Unlawful vs. Illegal
The following is a transcript of " The Legal Lad's Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful Life," a podcast from QuickAndDirtyTips.com. The audio program is available via RSS feed here and at TheStreet.com's podcast home page.
Hello, and welcome to a special joint episode of
Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
and
Legal Lad's Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful Life
.
Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is
illegal
vs.
unlawful
. Here's a question from Jed in Washington, D.C.
From my seat on the bus, I could see a big sign listing things that were unlawful to do on the bus (such as eat, listen to loud music, etc.) I was curious if this word carried less force than illegal, even though they both seem to mean the same thing according to a few dictionaries that I checked.
Thanks Jed! I have some language-related comments, but I'm bringing in Legal Lad to answer the meat of your question.
Legal Lad
Great question, Jed.
But first, a disclaimer: Although I am an attorney, the legal information in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for seeking personalized legal advice from an attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Further, I do not intend to create an attorney-client relationship with any listener.
The short answer is that there is a slight semantic difference between the two words, but no difference with regard to criminal punishment.
Grammar Girl
The prefixes
il-
and
un-
both mean the same thing -- they mean "not." So do both of these words mean "not lawful"?
Legal Lad
Black's Law Dictionary
defines unlawful as "not authorized by law, illegal." Illegal is defined as "forbidden by law, unlawful." Semantically, there is a slight difference. It seems that something illegal is expressly proscribed by statute, and something unlawful is just not expressly authorized.
Jaywalking is a good example of an unlawful act. Traffic regulations do not typically say that you cannot walk diagonally through an intersection. So, it is not illegal. Rather, traffic regulations typically provide that you can cross within a crosswalk when the little walky-man appears. Crossing in any other way is unlawful because it is not expressly permitted.
Selling cocaine is a good example of an illegal act. A federal law specifically provides that you may not do so.
With regard to Jed's question, it would depend on point of view. On one hand, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, aka Metro, issued a rule that prohibits eating or drinking while riding on a public bus. So, the act is expressly proscribed, and thus illegal.
On the other hand, Metro is not a legislative body and does not pass laws in the traditional sense. Rather, it was a body created by an Interstate Compact in 1967. Part of the compact was that Metro could create rules to ensure safe and comfortable transportation for the public, and Metro used that authority to make a rule against eating or drinking. But, the compact, the actual law, does not say anything about food; it only says that the agency could create rules for safe travel. Thus, eating and drinking is simply not permitted, and thus unlawful.
Practically, there is no difference for punishment purposes. Both illegal and unlawful acts can get you into trouble.
Grammar Girl
Interesting! So Jed had better not eat and rock out on the bus.
I found a couple of interesting things while I was reading about prefixes. First,
un-
(as in
unlawful
) is an English prefix, and
in-
(as in
injustice
) is the corresponding Latin prefix.
And then second,
il-
(as in
illegal
,
illicit
, and
illegitimate
) is considered to be a form of the prefix
in-
(as in
injustice
and
indivisible
).
It works a little bit like how you choose to use the words
a
or
an
depending on whether the next word starts with a consonant or vowel sound. In this case, the prefix
in-
gets changed to
il-
when the word starts with the letter l, and it also gets changed to
im-
when the word starts with a p or b, as in
impossible
and
imbalance
.
Michael Flynn writes and records the
Legal Lad articles and pocdasts. A graduate of Tufts University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, he currently works as a research attorney for a California trial court.
Disclaimer: Please note that the legal information featured in Legal Lad articles and podcasts is presented for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for seeking personalized legal advice from an attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Further, Michael Flynn's name is only being provided for authorship purposes, and not to advertise any legal services. To request a topic or share a tip, send an email to legallad@qdnow.com or call 206-202-4LAW.
