Concept and structure of legal powers

This article examines the legal notion of power with the aim of establishing its structure and defining its extent. The analysis of powers is built refining any deontic element in its structure and therefore assuming that norms of competence are the only type of rules which constitute them. Therefore a power is a rule which establishes that an act of an individual results in a legal change, without considering any deontical aspect regarding to its exercise. To prevent the concept has enormous scope it is bounded strictly, firstly, limiting its size to legal changes but not physical or material affecting any object or subject ones and, secondly, the object of the power is referred only to those acts that cause legal changes as their result and not merely as a consequence.