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Search for “Lawful estate” results in zero hits from the USSC, and only a handful of literal hits on Google.
But in searching for “lawful estate” I found the following definition of LEGAL:
http://www.answers.com/topic/lawful
Thesaurus: lawful
adjective
Within, allowed by, or sanctioned by the law: innocent, legal, legitimate, licit. Slang legit. See law.
Antonyms: lawful
adj
Definition: allowable, legitimate
Antonyms: illegal, illegitimate, illicit, prohibited, taboo, unlawful
Law Encyclopedia: Lawful
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
Licit; legally warranted or authorized.
The terms lawful and legal differ in that the former contemplates the substance of law, whereas the latter alludes to the form of law. A lawful act is authorized, sanctioned, or not forbidden by law. A legal act is performed in accordance with the forms and usages of law, or in a technical manner. In this sense, illegal approaches the meaning of invalid. For example, a contract or will, executed without the required formalities, might be regarded as invalid or illegal, but could not be described as unlawful.
The term lawful more clearly suggests an ethical content than does the word legal. The latter merely denotes compliance with technical or formal rules, whereas the former usually signifies a moral substance or ethical permissibility. An additional distinction is that the word legal is used as the synonym of constructive, while lawful is not. Legal fraud is fraud implied by law, or made out by construction, but lawful fraud would be a contradiction in terms. Legal is also used as the antithesis of equitable, just. As a result, legal estate is the correct usage, instead of lawful estate. Under certain circumstances, however, the two words are used as exact equivalents. A lawful writ, warrant, or process is the same as a legal writ, warrant, or process.
“Lawful. The principal distinction between the terms “lawful” and “legal” is that the former contemplates the substance of law, the latter the form of law. To say of an act that it is “lawful” implies that it is authorized, sanctioned, or at any rate not forbidden, by law. To say that it is “legal” implies that it is done or performed in accordance with the forms and usages of law, or in a technical manner. In this sense “illegal” approaches the meaning of “invalid.” For example, a contract or will, executed without the required formalities, might be said to be invalid or illegal, but could not be described as unlawful. Further, the word “lawful” more clearly implies an ethical content than does “legal.” The latter goes no further than to denote compliance, with positive, technical, or formal rules; while the former usually imports a moral substance or ethical permissibility. A further distinction is that the word “legal” is used as the synonym of “constructive,” which “lawful” is not. Thus “legal fraud” is fraud implied or inferred by law, or made out by construction. “Lawful fraud” would be a contradiction of terms. Again, “legal” is used as the antithesis of “equitable,” thus, we speak of “legal assets,” “legal estate,” etc., but not of “lawful assets,” or “lawful estate.” But there are some connections in which the two words are used as exact equivalents. Thus, a “lawful” writ, warrant, or process is the same as a “legal” writ, warrant, or process.”
BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY, Revised 4th Edition (1968), p. 1032.
3 Comments
February 14, 2009 at 7:20 PM
The Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims.
Compiled and written by William C. Anderson and published by T. H. Flood and Company in Chicago, 1893:
Lawful. In accordance with the law of the land; according to the law; permitted, sanctioned, or justified by law. “Lawful” properly implies a thing conformable to or enjoined by law; “Legal”, a thing in the form or after the manner of law or binding by law. A writ or warrant issuing from any court, under color of law, is a “legal” process however defective. See legal.
Legal. Latin legalis. Pertaining to the understanding, the exposition, the administration, the science and the practice of law: as, the legal profession, legal advice; legal blanks, newspaper. Implied or imputed in law. Opposed to actual. “Legal” looks more to the letter, and “Lawful” to the spirit, of the law. “Legal” is more appropriate for conformity to positive rules of law; “Lawful” for accord with ethical principle. “Legal” imports rather that the forms of law are observed, that the proceeding is correct in method, that rules prescribed have been obeyed; “Lawful” that the right is actful in substance, that moral quality is secured. “Legal” is the antithesis of “equitable”, and the equivalent of “constructive”. 2 Abbott’s Law Dict. 24.
April 22, 2009 at 1:42 AM
Hey, cool tips. Perhaps I’ll buy a glass of beer to that man from that chat who told me to go to your site :)
May 18, 2009 at 12:09 AM
This question came up on a forum I am on. I gave this reply as my own reasoning had provided. I happened on this site for another take on it and found this to be most helpful. Thanks!
Reply: general strike legal?
Is a general strike legal?
It depends on what one means by legal. By statute? By Constitutional right? By the concept of Liberty as understood in the Declaration of Independence.
At this point the question becomes, at what percentage point in a populace does a “Rebellion” have to reach in order to gain lawful status–which is not merely a question of ’statute’, but begins to draw upon the ‘Common Law of Rights’.
The answer is really a quite practical one, the percentage that must be reached is a large enough one to WIN in a contest of will and force.
In other words, regardless of ‘the state’, the people retain their inalienable rights, which are never ‘granted’ by the state, but merely ‘guaranteed’. When a state becomes destructive of such rights, it is the people who will decide their tolerance of misery.
Tyranny is only abided when the nation herself has a death wish.
by William Whitten