# ultra vires (unauthorized)

Of an act outside the reach a law gave the one acting, so the walls it sets do not hold and the law reads it as never done.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [reach](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reach.action), [act](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-act.deed), [law](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-law.rule), [give](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-give.transfer), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end), [set](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-set.fix), [hold](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-hold.physical), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [power](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-power.over), [never](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-never.temporal), [outside](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-outside.spatial)

**Through:** A body holds only the reach a law gives it; an act past that edge is not stopped or punished but not recognized, so the walls it tried to set on others never stand. The penalty is authorship removed rather than a wall enforced.

**Novel properties:**
- reach that exists only as given
- a wall enforced by not recognizing the crossing
- an act done in the world and void in the law

## Examples
- In Hazell v Hammersmith and Fulham LBC (1991), the House of Lords held that English councils had no power to enter interest rate swaps, so those contracts were void as ultra vires. *(law)*

---
*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-ultra-vires.unauthorized*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-ultra-vires.unauthorized.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*