legal-terms common-law
What is denoted by “operation of law”?
<p>I had only previously encountered the phrase as in “surrender by operation of law” until just now I read the latter portion of the phrase used independently by user @ohwilleke in another answer. What does the component phrase “operation of law” denote?</p>

<p>&quot;by operation of law&quot; means that something happens automatically even if nobody does something about it.</p>
<p>For example, if property is owned in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, it becomes the sole property of the surviving owner automatically and instantaneously when the other co-owner of the property dies, even if documenting that in the public record takes time.</p>
<p>Similarly, you get the right to buy beer in Colorado immediately after midnight on your twenty-first birthday, without having to apply to any agency to active this right.</p>
<p>And, if you have a claim with a two year statute of limitations and two years and a day pass after the event triggering the statute passes, your claim is extinguished by operation of law even though no court has said so.</p>
