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Section 10.1.1 (xsl:context-item) makes conflicting statements about whether or not the context item is converted to the required type. First it says: No attempt is made to convert the context item to the required type (using the function conversion rules or otherwise). Later it says: If a context item is supplied (which will automatically be the case if the template is invoked using xsl:apply-templates, xsl:apply-imports, or xsl:next-match) then it will be converted to the required type by applying the function conversion rules; a type error [see ERR XTTE0590] occurs if conversion to the required type is not possible. Both designs are feasible, but I'm inclined to go for the "no conversion" option to avoid complications. For example, if a template matches a node and then atomizes it for processing, what does xsl:next-match do?
Note that xsl:global-context-item says unambiguously that the supplied item *is* converted to the required type. In this case I don't see the same complications arising, but on the other hand, there's no real need for conversion in practice, given that the declared global context item type will almost invariably be a node test, and if the required type is a node then no conversion happens anyway.
The WG decided that no conversion should occur for xsl:context-item but conversion should occur for xsl:global-context-item.