legal force
Law's binding effect
Legal force is the power to compel compliance or create binding obligations under law.
A contract has legal force when courts will enforce it.
A statute takes legal force upon enactment.
The agreement lacks legal force without both signatures.
Distinguished from moral or social pressure, legal force implies state-backed consequences for noncompliance.
- bindingLegally or morally required
- enforceableAble to be upheld
- validityQuality of being sound
- rule of lawSupremacy of established laws
- statuteEnacted written rule
authority · due process · compel · mandate · jurisdiction · long arm · court order · coercion · power · sanction · obligatory · in effect · decree · writ · compliance · by the book · letter of the law · execution
legal forcenon-binding
Not legally enforceable
advisory · unenforceable · voluntary · precatory · hortatory
legal forcenull and void
Without legal effect
invalid · void · nullity · inoperative · unenforceable
legal forceinvalid
Without legal force
null and void · unofficial · informal · de facto · extralegal
legal, force, legally, legality, illegal, illegally, legalize, legalization, legalism