Legal Theory and Concepts
Intermediate
Disability
The correlative position of another person's immunity: the absence of legal power to alter that person's legal relations.
Why It Matters
Disability identifies limits on legal authority. It is useful when asking whether a board, shareholder, regulator, court, or contracting party has the legal power it purports to exercise.
Selected Literature
A short list of directly relevant archive entries.
1913
Introductory
Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning
Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld
Yale Law Journal
1917
Introductory
Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning
Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld
Yale Law Journal
Related Cases
1819
Financial Law
McCulloch v. Maryland
17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316 (1819)
Federal power to charter a national bank and state authority to tax federal banking operations.
1985
Corporate Law
Moran v. Household International, Inc.
500 A.2d 1346 (Del. 1985)
Validity of the shareholder rights plan as an antitakeover device.
1988
Corporate Law
Blasius Industries, Inc. v. Atlas Corp.
564 A.2d 651 (Del. Ch. 1988)
Board action taken for the primary purpose of interfering with shareholder voting power.
1995
Financial Law
NationsBank of N.C. v. Variable Annuity Life Insurance Co.
513 U.S. 251 (1995)
National bank authority to broker annuities and the scope of incidental banking powers.