Lawful, Legal & Licit

Lawful (pronounced law-fuhl)

(1) Allowed or permitted by law; not contrary to law.

(2) Recognized or sanctioned by law; legitimate.

(3) Appointed or recognized by law; legally qualified.

(4) Acting or living according to the law; law-abiding.

(5) In role-playing games, a character having a lawful alignment.

Circa 1600: From Middle English laweful, the construct being law + -ful and conflated with the Middle English leful, leeful & leveful (according to law, lawful, pertaining to law).  Law dates from 1250-1300 and was from the Middle English lawe & laȝe, from the Old English lagu (law), from the Old Norse lǫg (law (literally “things laid down or fixed”)), originally the plural of lag (layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke), from the Proto-Germanic lagą (that which is laid down), from the primitive Indo-European legh (to lie).  It was cognate with the Icelandic lög (things laid down, law), the Swedish lag (law) and the Danish lov (law).  It replaced the Old English ǣ and ġesetnes and despite appearances, was unrelated to the French loi and the Spanish ley, both derived from leǵ- (to gather).  The –ful suffix was from the Middle English –ful & -full, from the Old English –ful & -full (full of), from the Proto-Germanic fullō & fullijô (“filling”) and fullaz (-ful), from fullaz (full).  It was cognate with the Scots -fu, the Saterland Frisian -ful (-ful), the West Frisian -fol (-ful), the Dutch -vol (-ful), the German -voll (-ful), the Swedish -full (-ful) and the Icelandic –fullur & -fyllur (-ful).  It was used to form adjectives from nouns, with the sense of tending to fullness or “as much as can be held by what is denoted by the noun”.

The synonyms include legal & licit, the words with related meanings including authorized, constitutional, justifiable, legal, permissible, proper, rightful, statutory, valid, bona fide, canonical, card-carrying, commanded, condign, decreed, due, enacted, enforced, enjoined, established.  The spelling lawfull is long obsolete and the rarely used plural remains lawfuls.  Lawful is an adjective, lawfully an adverb and lawfulness a noun.

Legal (pronounced lee-guhl)

(1) Permitted by law; lawful.

(2) Of or relating to law; connected with the law or its administration.

(3) Appointed, established, or authorized by law; deriving authority from law.

(4) In technical use, recognized, enforceable, or having a remedy at (common) law rather than in equity

(5) Of, relating to, or characteristic of the profession of law or of lawyers:

(6) In theology, of or relating to the Mosaic Law (the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, once thought to have be written exclusively by Moses).

(7) In theology, of or relating to the doctrine that salvation is gained by good works rather than through free grace.

(8) A person who acts in a legal manner or with legal authority.

(9) A foreigner who has entered or resides in a country lawfully (usually in the plural as “legals”, the more common form being the undocumented “illegals”)

(10) A person whose status is protected by law.

(11) A fish or game animal, within specified size or weight limitations, that the law allows to be caught and kept during an appropriate season.

(12) In the slang of counter espionage, a foreigner who conducts espionage against a host country while working there in a legitimate capacity, often in the diplomatic service.

(13) In the plural legals, authorized investments that may be made by fiduciaries, as savings banks or trustees; also used in various commercial contexts to refer to documents related to contractual or other legal matters.

(14) In motorsport, vehicles which have passed scrutineering; parts and components certified as homologated and approved for use in competition.

(14) In informal use, a person above the age of consent or the permitted drinking age.

(15) In stationery, of paper or document layouts, a cut of sheet-paper measuring 8½ in × 14 in (215.9 mm × 355.6 mm). known also as “legal-size”; use is restricted almost wholly to North American markets.

1490–1500: From the fourteenth century French légal, from the Latin lēgālis (of or pertaining to the law), the construct being lēg- (stem of lēx (an enactment; a precept, regulation, principle, rule; formal proposition for a law, motion, bill; a contract, arrangement, contrivance)) + -ālis (the adjective suffix) and a doublet of loyal and leal.  The origin is curiously misty.  It’s probably related to legere (to gather) from the primitive Indo-European root leg- (to collect, gather) with derivatives meaning "to speak (ie to “pick out words”).  The noun was historically supposed to have come from the verb reflecting the idea of "a collection of rules," but some etymologists suggest the reverse.  The mystery is that the verb legare and its compounds all have a meaning which involves a “task or assignment” an can thus be interpreted as derivatives of lēx (“law” in its simple sense).  The Proto-Italic root noun leg- (law) can be interpreted as a “collection” but whether the root noun existed already in the primitive Indo-European has never been established.  The sense of "permitted by law" was known as early as the 1640s.  Legal is a noun and adjective; legally is an adverb.

Legal proved a productive word in the generation of English forms.  Legal tender (money which the creditor is bound by law to accept) is from 1740 and the first legal holiday (one established by statute or proclamation, during which government business was usually suspended, was established in 1867).  The adjective medico-legal (of or relating to law and medicine) dates from 1824 and the noun legalese (the language of legal documents), the construct being legal + the language name suffix (–ese) was attested from 1914; technically it can be a mere technical descriptor but tends to be applied disparagingly in critiques of the turgid and prolix.

