Definition of "contravene" [con•tra•vene]

• To act or be counter to; violate: contravene a direct order. (verb-transitive)
• To oppose in argument; gainsay: contravened the proposal. See Synonyms at deny. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "At least 11 of the government databases used in the U.K. are seriously flawed and need revamping or just plain scrapping, and according to Ross Anderson, security expert, they most certainly are illegal as they 'contravene' the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)."
• "Where the narrative represents events that contravene these we have four flavours of quirk respectively (expanding on Suvin's coinage/exaptation of "novum" and following his naming strategy): sutura; chimera; erratum; novum."
• "With the Copyright Extension Act, Congress has basically guaranteed infinite copyrights while managing to not quite contravene the Constitution, merely its clear intention."