Consent

“ The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this—that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot. ”

“ But if only one meets with approval, then consent and choice do not differ in reality, but only in our way of looking at them; so that we call it consent, according as we approve of doing that thing; but choice according as we prefer it to those that do not meet with our approval. ”

“ How any man can have consented to institutions established in distant ages, it will be difficult to explain. In the most favourite residence of liberty, the consent of individuals is merely passive, a tacit admission in every community of the terms which that community grants and requires. As all are born the subjects of some state of other, we may be said to have been all born consenting to some system of Government. ”

“ But nothing hinders the use of one thing preceding the choice of another. And since the acts of the will react on one another, in each act of the will we can find both consent and choice and use; so that we may say that the will consents to choose, and consents to consent, and uses itself in consenting and choosing. ”

“ This conclusive presumption of the truth of consensual declarations of right is, however, only one of the foundations of the law of agreement. Consent is in many cases truly constitutive of right, instead of merely evidential of it. It is one of the leading principles of justice to guarantee to men the fulfilment of their reasonable expectations. In all matters that are otherwise indifferent, expectation is of predominant influence in the determination of the rule of right, and of all the grounds of rational expectation there is none of such general importance as mutual consent. ”

“ Also we must realize that the authority that makes the law is itself superior to it, and that if it consents to apply to itself the rules that it applies to others the consent is free and may be withheld. ”

“ Can it not only rob us of the power to will, not only force us to act without consent, but also force the will, force us to consent? Never; and the simple reason is that we cannot do two contradictory things at the same time—consent and not consent, for that is what it means to be forced to consent. Violence and fear may weaken the will so that it finally yield. The fault, if fault there be, may be less inexcusable by reason of the pressure under which it labored. But once we have willed, we have willed, and essentially, there is nothing unwilling about what is willingly done. ”

“ To denominate either temper or conduct morally good or evil, consent is necessary, to suppose consent, in the creature, to be the effect of almighty power operating upon it, nullifies it to the creature, in a moral view. The work of God cannot be the sin, or holiness, of the creature. ”

“ Obstacles to Consent.—The obstacles to consent are all those factors that take away or lessen the voluntariness of an act. (a) Thus, the actual obstacles that affect the intellect are reduced to ignorance, spoken of above; those that affect the will are passion and fear, and that which affects the external powers is coercion. ”

“ But, which is worse, this argument of universal consent, which is made use of to prove innate principles, seems to me a demonstration that there are none such: because there are none to which all mankind give an universal assent. ”

“ The parties must have liberty—for "Nil consensui tam contrarium est, quam vis atque metus; quem comprobare, contra bonos mores est." Nothing is so discordant with consent, as force and fear—it is a crime against the good of society, to approve of them." ”

“ Every man being, as has been shewed, naturally free, and nothing being able to put him into subjection to any earthly power, but only his own consent; it is to be considered, what shall be understood to be a sufficient declaration of a man's consent, to make him subject to the laws of any government. There is a common distinction of an express and a tacit consent, which will concern our present case. No body doubts but an express consent, of any man entering into any society, makes him a perfect member of that society, a subject of that government. ”

“ Still less can these principles be discovered in the common consent of all men who busy themselves with this matter, in the consent which we may take as a practical foundation, as an expression of the universal common sense. ”

“ It is consent alone, that makes any human laws binding; and as a learned author observes, a purely voluntary submission to an act, because it is highly in our favor and for our benefit, is in all equity and justice, to be deemed as not at all proceeding from the right we include in the Legislators, that they, thereby obtain an authority over us, and that ever hereafter, we must obey them of duty. ”

“ We, in the name of our past trials - as men who have abandoned none of our convictions - who abjure none of our former opinions - who believe you to be as unchanged as ourselves - we beg of you to consent to represent us. ”

“ A father may represent his son in Court [31] and sue and defend in his name, but if he does so without leave from the Court he will be personally answerable for costs, if the suit proves unsuccessful. [32]
3. Consent to marriage of minor children; 3. Consent to marriage of minor children. The consent of parents is necessary to the marriage of minor children, [33] and without it the marriage is null and void. [34] Consent may be either express or implied. It is implied if the father knows that the marriage of the minor is about to take place and does not forbid it. ”

“ Nothing also is done without the consent, expressly given, of all parties in being and capable of consent, that have the remotest interest in the matter; unless such consent shall appear to be perversely and without any reason withheld. ”

“ Common consent, again, is an insufficient basis of natural law, few men having searched into the foundations of their assent, even if we could find a more general consent than is the case. And here he expatiates, in the style of Montaigne’s school, on the variety of moral opinions. ”

“ Can the will, under the predetermining influence of the gratia efficax, change its consent into dissent at any time and as easily as a man who is sitting on a chair can rise and thereby demonstrate that his sitting was an absolutely free act? ”

“ This consent, provided it be free, and fairly obtained, is the best proof that can be produced, that, to the person who gives it, no mischief, at least no immediate mischief, upon the whole, is done. For no man can be so good a judge as the man himself, what it is gives him pleasure or displeasure. ”

“ Whether a constant man can be compelled by fear?
(3) Whether compulsory consent invalidates marriage?
(4) Whether compulsory consent makes a marriage as regards the party using compulsion?
(5) Whether conditional consent makes a marriage?
(6) Whether one can be compelled by one's father to marry?
Art. 1 - Whether a compulsory consent is possible? Objection 1: It would seem that no consent can be compulsory. For, as stated above (Sent. ii, D, 25 [* [4944] FS, Q [6] , A [4] ] ) the free-will cannot be compelled. Now consent is an act of the free-will. ”

