Assent vs. consent

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Hi this is Peter and welcome to TransLegal's lesson of the week.

One of the common mistakes that we see in the work that we deal with here at TransLegal is assent and consent being misused.

In Legal English, consent and assent are often used interchangeably. There's a subtle difference though.

Assent suggests a positive and voluntary agreement, for example, assent to a proposal of marriage. On the other hand, consent is neutral in meaning and can apply even when the agreement is given reluctantly. So you can see an example here in the second sentence:

"The employee consented to the non-compete clause being included in her employment contract".

So here you have voluntary, affirmative assent, here potentially reluctant agreement, or consent.

That's it for today. If you have any questions about the difference between assent and consent please leave a question in the comment box below and myself or one of my colleagues will get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks.