Severability

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Profound ontological uncertainty writ large. If one aspect of my contract is illegal, what does that mean for the rest of it? This is really a way of looking at the question of illegality, the general proposition for which is that a contract which obliged its participants to do llegal things is void and unenforceable as a matter of pubic policy.

So if you hire an assassin to kill your spouse and the assassin fails to, don’t expect her majesty’s courts to grant you damages, much less the courts of equity to award specific performance.

Straightforward enough. But, still hypotheticals fester, at least in the minds of assiduous draftspeople the world over, but not one which often troubles the judiciary. What if only a teeny little bit of it is illegal?

These are the real world concerns to which modern lawyers turn their minds. Gratifying, isn’t it.