"Everything which is not forbidden is allowed" is a legal maxim. It is the concept that any action can be taken unless there is a law against it.[1][2] It is also known in some situations as the "general power of competence" whereby the body or person being regulated is acknowledged to have competent judgement of their scope of action.
The opposite principle "everything which is not allowed is forbidden" states that an action can only be taken if it is specifically allowed.
A senior English judge, Sir John Laws, stated the principles as: "For the individual citizen, everything which is not forbidden is allowed; but for public bodies, and notably government, everything which is not allowed is forbidden."[3] Legal philosopher Ota Weinberger put it this way: "In a closed system in which all obligations are stated explicitly the following inference rules are valid: (XI) Everything which is not forbidden is allowed".[4]
- ^ Slynn, Gordon; Andenæs, Mads Tønnesson; Fairgrieve, Duncan (2000), Judicial review in international perspective, Kluwer Law International, p. 256, ISBN 9789041113788
- ^ Glanville Williams, "The Concept of Legal Liberty", Columbia Law Review 56 (1956): 1729. Cited in Dimitry Kochenov (2019), Citizenship, ISBN 9780262537797, p. 159.
- ^ Laws, John (2 October 2017). "The Rule of Law: The Presumption of Liberty and Justice". Judicial Review. 22 (4): 365–373. doi:10.1080/10854681.2017.1407068. S2CID 158167115 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
- ^ Weinberger, Ota (29 October 1988). "The Role of Rules". Ratio Juris. 1 (3): 224–240. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9337.1988.tb00016.x – via Wiley Online Library.