“ That is, that it must not intentionally and knowingly consent with the will to imperfections, and it must have power and liberty to be able not so to consent intentionally. I say knowingly, because, unintentionally and unknowingly, or without having the power to do otherwise, it may well fall into imperfections and venial sins, and into the natural desires whereof we have spoken; for of such sins as these which are not voluntary and surreptitious it is written that the just man shall fall seven times in the day and shall rise up again. ”

“ Introduction.—The law of England regards marriage as a contract, a status and an institution. As a contract it is in its essence an expressed consent on the part of a man and woman, competent to make the contract, to cohabit with each other as husband and wife, and with each other only. ”

“ There is, therefore, no alternative but to say, either that the separate, individual consent of every man, who is required to aid, in any way, in supporting the government, is necessary, or that the consent of no one is necessary. ”

“ When the wills of many concur to one and the same action and effect, this concourse of their wills is called consent; by which we must not understand one will of many men, for every man hath his several will, but many wills to the producing of one effect: but when the wills of two divers men produce such actions as are reciprocally resistant one to the other, this is called contention; and, being upon the persons one of another, battle: whereas actions proceeding from consent, are mutual aid. ”

“ This consent of mankind in first principles, and this endless variety in their application, which is one among many valuable truths which we may collect from our present extensive acquaintance with the history of man, is itself of vast importance. Much of the majesty and authority of virtue is derived from their consent, and almost the whole of practical wisdom is founded on their variety. ”

“ It is lawful to profess or subscribe our assent and consent to any human writing which we judge to be true and good, according to the measure of its truth and goodness; as if church confessions that are sound be offered us for our consent, we may say or subscribe, I hold all the doctrine in this book to be true and good. ”

“ Voidable Marriages.—The validity of a marriage which has been contracted without the free consent of both parties, or without the free consent of one of them, can only be impugned by the parties themselves or by the party whose consent was not freely given.
When there has been an honest mistake as to the personality of one of the parties the validity of the marriage can only be impugned by the person who was misled. ”

“ There are some vices and errours which, though often fatal to those in whom they are found, have yet, by the universal consent of mankind, been considered as intitled to some degree of respect, or have, at least, been exempted from contemptuous infamy, and condemned by the severest moralists with pity rather than detestation. ”

“ For the will of the lawgiver is manifested not only by words, as happens in the written law, but also and more clearly by repeated and continued acts, as happens in the case of the unwritten law of custom. In a democracy it is the consent of the people who follow the custom as law that imposes the obligation; in a monarchy it is the consent of the ruler who permits the custom. ”

“ Consent may be limited in any way by the person granting consent, including limitations in terms of time, place, or property and may be withdrawn at any time.
(4) Voluntariness. To be valid, consent must be given voluntarily. ”

“ Hence it is evident that they said well who asserted that to consent to marriage is to consent to carnal intercourse implicitly and not explicitly. For carnal intercourse is not to be understood, except as an effect is implicitly contained in its cause, for the power to have carnal intercourse, which power is the object of the consent, is the cause of carnal intercourse, just as the power to use one's own property is the cause of the use. ”

“ You ought, then, to have satisfied all who are in agreement with you, that the action which is being taken may be ratified by the general consent, and that peace may not be broken by the acceptance of some while others are kept apart. ”

“ And there are other actions which, by the same consent, are allowed to deserve reward, and that universal consent forms a kind of law. So the holy, just, and true law of God is needed as a standard by which men’s actions may be judged. ”

“ God’s people must enjoy their liberty of conscience, and not be forced; but all the subjects in a kingdom or monarchy, or the whole world beside, must be compelled by the power of the civil sword to assemble thus and thus.
Secondly, I demand, who shall judge whether they are God’s people or no? for they say, whether the magistrate consent or consent not, that is, judge so or not, they ought to go on in the ordinances, renuente magistratu.
If the civil magistrate be to build the spiritual or Christian house, he must judge in the matter. ”

“ Laws therefore human, of what kind soever, are available by consent.
No nobler or clearer example than this could be given of what an idea is as contra-distinguished from a conception of the understanding, correspondent to some fact or facts,
quorum notæ communes concapiuntur
, — the common characters of which are taken together under one distinct exponent, hence named a conception; and conceptions are internal subjective words. Reflect on an original social contract, as an event or historical fact; and its gross improbability, not to say impossibility, will stare you in the face. ”

“ The first, therefore, and HIGHEST DEGREE OF PROBABILITY, is, when the general consent of all men, in all ages, as far as it can be known, concurs with a man's constant and never-failing experience in like cases, to confirm the truth of any particular matter of fact attested by fair witnesses: such are all the stated constitutions and properties of bodies, and the regular proceedings of causes and effects in the ordinary course of nature. ”

“ As marriage is an engagement entered into by mutual consent, and has for its end the propagation of the species, it is evident, that it must be susceptible of all the variety of conditions, which consent establishes, provided they be not contrary to this end. ”

“ When the marriage is of a minor, without the authority of a license, the person solemnizing is required to satisfy himself that banns have been duly published, and that the consent of parent or guardian has been obtained. ”

“ But for causes existing at the time of marriage, where either of the parties is incapable of contracting for want of age or understanding, or from physical causes, or where consent has been obtained through force or fraud, the marriage is void only from the time its nullity shall be declared by a court of competent authority. ”

“ This Argument, drawn from Universal Consent, has this Misfortune in it, That if it were true in matter of Fact, that there were certain Truths, wherein all Mankind agreed, it would not prove them innate, if there can be any other way shewn how Men may come to that Universal Agreement in the things they do consent in ”