Employment law and the workplace

Near the end of the list two adjectives sit side by side, licite and opposable, and the second is the trap. English keeps « opposable » for one thing only, the thumb that closes against the fingers, so a reader who meets opposable in a contract hears anatomy. French built the word on opposer quelque chose à quelqu’un, to hold something up against somebody, and in law that is exactly what it describes: a rule, an agreement or a document is opposable to a person when that person is bound by it and cannot behave as though it did not exist. So l’accord n’est pas opposable aux nouveaux salariés does not say the agreement is disputed; it says the new staff are outside it. The preposition carries the grammar — always à, and always followed by the person who has to take it. The negative, inopposable, names a defence rather than an objection. English has no adjective here and must reach for a verb: binding on, enforceable against, good against a third party. French keeps the thumb as well, le pouce opposable; the two senses simply never meet on one page.