What is lawful is what is permitted by the rules.
The Latin word licĭtus came to our language as licit . It is an adjective that allows us to refer to what is authorized or tolerated by the regulations in force in a certain area.
For example: “It is legal for me to refuse to testify, as my lawyer explained to me” , “According to the majority of sports analysts, the first goal of the local team was not legal” , “In the face of a legal voluntary act , Justice "He has nothing to say."
The legal and the illegal
In these examples we can appreciate some of the nuances of this concept, which allow us to use it in different cases. In the first, we see that a person urged to make a statement refuses, objecting that his lawyer had explained to him that he has the right to remain silent when faced with his interlocutor's questions.
In the second example we are faced with a situation that takes place within the framework of a soccer match that must be analyzed by various experts in order to determine whether it is a goal or not. Some sports have several layers of complexity that give rise to certain difficulties when interpreting a play.
A lawful voluntary act cannot be punishable, since Justice itself considers it within the list of things that citizens can do. It is important to recognize lawful acts to prevent an unjust accusation from harming someone.
In the three cases we see different situations, but that does not prevent them from having something in common: there is a series of background rules that allow us to identify legal and illegal acts. In fact, it is clear that we are not talking about laws of nature but about those that human beings created and continue to create with the aim of organizing their life in society and maintaining order.
To be valid, a legal act must have a lawful object.
Validity of a legal act
For a legal act to be valid, it must have a lawful object as an essential component. This means that the content of the legal matter has to comply with the laws . The opposite of the licit object is the illicit object, which does not correspond to the legal provisions.
As an interesting fact, in Ancient Rome there was no Theory of the Legal Act as we know it today, since this work dates back to the German Pandectism of the 19th century , a doctrine that preceded codification and reached its splendor in the 19th century.
Every contract , on the other hand, must be motivated by a lawful cause . Therefore, only with a lawful cause does legal obligation arise.
The legal origin
The idea of legal origin , meanwhile, is usually used with respect to obtaining resources through some action or mechanism guaranteed by law. When the funds are of legal origin, they are not the result of illegal activity.
Suppose a person spends a million-dollar sum to buy a TV channel. If said money comes from drug trafficking, it does not have a legal origin. On the other hand, if it was gathered thanks to livestock activity, its origin is not objectionable.
Other considerations on the notion
In the field of sport , meanwhile, what is allowed by the regulations is mentioned as lawful. A legal goal , in soccer , is achieved without committing any violation of the rules.
This term is widely used, both in technical fields and in everyday speech. Needless to say, in many cases its meaning is not represented absolutely accurately, but is included in informal sentences to express approval regarding a business, a procedure or a product.
Among the most common synonyms of the word "lawful" are the following: "legitimate, legal, authorized, permitted" and "fair." Its most used antonyms, on the other hand, are "illegal" and "illicit."