nullifies

Nullifies is the third-person singular present tense of the verb nullify. To nullify something is to render it legally invalid, void, or without effect, or to cancel its intended force. The term is used in law, public administration, and common language to indicate that an action, instrument, or decision no longer has binding or practical effect.

In law, nullification removes enforceability. A contract can be nullified by mutual agreement, fraud, misrepresentation, coercion, or illegality, making it unenforceable from the outset or from a specified date. A court judgment may be nullified on appeal for procedural or substantive errors, or a regulatory rule may be nullified by a higher authority or subsequent legislation. Nullification can also occur in constitutional or administrative contexts when a legal act is deemed incompatible with higher norms or rights.

In political and electoral contexts, nullified votes or procedures are those found invalid due to irregularities, improper counting, or fraud, and thus do not affect the outcome. In computing and data management, nullify can mean to set a variable or field to a null value, effectively erasing its data. The term shares kinship with related concepts such as invalidate, void, rescind, and revoke, and derives from Latin nullus, meaning none.