self-executing

[self-ek-si-kyoo-ting, self-]

adjective

1. going into effect immediately without the need of supplementary legislation.

   a self-executing treaty.

self-executing

adjective

1. (of a law, treaty, or clause in a deed or contract, etc) coming into effect automatically at a specified time, no legislation or other action being needed for enforcement

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-executing¹

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

“Our democracy is not self-executing,” former President Obama said recently.

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We just talked about these lines in the law, and how the lines don’t matter if people don’t observe them, that they’re not self-executing.

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This term, the court effectively read an entire provision—Section 3—out of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution by declaring that Congress must create enabling legislation to prohibit insurrectionists from serving in government, despite the amendment’s clear self-executing prohibition.

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“In fact, these justices made a shambles of the Constitutional disqualification provision – which is really self-executing – and made it virtually impossible in the short-run to disqualify Trump or any other federal official from office if these persons engage in an insurrection like the insurrection on January 6th,” Gershman said.

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Knowing that Congress will do nothing before the election if ever, the court held that the Section wasn’t “self-executing”—Congress would have to set up rules.

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