ABSTRACT
There are striking parallels between promissory obligation and consent-based permission: in both cases, important normative changes seem to be brought about without any significant changes in the non-normative properties of the actions that come to be obligatory or permitted, respectively. A prominent proposal for the explanation of how promises generate obligations appeals to the idea of normative power. This chapter discusses whether the normative effects of consent might best be understood along the same lines, by first explaining the concept of normative power and then considering its suitability as an explanatory device in the theory of consent.
