法律英语：71 Unlawful Versus Illegal
时间：2018-12-30 作者：英语课 分类：法律英语 Legal Lad
by Michael W. Flynn
Hello, and welcome to a special joint 1 episode of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing and Legal Lad’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful 2 Life.
Grammar Girl here. Today’s topic is illegal versus 3 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. 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 5 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 6 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 7 by statute 8, 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 9. 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 10 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 12 Area Transit 13 Authority, aka Metro 11, 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 14 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 4, and in- (as in injustice 15) is the corresponding Latin prefix.
And then second, il- (as in illegal, illicit 16, 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 17 or vowel 18 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.
There's bonus information on the Grammar Girl website about the prefix in-.
Thank you for listening to Legal Lad’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful Life. Be sure to check out all the excellent Quick and Dirty Tips podcasts at QuickAndDirtyTips.com.
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- I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
- We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。
- It is not lawful to park in front of a hydrant.在消火栓前停车是不合法的。
- We don't recognised him to be the lawful heir.我们不承认他为合法继承人。
- The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
- The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。
- We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
- In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。
- The prefixes cis and trans are frequently applied to disubstituted cycloalkanes. 词头顺和反常用于双取代的环烷烃。 来自辞典例句
- Why do you use so many prefixes while talking? 你说起话来，怎么这么多中缀？ 来自互联网
- An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。
- They are proscribed by federal law from owning guns. 根据联邦法律的规定，他们不准拥有枪支。 来自辞典例句
- In earlier days, the church proscribed dancing and cardplaying. 从前，教会禁止跳舞和玩牌。 来自辞典例句
- Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
- The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。
- There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
- Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。
- That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
- Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。
- Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
- The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。
- Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
- Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。
- His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
- The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。
- Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
- Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。
- They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
- All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。
- He had an illicit association with Jane.他和简曾有过不正当关系。
- Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year.今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。
- The quality of this suit isn't quite consonant with its price.这套衣服的质量和价钱不相称。
- These are common consonant clusters at the beginning of words.这些单词的开头有相同辅音组合。