Power can never be delegated which the authority said to delegate never possessed itself.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) An agent or officer cannot delegate authority that was never granted to the principal in the first place — cite this to challenge subdelegations of power where the original delegating body lacked the authority itself.

Where this applies

• A city council attempts to delegate zoning authority to a private homeowners association, but the court holds the delegation void because the council itself never possessed the sovereign zoning power it claims to be passing along.
• A state agency purports to grant a county the power to regulate interstate commerce, but the court strikes the grant because the state agency never had interstate commerce authority to delegate.
• A corporate board delegates hiring authority to a committee, but the committee tries to sub-delegate that authority to an outside consultant — the court invalidates the sub-delegation because the committee cannot pass on a power its own delegator did not possess.