DEROGATORY CLAUSE

derogatory clause. 1.  A statutory  or contractual  provision  proclaiming that the  document in

which it appears, or a part of the document, cannot be repealed or amended. • Such provisions are

considered ineffective.

“The one thing a sovereign legislature cannot do is truncate its own sovereignty by restricting

its successors. A parliament sovereign today must also be sovereign tomorrow. What is technically

called a clausula derogatoria is therefore ineffective: non impedit clausula derogatoria quo minus

ab  eadem  potestate  res  dissolvantur  a  qua  constituuntur  (a  derogatory  clause  does  not  prevent

things from being dissolved by the same power which created them).” F.A.R. Bennion, Statutory

Interpretation § 140, at 313 (3d ed. 1997).

2. A clause that a testator inserts secretly in a will, containing a provision that any later will

not having that precise clause is invalid. • A derogatory clause seeks to protect against a later will

extorted  by  undue  influence,  duress,  or  violence.  —  Also  termed  clausula  derogativa;  clausula

derogatoria. [Blacks Law 8th]