UNLAWFUL

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

← Dictionary
See encyclopedia: False Imprisonment →
UNLAWFULAuthored
The Law Mind • 1054 words
Definition
Contrary to law; not permitted or sanctioned by law. As a practical matter, UNLAWFUL operates at two distinct levels: 1. In its broad, everyday legal sense: any act, agreement, condition, or conduct that the law does not permit or recognize as valid — whether because it is affirmatively prohibited by statute, contrary to common law, or simply void as against public policy. 2. In its precise technical sense (as distinguished from ILLEGAL): an act or agreement that the law treats as ineffectual or unenforceable, not because it is positively forbidden by a specific rule or statute, but because the law regards it with disfavor and declines to give it legal effect. Under this narrower usage, an unlawful act need not carry criminal punishment or regulatory prohibition; it simply lacks legal recognition or force. This distinction matters most in contract and obligations law, where a promise or consideration may be unlawful — and therefore void or unenforceable — even though no statute specifically makes it criminal. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Prohibited; not permitted by law (either civil or criminal law)." Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Not lawful; contrary to law." The common definitions are not wrong, but they collapse a distinction that legal usage preserves. Ordinary speech treats UNLAWFUL and ILLEGAL as interchangeable, and in much legal writing they are used that way too. The precise legal usage, however, reserves UNLAWFUL for acts the law declines to recognize or enforce — a category broader than, and not identical to, what is criminally or regulatorily prohibited. A researcher who reads UNLAWFUL as always meaning ILLEGAL will miss cases and treatise passages where the term is doing different, subtler work. ---
Common Confusion
UNLAWFUL vs. ILLEGAL: The terms are routinely used interchangeably in statutes, judicial opinions, and legal writing, and there is no uniform rule requiring otherwise. The distinction worth preserving is this: ILLEGAL typically refers to acts positively forbidden by statute or rule, often carrying a penalty. UNLAWFUL is the broader term, encompassing not only the positively forbidden but also acts that the law simply refuses to countenance — voiding them without necessarily punishing them. Courts applying contract law, for example, may find a consideration UNLAWFUL (and the contract void) without finding that any crime or civil violation occurred. Researchers should not assume that historical sources using these terms meant to draw the distinction rigorously. Many did not. ---
Why It Matters in Research
UNLAWFUL is one of the most pervasive qualifying words in the legal corpus — it appears in criminal statutes, civil pleadings, contract doctrine, constitutional text, and tort law — which makes it simultaneously essential and treacherous to research. Several navigational points are critical: First, statutory usage varies wildly. A statute that criminalizes "unlawful assembly" is using the term as a term of art with specific elements (see criminal_118). A contract case holding a covenant "unlawful" as against public policy is using the term in a civil, non-criminal sense. The same word in the same corpus can carry entirely different legal weight depending on context. Second, the unlawful/illegal distinction is not consistently observed across jurisdictions or time periods. Nineteenth-century sources, including the historical dictionaries surveyed here, flag the distinction explicitly — suggesting it was actively contested and worth noting. Modern statutory drafting often ignores it entirely. When reading historical cases or treatises that turn on whether something is "unlawful" versus "illegal," verify which sense the author intended before treating the distinction as meaningful to the outcome. Third, UNLAWFUL is a frequent element word in compound legal terms — unlawful assembly, unlawful detainer, unlawful entry, unlawful restraint, unlawful possession — each of which has its own developed body of doctrine. A search for UNLAWFUL alone will surface all of these contexts indiscriminately. Corpus researchers should filter by compound term when the goal is specific doctrine. Fourth, in criminal law specifically, UNLAWFUL often appears as a pleading word in indictments and informations. Historical practice required the word to appear in certain charges; its presence or absence could be outcome-determinative on a motion to quash. Rapalje & Lawrence's entry flags related pleading usage ("UNLAWFULLY AND UNJUSTLY," "UNLAWFULLY, WILLFULLY OR MALICIOUSLY"), signaling that the procedural history of the word in criminal practice is a distinct research thread from its substantive meaning. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources converge on a single core proposition — UNLAWFUL means contrary to law — but the more analytically useful sources press further. Black's (both editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence all reproduce, nearly verbatim, the same passage distinguishing UNLAWFUL from ILLEGAL: that in its proper sense, UNLAWFUL applied to promises, agreements, and considerations denotes legal inefficacy arising from acts "disapproved of by the law" rather than positively forbidden. This shared language across sources suggests the distinction was recognized doctrine, not merely one lexicographer's preference. Bouvier's and Anderson's add little beyond the core definition. Anderson's cross-references LAWFUL without independent elaboration, which is itself useful: the antonym pairing LAWFUL/UNLAWFUL is the primary doctrinal axis in the historical sources, while the ILLEGAL/UNLAWFUL distinction is treated as secondary. What the historical sources do not address: the compound-term proliferation that characterizes modern statutory usage (unlawful detainer, unlawful restraint, unlawful possession), each of which has developed substantial independent doctrine. Historical dictionary entries treat UNLAWFUL as a modifier with a general meaning; they do not anticipate the degree to which specific compound uses would become terms of art with their own elements and case law. ---
Jurisdictional Note
Most U.S. jurisdictions treat UNLAWFUL and ILLEGAL as functionally synonymous in statutory and judicial usage. The finer distinction — unlawful as legally ineffectual versus illegal as positively prohibited — is most likely to appear in contract and commercial law cases, and even there it is not universally applied. Researchers working in English law or older Commonwealth sources may find the distinction more consistently observed. ---
Related Terms
Illegal — Lawful — Void — Voidable — Unlawful Assembly — Unlawful Detainer — Unlawful Restraint — Malum in Se — Malum Prohibitum — Against Public Policy — Criminal — Prohibited
UNLAWFULmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
to law. That which is contrary "Unlawful" and "illegal" are frequently used as synonymous terms, but, in the prop er sense of the word, “unlawful," as applied to promises, agreements, considerations, and the like, denotes that they are ineffectual in law because they involve acts which, al- though not illegal, i. e., positively forbidden, are disapproved of by the law, and are there- fore not recognized as the ground of legal rights, either because they are immoral or because they are against public policy. It is on this ground that contracts in restraint of marriage or of trade are generally void. Sweet.
UNLAWFULmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
That which is contrary to law. “Unlawful” and “illegal” are frequently used as synonymous terms, but, in the proper sense of the word, “unlawful,” as applied to promises, agreements, considerations, and the like, denotes that they are ineffectual in law because they involve acts which, although not illegal, ¢@ ¢., positively forbidden, are disapproved of by the law, and are therefore not recognized as the ground of legal rights, either because they are immoral or because they are against public policy. It is on this ground that contracts in restraint of marriage or of trade are generally void. Sweet. And see Hagerman v. Buchanan, 45 N. J. Hy. 292, 17 Atl. 946,14 Am. St. Rep. 732; Tatum v. State, 66 Ala. 467; Johnson v. State, 66 Ohio St. 59, 68 N. E. 607, 61 L. R. A. 277, 90 Am. St. Rep. 564; Pinder v. State, 27 Fla. 370. 8 South. 887, 26 Am. St. Rep. 75; MacDaniel v. U. §., 87 Fed. 321, 30 C. C. A. 670; People v. Chicago Gas Trust Co., 180 Ill. 268, 22 N. EB. 798, 8 L. R. A. 497, 17 Am. St. Rep. 319. —Unlawful assembly. At common law. The meeting together of three or more pertsons, to the disturbance of the public peace, and with the intention of co-operating in the forcible and violent execution of some unlawful private enterprise. If they take steps towards the performance of their purpose, it . becomes a rout; and, if they put their design into actual execution, it is a riot. BI. Comm. 146. Any meeting of great numbers of people, with such circumstances of terror as cannot but endanger the public peace, and raise fears and jealousies among the subjects of the realm. 4 Steph. Comm. 234.—Unlawful detainer. The unjustifiable retention of the possession of lands by one whose original entry was lawful and of right, but whose right to the possession has terminated and who refuses to quit. as in the case of a tenant holding over after the termination of the lease and in spite of a demand for possession by the landlord. McDevitt v. Lambert. 80 Ala. 5386. 2 South. 438; Silva v. Campbell, 84 Cal. 420. 24 Pac. 316; Code Tenn. 1896, § 5093. Where an entry upon lands is unlawful, whether forcible or not, and the subsequent conduct is forcible and tortious, the offense committed is a “forcible entry and detainer ;” but where the original entry is lawful, and the subsequent holding forcible and tortious, the offense is an “unlawful detainer” only. Pullen v. Boney, 4N. J. Law, 129.—Unlawful entry. An entry upon lands effected peaceably and without force, but which is without color of title and is accomplished by means of fraud or some other willful wrong. Dickinson Vv. slogulte: 9 Cal. 46; Blaco v. Haller, 9 Neb. 149, 1 N. W. 978.
UNLAWFULmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883
- "Unlawful" and "illegal" are frequently used as synonymous terms, but in the proper sense of the word, "unlawful," as applied to promises, agreements, considerations and the like, denotes that they are ineffectual in law UNLAWFULLY AND UNJUSTLY, (in a declaration). Willes 577. UNLAWFULLY, WILLFULLY OR MALICIOUSLY, (when not necessary in an indictment). 2 W. Bl. 842. UNLESS, (in a policy of insurance). 3 Burr. 1550. (in statute concerning promissory notes). 3 Gr. (N. J.) 10, 11; 7 Baru. & C. 266. 291. (in a will). 3 Mad. 396; Boyl. Char. UNLIQUIDATED is that which is not ascertained. See DAMAGES, & 2; JUDGbecause they involve acts which, although MENT, 29; LIQUIDATED ; WRIT OF SUMMONS. not illegal, i. e. positively forbidden, are disapproved of by the law, and are, therefore, not recognized as the ground of legal rights, either because they are immoral (q. v.), or because they are against public policy. (See POLICY.) It is on this ground that contracts in restraint of marriage or of trade are generally void. As a general rule, an unlawful agreement cannot be enforced, or set aside, nor can money paid or property delivered under it be recovered back: potior est conditio defendentis. Poll. Cont. (3 edit.) 250, 348; Chit. Cont. 609 et seq. See Wright Cr. Consp. 65 et seq.; Reg. v. Prince, L. R. 2 C. C. R. 154. UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY.-An assembly of three or more persons with intent to commit a crime by open force, or with intent to carry out any common purpose, lawful or unlawful, in such manner as to give firm and courageous persons in the neighborhood of such assembly reasonable grounds to apprehend a breach of the peace in consequence of it. Taking part in an unlawful assembly is a misdemeanor. Steph. Cr. Dig. 40; 1 Russ. Cr. & M. 372. See AFFRAY; RIOT;
UNLAWFULa.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Not lawful; contrary to law. -- Un*law"ful*ly, adv. -- Un*law"ful*ness, n. Unlawful assembly. (Law) See under Assembly.
unlawfuladj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
Prohibited; not permitted by law (either civil or criminal law; see illegal)

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

SubscribeEncyclopediaSign In
The Law Mind Legal Dictionary. This is a legal research library, not a lawyer.
Dictionary • Encyclopedia • Sign In