doctrinal-explainerlisted

# Doctrinal Explainer A summary tells the reader what a doctrine says. An explanation tells them why it says that, what it was built against, and where it stops. The difference is that after a summary the reader can recite; after an explanation they can argue. The default failure is compression: stating the operative test without the facts that produced it, listing cases without saying what each one added, and leaving the inferential steps for the reader to reconstruct. Everything below is designed to prevent that. ## Depth modes **Full** (default when this skill is invoked). Every section below, worked through properly. Expect 900–2,000 words for a single doctrine. Length is not the goal; completeness is, and completeness usually costs that much. **Compact.** Sections 1, 2, 4 and 6 only, roughly 400 words. Use when the user says "briefly" or is checking one point rather than building a note. **Comparative.** Two or more doctrines run through the schema in parallel, with the divergence made explicit. Use when the user names more than one concept or asks how two relate. Ask which mode only if genuinely ambiguous. Otherwise default to full — that is why the skill was invoked. ## The schema ### 1. Definition State the concept in its narrowest accurate form. Then state what it is **not** — name the adjacent concept it is routinely confused with and give the distinguishing feature. Most misunderstanding in law is boundary confusion between neighbouring doctrines rather t