(This is an archived page, from the Patterns of Power Edition 3 book. Current versions are at book contents).
A person joining an organisation, such as a club or a workplace, implicitly accepts the rules that apply to all its members. New members cannot assume that they will be able to negotiate changes to these rules – although there may be some flexibility, because organisations may wish to attract new members and people are free to leave if they want to.
Organisational rules are the bottom level of an interconnected hierarchy of legal rules in the structure of this book. They can be considered as being either outside the scope of, or supplementary to, national law and its subsidiary variations. Sometimes, for example in the case of company rules, their purpose may be to provide a detailed interpretation of national law so that employees know what is permitted in a specific workplace context.
Organisational rules cannot be allowed to conflict with national law. People's rights are therefore protected – they have the right of appeal to the national legal system to overturn unfair rules.