Draft:Authoritative legal entity identifier


An authoritative legal entity identifier (ALEI)[1] is an identifier which supports the identification of legal entities within supply chain data, often as an aspect of master data management, and may be used by organizations within supply chain master data as the basis for unambiguous identification of trading partners[2] within digital business transactions[3]. It is a key concept of the ISO 8000 international standard for Data Quality and Enterprise Master Data. See Related key concepts, below.

An entity is a legal entity when it is subject to the legal authority of the jurisdiction of a government giving it the right to enter into a legal contract and as a result is recognizable in a court of law. An authoritative legal entity identifier (ALEI) is an authoritative identifier[4] issued by an organization that is a legal authority. Ergo an authoritative legal entity identifier (ALEI) is the identifier issued by a government when a legal entity is recognized by the government. For a company this is the business registration number issued when it is registered in a jurisdiction. This information is managed within business/corporate/commercial registers by registrars (also known as Administrators) of a given jurisdiction. For individuals this is the birth registration number issued when a birth is registered in a jurisdiction (a birth certificate is an extract from a government registry). For organizations or agencies of government that are formed by government act or decree, the authoritative legal entity identifier (ALEI) is the government reference. The International Business Registration Number (IBRN) adds a prefix that identifies the government jurisdiction that created the legal entity.

Because an authoritative legal entity identifier is the identifier issued by a government when a legal entity is formed and recognized by the government, it differs from a proxy identifier, such as a proxy legal entity identifier like a DUNS Number, a NATO NCAGE code or a GLEIF-LEI (ISO 9362), where the issuers do not have the authority to create legal entities.

References

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  1. ^ International Organization for Standardization (2022) ISO 8000-2:2022(en) Data quality Part 2: Vocabulary paragraph 3.3.7. Geneva: ISO. https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/en/#iso:std:iso:8000:-2:ed-5:v1:en:term:3.2.4
  2. ^ National Institute of Standards and Technology, Research Results and Recommendations for Universally Unique Identifiers in Product Data Standards - Advanced Manufacturing Series (NIST AMS) - 300-12, 2024, https://www.nist.gov/publications/research-results-and-recommendations-universally-unique-identifiers-product-data
  3. ^ UN/CEFACT Forum, Digital Identity Standardization for Trade Facilitation, 2023, Rowley C. Huber H. https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/eData_Digital%20ID%20Standardization%20for%20Trade%20Facilitation%20Presentation_40thCEFACT.pdf
  4. ^ International Organization for Standardization (2022) ISO 8000-2:2022(en) Data quality Part 2: Vocabulary paragraph 3.3.6. Geneva: ISO. https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/en/#iso:std:iso:8000:-2:ed-5:v1:en:term:3.2.4