list_obligations

Lists obligations in the law's own words: every provision of a title in force whose own text says "must", "must not", "shall", "is required to" or "commits an offence", quoted verbatim, with the drafter's headings, a link to the provision and its verification against the authorised PDF. Ask by title (legislation_id or title_id), by regulator (issuing_authority), by topic (words in the headings), or any combination.

Parameters

What a row claims, and what it does not

Each row claims only that this provision's text says "must" (or the other markers), quoted here, under these headings, in this title, made by this regulator. It is found by those words in the provision's own text and nothing else: no model reads or classifies it. It is never a statement of whom the provision applies to or what it means, and the list is "here is what we hold", never everything that bears on a question.

Notes

• Name at least one of legislation_id (a uuid), title_id (an FRL title id such as C2004A00818, or a register id), issuing_authority or topic.
• obligation_id is stable: {title_id}/{component}/{section}/GRC{nn}, for example C2004A00818/main/sec_912a/GRC01 for s 912A(1)(a) of the Corporations Act. It survives every rebuild that leaves its provision in place; a regulator standard's ids change when the standard is re-made. An id is never reused, so a section's numbers can have gaps, and a number minted later can sit earlier in the text: order by the order returned, not by the number.
• Looking up ids you stored. obligation_id=[...] (up to 50, asked on its own) returns lookup: per id, in the order asked, active (its row is in items), superseded with superseded_by and current_obligation_id (the active id that holds its words now - ask for that one), or removed (no single obligation on a provision containing it holds its words); ids never issued are listed in not_found. A rebuild that moves a list's closing words from its last item up to the subsection supersedes the item's id this way: C2004A00818/main/sec_738za/GRC08 (s 738ZA(6)(b)) is superseded by GRC13 (s 738ZA(6)).
• content_hash is a hash of a row's wording (lead-in, text and penalty), so two rows with identical words share it (s 110F(3) and s 110G(3)). Key on obligation_id; compare the hash to see when the wording changed.
• A list under one lead-in is one row per item where nothing in the words makes one item depend on another: s 912A(1) is thirteen rows, each with lead_in "A financial services licensee must:". An offence, a lead-in with a condition ("if", "unless", "where"...), items that are alternatives ("; or", "one of the following") or a penalty keep the provision as one row.
• topic matches words anywhere in the drafter's headings - the Chapter, Part, Division and section headings of an Act, the cross-headings and attachments of a standard - case-insensitively, at least 3 characters.
• group_by="topic" with a title returns how many obligations sit under each heading chain, cut to depth levels (1 to 3, default 2), in the order the Act prints them: the Corporations Act has 221 groups at depth 2. groups_total says how many there are; where they do not fit the response size limit the first ones are returned with truncated (depth 3 for the Corporations Act is 756), so ask with a smaller depth or narrow with topic.
• flags mark wordings to weigh before relying on a row: deeming ("must be taken to"), may_not ("may not", which can mean "might not"), is_not_to_be, in_parentheses (the marker sits in brackets, such as a cited section's name), and notional_modification (the duty is in text an instrument writes into an Act as it applies to the people it covers, as ASIC relief does).
• penalty_text is a Penalty printed in the provision itself. penalties is what the Act's own penalty table lists for it (the Corporations Act's Schedule 3), present only where the table lists something. The table names subsections and sections as wholes, so a row also carries what is listed for a subsection or section containing it, each such entry marked listed_for with that provision's pinpoint: Schedule 3 lists "Subsections 738ZA(1), (3) ...", so s 738ZA(3)(a) and (b) each carry it with listed_for: "s 738ZA(3)". A penalty listed for one item is never shown on another. Neither field is a statement that no other consequence applies.
• anchor says whether the provision's words are verified against the authorised PDF; verified_only=true lists only those that are.
• not_listed counts what the titles asked about hold but this tool does not list: titles held as one block (no sections), provisions without a stable address, provisions whose stored text could not be separated from their sub-provisions, and text an amending provision inserts into another law. pending_reextraction_on_this_page counts rows withheld because the provision's text changed since the obligation was read; they return after the nightly update.
• Paging. Pages of 10 by default, up to 200; a page is cut to the response size limit where it must and says truncated. Pass next_cursor as cursor until it is null: nothing is missed or repeated.
• Titles in force today only; a title not in force is refused with TITLE_NOT_IN_FORCE.

Data currency: Advisor serves the text of titles that the Federal Register of Legislation records as in force. It does not return the text of a repealed, ceased or sunset title, for any date.

• A title or a served provision carries a status block (status, or in_force in a list) with in_force, frl_status and confirmed_with_frl_at: when Advisor last confirmed the status with the Federal Register.
• Served text and search hits carry a compilation block with register_id, compilation_no, check_date and state. state is one of four values:
  • current: the Federal Register's latest list names the compilation the text comes from.
  • not_current: the Federal Register lists a newer compilation. Tell the user, and use the frl_link in the response.
  • pending_compilation: amendments have commenced that are not yet compiled, so the text does not include them.
  • not_confirmed: the Federal Register lists no current compilation, or Advisor holds no record of one. Treat it as unknown.
• TITLE_NOT_IN_FORCE and COMPILATION_NOT_CURRENT are answers, not failures. Show the user the Federal Register link in the response and do not fill the gap from another source.

Errors

Related tools

• get_provision_text, for the full text of a provision a row names
• list_issuing_authorities
• search_provisions