Blue_pencil_doctrine
Blue pencil doctrine
Legal doctrine
The blue pencil doctrine is a legal concept in common law countries in which a court finds that portions of a contract are void or unenforceable, but other portions of the contract are enforceable. The blue pencil rule allows the legally-valid enforceable provisions of the contract to stand despite the nullification of the legally-void unenforceable provisions. However, the revised version must represent the original meaning. The rule may not be invoked, for example, to delete the word "not" and thereby change a negative to a positive.