The term legitimate suggests ethical content more clearly than the word legal. The latter simply refers to compliance with technical or formal rules, while the former usually means moral substance or ethical lawfulness. Another difference is that the word legal is used as a synonym for constructive, whereas this is not the case. Legal fraud is FRAUD implicit by law or revealed by construction, but legal fraud would be a contradiction in terms. Legal is also used as the antithesis of just, just. Accordingly, legal succession is the correct use instead of legal succession. However, in certain circumstances, the two words are used as exact equivalents. A legal statement, arrest warrant or trial is the same as a legal document, warrant or trial. Legitimate has several legal meanings. When used as an adjective, it means legal or right. It may also refer to a person with a legal parentage or legitimate problem, meaning they were not born out of wedlock.
In other words, his parents were married at birth. See the full definition of legal in the English Language Learners Dictionary • While legal refers to the substance of the law, the law is more concerned with the form of the law. These sample phrases are automatically selected from various online information sources to reflect the current use of the word “lawful”. The views expressed in the examples do not represent the views of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us your feedback. Vicki Schultz[3] notes that collectively we have a common knowledge of most concepts. How we interpret the reality of our actual understanding of a concept manifests itself in the various individual narratives we tell about the origins and meanings of a particular concept. The difference in the narratives, on the same facts, is what divides us. An individual has the ability to shape or understand something quite differently from the next person. Evidence does not always lead to a clear attribution of the cause or specific importance of a problem – meanings are derived from narratives. Reality and the facts surrounding it are personally subjective and full of assumptions based on clearly formulated facts.
Anna-Maria Marshall[4] notes that this change in the framework occurs because our perception depends on “new information and experiences”; It is precisely this idea that underlies Ewick and Sibley`s definition of legality – our everyday experiences shape our understanding of the law. When used as a verb, it means to do or legitimize something. In simpler terms, it means doing something right or legal. For example, legitimizing a child means giving that child born to unmarried parents the same legitimately recognized status as a child born to married parents. If an event, thing, structure, organization, agreement, etc. complies with the law or is authorized and sanctioned by the law of the land, they are designated as legal. Anything that complies with or is recognized by law is automatically lawful. Anything that is legal is not prohibited by law. Anything that is valid can be considered legitimate. In contrast, many written constitutions prohibit the creation of retroactive (usually criminal) laws.
However, the possibility of laws being dropped creates its own problems. It is clearly more difficult to determine what constitutes a valid law when a number of laws may have constitutional question marks. When a law is declared unconstitutional, the actions of authorities and individuals who were legal under the invalid law are subsequently unlawful. Such a result cannot occur under parliamentary sovereignty (or at least not before factorapite), since a law is a law and its validity cannot be challenged by any court. • A sin of commission makes you illegal, while a sin of omission makes you illegal. The principle of legality may be influenced differently by different constitutional models. In the United States, laws cannot violate provisions of the U.S. Constitution that prohibit retroactive laws. In the UK, under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, legislators can (theoretically) pass retroactive laws as they see fit, although Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which has the force of law in the UK, prohibits any conviction for a crime that was not illegal at the time it was committed. Article 7 has already had an effect in a number of cases before the British courts.
Legality can be defined as an act, agreement or contract that is consistent with the law or state in which it is lawful or illegal in a particular jurisdiction. The legal principle that a defendant cannot be prosecuted for an act which is not declared a criminal offence in that jurisdiction actually refers to the principle of legality, which is part of the overall concept of legality. [1] [2] In contract law, the legality of the purpose is required by any enforceable contract.