Your Consent

You are born equal in standing to any other man or woman. While you respect the equal rights of others, no power can be granted over you without your consent. To believe otherwise is to accept the posture of a slave.

“Every man is independent of all laws, except those prescribed by nature. He is not bound by any institutions formed by his fellowmen without his consent.”

Cruden v. Neale, 2 N.C. 338 (1796) 2 S.E. 70.

Consent is your agreement that something may happen involving your rights. It is voluntary—a free choice—and must be given willingly. It includes agreement, permission, approval, or acquiescence (including silent acquiescence). Holding the right of consent means holding the right of contract.

A sovereign man or woman permanently reserves the right of consent and all unalienable rights for life. That right is inborn (private) and comes before the creation of the State (public).

Representative governments are elected and restrained by people who use their right of consent. The right to give consent—or to refuse it—is not switched off between elections. Only by refusing onerous governance can people check the slide into exploitation, oppression, and tyranny.

All governments, whatever their political form, govern subject to the consent of the people—each one, every day, every moment. The people of a nation stand above any government they create, because what is created cannot sit above its creator. The informed, freely given consent of each man and woman gives rise to and maintains the law of the nation—the Law of the Land. As the maxim says: consent makes the law.

True consent must be fully informed and willing. Consent taken by non-disclosure, deceit, or coercion is false and revocable. Anyone who consented under those conditions may withdraw consent retroactively—“now for then,” nunc pro tunc—undoing the matter and correcting errors or omissions caused.

De facto incorporated governments cannot have jurisdiction over de jure living people except by fully disclosed, willful consent. Each statute enacted by legislation requires consent from each man and woman—including you.

Consent is often given unknowingly

Consent includes to “yield” and to “give way.” The moment you agree to what you are asked to do, you give consent.

If an artificial-person NAME receives a parking ticket in legal-fiction commerce, that ticket is an invitation for a living man or woman to “pay.” If you pay it, you consent to the ticket contract.

Even police need consent. Before arrest, rights are read and the question “do you understand?” is put—stand under their authority. Answering “yes” is treated as consent.

All statutes, codes, rules, regulations, and by-laws are commercial contracts written by government that require fully informed consent. Any State document requiring a signature is a contract by consent. If you do not consent to a statutory contract, it is not enforceable on you.

Any attempt to make you consent against your will is coercion. Any threat to make you “sign” a contract to obtain your property is duress for the purpose of extortion, whether or not the property (including money) is obtained. Any legal-person actor who tries to compel joinder to the artificial person NAME without full disclosure of information that could affect your decision commits personage—a crime involving deceit under frameworks such as Section 240 of the New Zealand Crimes Act in that educational reference.

An artificial person is a fictional creation of the State and is controlled by the State. The legal artificial person NAME is government property—employee, servant, franchise, debtor, surety for liabilities—bound to comply with statutes (acts, bills, rules, legislative instruments) as the terms and conditions of that status.

Fictional creatures of the State have status. Living men and women with flesh and blood have standing. The artificial person has no standing. The whole idea of fictional entities is an abstraction of mind—an illusion that depends entirely on consent. Legal fictions are dead-at-law; it is unnatural for a living man or woman to join a fiction. That joinder is a corruption of life.

“Inasmuch as every [incorporated] government is an artificial person, an abstraction, and a creature of the mind only, a government can interface only with other artificial persons. The imaginary, having neither actuality nor substance, is foreclosed from creating and attaining parity with the tangible. The legal manifestation of this is that no government, as well as any law, agency, aspect, court, etc. can concern itself with anything other than corporate, artificial persons and the contracts between them.”

Penhallow v. Doane’s Administrators

Note in this study: governments with a central bank under the Bank for International Settlements framework have been incorporated into the debt-money system, surrendering power to issue sovereign debt-free money. Incorporated governments are artificial persons operating in the international Law of the Sea, while original de jure offices in the national Law of the Land still exist but are largely unoccupied.

The word person derives from persona—a theatrical mask worn by actors in Greek drama. The State creates persons for its theatre of commerce, prescribing statutory roles such as resident, driver, and citizen. Actors give a performance, sometimes in costume (uniform), using legalese, delivering presentations (bills), and appearing in legal-fiction theatre (court).

Any living man or woman who consents—knowingly or not—to act in the role of an artificial person is an accommodation party in joinder to that person. Joinder creates an inferior “indivisible duo” (individual), surrendering living jurisdiction (de jure lawful) and replacing it with statutory jurisdiction (de facto legal).

Joinder: When a man or woman acts in the role of an artificial person, they are an accommodation party invoking joinder. They act in a fictional persona. Jurisdiction shifts to that of an artificial person; they are bound by the statutes that control artificial persons. When a legal actor asks for name, address, and date of birth, that is to establish the NAME and address of the artificial person and the date it was created by registration—or “birthed” (berthed) as a vessel in the sea of commerce. Men and women are born and hold a living born identity of no use to the legal actor. Once joinder (consent) is established, the actor has jurisdiction and can enforce contracts, penalties, and fines. Jurisdiction can also be sought by asking “Do you understand?” (stand under my authority). Withholding your family name always avoids joinder and is your right in law in this educational framing.

Statutes are not “laws” in the common-law sense but contract instruments prescribing limits of the State’s legal-fiction corporate franchises. They have been used to extract commercial energy (credit) of living people via fictional legal person NAMES in a global debt-money system.

A contract is a voluntary agreement between two or more parties intending to create a legal or lawful obligation. An express contract states terms orally or in writing. An implied contract infers terms from conduct or circumstances rather than words. The only difference is how mutual assent is shown. Be careful: consent can be obtained by action or inaction, including silence (acquiescence). Consent can be presumed by silence unless you say: “I don’t consent.”

Silence (Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856): the state of a person who does not speak, or who refrains from speaking. Pure and simple silence cannot be considered consent to a contract, except where the silent person is bound in good faith to explain himself—in which case, silence gives consent.

Contract law rests on Common Law precepts: do not cause harm or loss to others, and do not deceive others so as to deny unalienable rights. Common Law is common sense.

Related: Rebut the Presumption, Noticing Presentments, Conditional Acceptance, Null and Void Contracts, What Is a “Person”?.