Explicating the Concept of Legal Competence

Abstract

In everyday language the term ‘competence’ can mean proficiency or authority. A person can be a competent decision maker in the sense that as a rule he makes good and right decisions, but he can also be competent in the sense that he has the authority to make certain kinds of decision. My concern here is with competence in the sense of authority.¹ The concept of legal competence, thus conceived, is a normative concept, in the sense that a person has competence by virtue of a norm, and that the exercise of competence changes a person’s normative position.