Sci-Finance™
A method for seeing the relationships inside ordinary economic life.
Start with the relationship. Identify the Thing. Inspect the Things inside the Thing. Separate proximity from legal consequence. Trace capacity to authority. Find the record. Ask what changed.
Not a statement of law.
Sci-Finance™ Analytical Route
Sci-Finance™ ≠ Governing Law
Sci-Finance™ is an analytical and educational framework. A Sci-Finance™ concept can help a reader inspect a legal or economic relationship, but it does not replace statutes, regulations, cases, governing instruments, professional advice, or jurisdiction-specific law.
Each concept below is a Sci-Finance™ analytical tool. None is a statute, case, regulation, or statement of governing law. Interchange links show where a concept connects to conventional legal terminology — connection is not equivalence.
Real PIPS™™
Parties · Intentions · Purpose · Subject Matter
A Sci-Finance™ analytical framework for identifying the essential components of a relationship before deciding what legal, financial, or institutional structure applies.
Who are the legally or economically relevant people or entities?
What relationship did they intend to establish?
What is the arrangement supposed to accomplish?
What property, right, interest, or obligation is actually involved?
Thing Inside a Thing
Inspect the component parts.
A method of inspecting a larger transaction, institution, document, asset, or relationship for its distinct component parts.
Law of Proximity
Nearness is not merger.
Things placed near each other can create a meaningful relationship without thereby establishing shared ownership, authority, merger, conveyance, privity, lineage, or causation.
Subsection
Change analytical resolution.
A method of changing analytical resolution: identifying the particular part of a larger Thing that actually matters to the question.
Capacity
Which role matters for this act?
Ask which role or legal position matters for the particular act being examined. The same natural person may occupy more than one capacity.
Authority
What actually authorizes the act?
Ask what actually authorizes the act. Do not infer authority merely from title, proximity, participation, or appearance.
Record
What survives as evidence?
Ask what surviving instrument, entry, communication, filing, receipt, ledger, work product, or other evidence records the relevant event or relationship.
Consequence
What actually changed?
Ask what actually changed because of the act. Did title change? Did possession change? Did authority change? Did a beneficial interest arise?
Access to Equity
How does a person obtain meaningful access?
Examine how a person obtains meaningful access to property, ownership, economic participation, rights, opportunity, or other forms of equity through the actual relationship being studied.
Identifying a relationship between two Things does not establish that they are the same Thing, that one controls the other, that one owns the other, or that the legal consequences applicable to one apply to the other. Establish the relationship first. Then determine its consequences separately.
Sci-Finance™ concepts appear in the Sci-Finance Interchange section of each station wiki entry, where they connect to conventional legal terminology.
← VEL XENON HOMESci-Finance™ and Real PIPS™ are trademarks of the Vel Xenon Legal Information Institute. Vel Xenon LII provides general legal information and educational material, not individualized legal advice. Law varies by jurisdiction and changes over time. Consult the underlying authorities and, when appropriate, a qualified professional for advice concerning a particular situation.