The modern sounding verb legalize (and the related legalized & legalizing) was actually used as long ago as 1716.  The paralegal (often as para-legal) (one trained in subsidiary legal matters) was first used in 1972 to describe a kind of legal assistant with skills beyond the merely clerical and use has expanded, thus far apparently little-affected by office automation although there is speculation developments in AI (artificial intelligence) might impact on them as much as trained lawyers.

The adjective legalistic is from 1843 and was originally used to describe "one who advocates strict adherence to the law", a use applied especially in theology after the 1640s although as a formal term, legalism in theology was first attested only in 1838.  Legalistic, depending on context, can carry neutral or negative connotations and was sometimes part of the language of criticism used in the 1980s in the squabbles between the by the “legal sociologists” and the “black-letter” or “substantive” lawyers.  The noun legality (law-abiding behavior or character) is from the mid-fifteenth century, from the Medieval Latin legalitatem (nominative legalitas), from the Latin lēgālis (of or pertaining to the law)

Licit (pronounced lis-it)

(1) Legal; lawful; legitimate; permissible; not forbidden by formal or informal rules; explicitly established or constituted by law.

(2) A less common word for lawful

1475–1485: From the Latin licitus (permitted; lawful; allowable), past participle of licēre (to be permitted; it is permitted (impersonal verb)) and replacing the earlier Middle French licite.  In early nineteenth century England, many disapproved of licit, claiming, entirely unjustly. It was an Americanism.  Licit is an adjective, licitly an adverb and licitness a noun

Lawful, Legal & Licit

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011

The terms lawful and legal have long been used interchangeably to convey the sense of “something against the law” and in many cases that’s either correct or, when erroneous, of little matter because the context of use makes the real meaning obvious.

Lawful deals with the substance of law, legal with the form.  For a contract to be legally correct it must conform to certain criteria such as there being an offer & acceptance, certainty of terms and consideration (some exchange of value).  If a contract complies with the requirements demanded in law, it is a “legal contract”.  However, a “legal contract” could be executed in which one party arranges with another to murder some third party.  Murder being against the law, the contract, while remaining “legal” is void for illegality because the matter contracted is unlawful and the fact that the legal contract exists might be relevant evidence in a prosecution.  Similar conditions attach to the legal state of possession.  To be legally in possession of something demands certain conditions are fulfilled and if one buys a car and drives off then one is in legal and lawful possession of the vehicle.  If however one steels a car and drives off, generally one will be in legal but unlawful possession.  A lawful act thus is one authorized or not forbidden by law. A legal act is that which is in accordance with the technical conditions defined in law.

Licit is interesting because it’s so rare yet illicit is co common.  The adjective illicit is from the fourteenth century Old French illicite (unlawful, forbidden), from the Latin illicitus (not allowed, unlawful, illegal), from an assimilated form, the construct being i(n)- (not, opposite of) + licitus (lawful), past participle of licere (to be allowed). 

Illicit can thus be used as a direct synonym of unlawful but because use has evolved with an overlap to mean also things quite lawful yet disapproved of.  Barnaby Joyce’s (b 1967; deputy prime-minister of Australia thrice variously since 2016) adulterous affair was illicit but certainly neither illegal nor unlawful yet, in certain jurisdictions at certain times, it would have been legal but certainly both unlawful & illicit.  Licit & Illicit also retain a place in canon law, notably in the abstract definitions in the Roman Catholic Church where it’s considered with the “valid and invalid”.  A “valid” act is one which produces the desired effect whereas an act which does not produce the desired effect is labelled "invalid".  A “licit” act is one which legitimately has been performed whereas an illicit act is one not legitimately performed.  Thus it’s possible for some acts to be illicit yet still be valid.  The rules canon lawyers have developed to administer matter of procedure and ritual are long and intricate (although with the benefit of codification) and they contain a formula to determine validity or invalidity.  The concept of valida sed illicit (valid but illicit) is a distinction similar to that between “legal” & “lawful” possession in secular law.  

Weed: Often still labeled as illicit even in places where, legally, use is no longer unlawful.

Reflecting perhaps the long tradition of using the word when discussing matters of outrage or immorality, illicit seems often to be the preferred adjective applied to illegal narcotics regarded as less harmful, such as cannabis.  In December 2023, the Netherlands government announced it would be undertaking a trial (in selected locations) in which the production, sale and consumption of cannabis would (under certain circumstances) become lawful.  Contrary to the widespread belief among the generations of who happily have travelled to Amsterdam so spend time in coffee shops (many without having a coffee), smoking weed has not over the decades been lawful, merely "tolerated" by law enforcement agencies.  Although not initially enthusiastic about being required, in effect, to ignore the law they were employed to enforce, the police soon become very supportive, noting dealing with stoners was a rarely violent and much more pleasant experience than handling those affected by alcohol.