authority
Authority is the official permission or right to act, often on behalf of another. Authority may also be a person or institution that has power over another person.
Authority as agency is the power to act on behalf of another; the power delegated by a principal to an agent . Authority is central to the law of agency —if someone takes an action on behalf of another without the authority to do so, the action is usually void . Actions carried out beyond or outside the scope of one’s authority are ultra vires (beyond the powers).
In the context of agency, authority may either be actual or implied/apparent/constructive. Actual authority is expressly or explicitly delegated by a principal to an agent. Implied authority, on the other hand, is not expressly delegated; instead, it is circumstantially inferred that the principal is meant to confer this authority upon the agent.
[Last reviewed June of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team ]
Wex