.
+
+ 9.1. Authority
+
+ 1. SPI has no authority regarding Debian's technical or nontechnical
+ decisions, except that no decision by Debian with respect to any
+ property held by SPI shall require SPI to act outside its legal
+ authority, and that Debian's constitution may occasionally use SPI
+ as a decision body of last resort.
+ 2. Debian claims no authority over SPI other than that over the use
+ of certain of SPI's property, as described below, though Debian
+ Developers may be granted authority within SPI by SPI's rules.
+ 3. Debian Developers are not agents or employees of SPI, or of each
+ other or of persons in authority in the Debian Project. A person
+ acting as a Developer does so as an individual, on their own
+ behalf.
+
+ 9.2. Management of property for purposes related to Debian
+
+ Since Debian has no authority to hold money or property, any donations
+ for the Debian Project must be made to SPI, which manages such
+ affairs.
+
+ SPI have made the following undertakings:
+ 1. SPI will hold money, trademarks and other tangible and intangible
+ property and manage other affairs for purposes related to Debian.
+ 2. Such property will be accounted for separately and held in trust
+ for those purposes, decided on by Debian and SPI according to this
+ section.
+ 3. SPI will not dispose of or use property held in trust for Debian
+ without approval from Debian, which may be granted by the Project
+ Leader or by General Resolution of the Developers.
+ 4. SPI will consider using or disposing of property held in trust for
+ Debian when asked to do so by the Project Leader.
+ 5. SPI will use or dispose of property held in trust for Debian when
+ asked to do so by a General Resolution of the Developers, provided
+ that this is compatible with SPI's legal authority.
+ 6. SPI will notify the Developers by electronic mail to a Debian
+ Project mailing list when it uses or disposes of property held in
+ trust for Debian.
+
+A. Standard Resolution Procedure
+
+ These rules apply to communal decision-making by committees and
+ plebiscites, where stated above.
+
+ A.1. Proposal
+
+ The formal procedure begins when a draft resolution is proposed and
+ sponsored, as required.
+
+ A.1. Discussion and Amendment
+
+ 1. Following the proposal, the resolution may be discussed.
+ Amendments may be made formal by being proposed and sponsored
+ according to the requirements for a new resolution, or directly by
+ the proposer of the original resolution.
+ 2. A formal amendment may be accepted by the resolution's proposer,
+ in which case the formal resolution draft is immediately changed
+ to match.
+ 3. If a formal amendment is not accepted, or one of the sponsors of
+ the resolution does not agree with the acceptance by the proposer
+ of a formal amendment, the amendment remains as an amendment and
+ will be voted on.
+ 4. If an amendment accepted by the original proposer is not to the
+ liking of others, they may propose another amendment to reverse
+ the earlier change (again, they must meet the requirements for
+ proposer and sponsor(s).)
+ 5. The proposer or a resolution may suggest changes to the wordings
+ of amendments; these take effect if the proposer of the amendment
+ agrees and none of the sponsors object. In this case the changed
+ amendments will be voted on instead of the originals.
+ 6. The proposer of a resolution may make changes to correct minor
+ errors (for example, typographical errors or inconsistencies) or
+ changes which do not alter the meaning, providing noone objects
+ within 24 hours. In this case the minimum discussion period is not
+ restarted.
+
+ A.2. Calling for a vote
+
+ 1. The proposer or a sponsor of a motion or an amendment may call for
+ a vote, providing that the minimum discussion period (if any) has
+ elapsed.
+ 2. The proposer or any sponsor of a resolution may call for a vote on
+ that resolution and all related amendments.
+ 3. The person who calls for a vote states what they believe the
+ wordings of the resolution and any relevant amendments are, and
+ consequently what form the ballot should take. However, the final
+ decision on the form of ballot(s) is the Secretary's - see 7.1(1),
+ 7.1(3) and A.3(4).
+ 4. The minimum discussion period is counted from the time the last
+ formal amendment was accepted, or since the whole resolution was
+ proposed if no amendments have been proposed and accepted.
+
+ A.3. Voting procedure
+
+ 1. Each resolution and its related amendments is voted on in a single
+ ballot that includes an option for the original resolution, each
+ amendment, and the default option (where applicable).
+ 2. The default option must not have any supermajority requirements.
+ Options which do not have an explicit supermajority requirement
+ have a 1:1 majority requirement.
