Template:Sovereign immunity and ultra vires: Difference between revisions
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Don’t confuse [[sovereign immunity]] with {{t|ultra vires}} — cue thunder crack at the mention of [[Orange County]] or [[Hammersmith and Fulham council]] — for they are quite different things. | Don’t confuse [[sovereign immunity]] with {{t|ultra vires}} — cue thunder crack at the mention of [[Orange County]] or [[Hammersmith and Fulham council]] and a [[dramatic look gopher|dramatic look from our house gopher]] — for they are quite different things. | ||
*'''{{t|Ultra vires}}''': If | *'''{{t|Ultra vires}}''': If a contract is beyond your powers or capacity to enter into a {{t|contract}} in the first place then it is void ''[[ab initio]]''; any payments you have made under that contract are also void and you may reclaim them<ref>But — ''quid pro quo, Clarice'' — any profits you have made you must also disgorge.</ref>, and you can appeal to the court system to do that. That is to say, [[ultra vires]] is an “intra-legal” measure, recognised, defended and enforced by the courts. | ||
*'''{{t|Sovereign immunity}}''': Sovereign immunity is a different, “extra-legal” thing: it is to say “I am, quite literally, above the law: I ''am'' the law, and I do not have to subject myself to the judicial branch of my law — or anyone else’s law — unless I choose to.” This extends to being free from judicial intervention if I decide not to perform my contractual obligations, but it also means I cannot myself resort to the court process to make my counterparty perform ''its'' obligations. If I choose to go to court, then I subject myself fully to the courts as regards actions my counterparty wishes to bring against me. | *'''{{t|Sovereign immunity}}''': [[Sovereign immunity]] is a different, “extra-legal” thing: it is to say “I am, quite literally, above the law: I ''am'' the law, and I do not have to subject myself to the judicial branch of my law — or anyone else’s law — unless I choose to.” This extends to being free from judicial intervention if I decide not to perform my contractual obligations, but it also means I cannot myself resort to the court process to make my counterparty perform ''its'' obligations. If I choose to go to court, then I subject myself fully to the courts as regards actions my counterparty wishes to bring against me. | ||
Latest revision as of 12:43, 3 March 2020
Don’t confuse sovereign immunity with ultra vires — cue thunder crack at the mention of Orange County or Hammersmith and Fulham council and a dramatic look from our house gopher — for they are quite different things.
- Ultra vires: If a contract is beyond your powers or capacity to enter into a contract in the first place then it is void ab initio; any payments you have made under that contract are also void and you may reclaim them[1], and you can appeal to the court system to do that. That is to say, ultra vires is an “intra-legal” measure, recognised, defended and enforced by the courts.
- Sovereign immunity: Sovereign immunity is a different, “extra-legal” thing: it is to say “I am, quite literally, above the law: I am the law, and I do not have to subject myself to the judicial branch of my law — or anyone else’s law — unless I choose to.” This extends to being free from judicial intervention if I decide not to perform my contractual obligations, but it also means I cannot myself resort to the court process to make my counterparty perform its obligations. If I choose to go to court, then I subject myself fully to the courts as regards actions my counterparty wishes to bring against me.
- ↑ But — quid pro quo, Clarice — any profits you have made you must also disgorge.