Social Licence and Legal Licence

The concept of ‘Social Licence to Operate’ (SLO) was generated by the realization that legal licence was frequently insufficient without community support. One way of understanding SLO is to compare it with the more familiar ‘Legal Licence to Operate’ (LLO). The choice of the word ‘licence’ in SLO was deliberate and it is not surprising that there would be analogies between the SLO and LLO. This chapter explores the analogy by considering the typical characteristics of legal licences issued by public officials under powers granted to them by formal law. It quickly becomes apparent that the questions we can ask of the two types of licences are similar, but the answers for SLO are not as clear-cut and precise as for LLO. This can have both advantages and disadvantages.