- Consensus tacit jus
- Consent makes law. The parties make their own law by their agreement. Shields v Ohio, 95 US 319, 326, 24 L Ed 357, 359. The maxim probably means that it is the consent of the governed which causes law to come into being, and conversely that without such consent we would have no law. St. Louis & San Francisco R. Co. v Gill, 54 Ark 101, 15 SW 18. Taking account of the off repeated axiom that "there is no law in a settlement," perhaps the real meaning of the maxim is that consent takes the place of law.
Ballentine's law dictionary. Anderson, W.S.. 1998.