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Consent is one of the foundational principles of Western liberal legalism, although legal doctrine is surprisingly inattentive to how it is constructed and contested. In a very general way, consent by citizens to the exercise of governmental power can act to legalize state conduct that otherwise would violate their civil and human rights; that is, the legitimacy of the state itself rests on the notion of the "consent of the governed." Consent is also relevant to both criminal and civil law: for example, in the criminal law, consent polices the boundaries between rape and sex, between theft and gift; and, in the civil law, consent to the terms of agreements is the basis of contract law enforcement. |
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