Authority Jieyue Gu (single work)
Authority embodies the power or right, which is able to enforce laws, exact obedience, and command, determine, or judge, an example that invested with this power could be a government or body of government officials. In addition, it is assigned to another (authorization), for example: the deputies were given authority to make arrests.
Generally this kind of power is derived from opinion, respect, esteem, personal status or mental /moral superiority, and the like.
People or (public) institutions/ facilities exercise their power in virtue of the office or trust; dominion; jurisdiction; authorization, as the authority of a prince over subjects, and of parents over children, or the authority of a court.
Source:
- The American Heritage Dictionary of thhe English Language,
Fourth Edition. Published by Houghton Mifflin
Company
- Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Authorities are divided into general or special. A general authority is extending to all acts, which connected with a particular employment. A special authority is one restricted to an individual instance.
They are also divided into limited and unlimited. For example when an agent is bound by precise instructions, it is limited, and unlimited is when he is left to pursue his own discretion.
An authority is either express or
implied. An express authority may be by deed of by parol, which
is not in writing under seal, or verbally, but the authority must
have been actually given. An implied authority is one which,
although no proof exists of its having been actually given, may
be inferred from the conduct of the principal; for example, when
a man leaves his wife without support, the law presumes he
authorizes her to buy necessaries for her maintenance; or if a
master, usually send his servant to buy goods for him upon
credit, and the servant buy some things without the master's
orders, yet the latter will be liable upon the implied authority.
Only the person to whom it is given, for the confidence being
personal, cannot be assigned to a stranger, can execute a
delegated authority. One cannot execute an authority given to two.
And an authority given to three together and separately, is not,
in general, well executed by two. These rules apply to on
authority of a private nature, which must be executed by all to
whom it is given; and not to a power of a public nature, which
may be executed by all to whom majority. When the authority is
particular, it must in general be strictly pursued, or it will be
void, unless the variance is merely circumstantial.
As to the form to be observed in the execution of an authority,
it is a general rule that an act done under a power of lawyer
must be done in the name of the person who gives a power, and not
in the lawyer 's name. It has been held that the name of the
lawyer is not necessary. But it matters not in what words this is
done, if it sufficiently appear to be in the name of the
principal.
In general, an authority is revocable, unless it is given as a
security, or it be coupled with an interest. The revocation is
either express or implied; when it is express and made known to
the person authorized, the authority is at an end.
An authority is to be so construed as to take in all necessary or
usual means of executing it with effect and when the agent acts,
avowedly as such, within his authority, he is not personally
responsible.
Source: