intra vires

Latin · IN-truh VY-reez · Constitutional and administrative

Meaning. Within the powers: an act done within the legal authority of the person or body doing it.

An act is intra vires when it falls within the power conferred by the source of authority: the Constitution for a statute, the parent Act for delegated legislation, the memorandum of association for a company, or the law for an administrative authority. Its opposite is ultra vires, which makes the act void.

Courts test delegated legislation by asking whether the rule is within the rule-making power, is consistent with the parent Act and does not offend the Constitution. A statute is intra vires Parliament or a State legislature when it relates to an entry in the appropriate list of the Seventh Schedule and does not violate fundamental rights. Something may be intra vires the Act yet still be struck down for unreasonableness or mala fides, so the two questions should be kept separate.

Example

The court held the fee rule intra vires the parent Act, which expressly empowered the government to levy fees for licences.

intra vires

Example

See also