+ 3. The votes are counted according to the rules in A.6. The default
+ option is "Further Discussion", unless specified otherwise.
+ 4. In cases of doubt the Project Secretary shall decide on matters of
+ procedure.
+
+ A.4. Withdrawing resolutions or unaccepted amendments
+
+ The proposer of a resolution or unaccepted amendment may withdraw it.
+ In this case new proposers may come forward keep it alive, in which
+ case the first person to do so becomes the new proposer and any others
+ become sponsors if they aren't sponsors already.
+
+ A sponsor of a resolution or amendment (unless it has been accepted)
+ may withdraw.
+
+ If the withdrawal of the proposer and/or sponsors means that a
+ resolution has no proposer or not enough sponsors it will not be voted
+ on unless this is rectified before the resolution expires.
+
+ A.5. Expiry
+
+ If a proposed resolution has not been discussed, amended, voted on or
+ otherwise dealt with for 4 weeks the secretary may issue a statement
+ that the issue is being withdrawn. If none of the sponsors of any of
+ the proposals object within a week, the issue is withdrawn.
+
+ The secretary may also include suggestions on how to proceed, if
+ appropriate.
+
+ A.6. Vote Counting
+
+ 1. Each voter's ballot ranks the options being voted on. Not all
+ options need be ranked. Ranked options are considered preferred to
+ all unranked options. Voters may rank options equally. Unranked
+ options are considered to be ranked equally with one another.
+ Details of how ballots may be filled out will be included in the
+ Call For Votes.
+ 2. If the ballot has a quorum requirement R any options other than
+ the default option which do not receive at least R votes ranking
+ that option above the default option are dropped from
+ consideration.
+ 3. Any (non-default) option which does not defeat the default option
+ by its required majority ratio is dropped from consideration.
+ 1. Given two options A and B, V(A,B) is the number of voters who
+ prefer option A over option B.
+ 2. An option A defeats the default option D by a majority ratio
+ N, if V(A,D) is strictly greater than N * V(D,A).
+ 3. If a supermajority of S:1 is required for A, its majority
+ ratio is S; otherwise, its majority ratio is 1.
+ 4. From the list of undropped options, we generate a list of pairwise
+ defeats.
+ 1. An option A defeats an option B, if V(A,B) is strictly
+ greater than V(B,A).
+ 5. From the list of [undropped] pairwise defeats, we generate a set
+ of transitive defeats.
+ 1. An option A transitively defeats an option C if A defeats C
+ or if there is some other option B where A defeats B AND B
+ transitively defeats C.
+ 6. We construct the Schwartz set from the set of transitive defeats.
+ 1. An option A is in the Schwartz set if for all options B,
+ either A transitively defeats B, or B does not transitively
+ defeat A.
+ 7. If there are defeats between options in the Schwartz set, we drop
+ the weakest such defeats from the list of pairwise defeats, and
+ return to step 5.
+ 1. A defeat (A,X) is weaker than a defeat (B,Y) if V(A,X) is
+ less than V(B,Y). Also, (A,X) is weaker than (B,Y) if V(A,X)
+ is equal to V(B,Y) and V(X,A) is greater than V(Y,B).
+ 2. A weakest defeat is a defeat that has no other defeat weaker
+ than it. There may be more than one such defeat.
+ 8. If there are no defeats within the Schwartz set, then the winner
+ is chosen from the options in the Schwartz set. If there is only
+ one such option, it is the winner. If there are multiple options,
+ the elector with the casting vote chooses which of those options
+ wins.
+
+ Note: Options which the voters rank above the default option are
+ options they find acceptable. Options ranked below the default options
+ are options they find unacceptable.
+
+ When the Standard Resolution Procedure is to be used, the text which
+ refers to it must specify what is sufficient to have a draft
+ resolution proposed and/or sponsored, what the minimum discussion
+ period is, and what the voting period is. It must also specify any
+ supermajority and/or the quorum (and default option) to be used.
+
+B. Use of language and typography
+
+ The present indicative (`is', for example) means that the statement is
+ a rule in this constitution. `May' or `can' indicates that the person
+ or body has discretion. `Should' means that it would be considered a
+ good thing if the sentence were obeyed, but it is not binding. Text
+ marked as a citation, such as this, is rationale and does not form
+ part of the constitution. It may be used only to aid interpretation in
+ cases of doubt.