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EU texts often refer to the 'competent body', 'competent department or 'competent official', meaning the body, department or official that is responsible for the activity in question. For example:

Since more direct contacts between the authorities and officials of the Member States might be necessary for reasons of efficiency, the provisions on delegation and the designation of competent officials should also be maintained.

Do we use competent like this?

The OED gives: Law. Legally qualified or sufficient. While ODO gives: (Of a court or other body) accepted as having legal authority to deal with a particular matter.

Maybe the concept of 'other body' can be extended to include officials?

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    Yes, as you have discovered competent has a variety of senses in which it is used; and as one having authority (not necessarily of a court, but any official body) is one of them.
    – WS2
    Commented Mar 10, 2015 at 12:38
  • Note that when you legally assign a court a certain authority, it means that within the context of law, that court is legally qualified or sufficient. The meaning is not that different; Having authority only applies in a situation where that authority is assigned based on a legal definition of qualified or sufficient.
    – oerkelens
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 9:04

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In the context of law, competence has as much to do with having jurisdiction (legal authority to decide a particular type of case, given all its particulars) over a given case or controversy as with possessing sufficient ability and objective qualifications to deal with it. Black's Law Dictionary (1984) offers this definition of competent authority:

COMPETENT AUTHORITY. As applied to courts and public officers, this term imports jurisdiction and due legal authority to deal with the particular matter in question.

As you can see, this definition applies the notion of "competent authority" to both "courts" and "public officers."

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