Private law offices

Abstract:Offices have a vital, but limited, role to play in private law. This article analyses the nature of private law offices, concluding, first, that the identity of an office is coextensive with the constellation of rights, duties, powers, and so on which are attributed to the office-holder and which reflect the nature of the representative task she is appointed to perform, and, second, that, so long as the need for representation remains, the office needs to be filled. This is why offices are always accompanied by appointment procedures which allow the office to be filled when an incumbent dies or is unfit to continue. It is argued that a private law office should be employed only when a valid need, or valuable potential, for representation of one person by another arises. Applying this analysis, it is denied that parenthood and ownership are private law offices.