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Is there a legal distinction between 'unlawful' and 'illegal'?

  • 24-09-2019 5:53pm
    #1
    Dubwat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 426 ✭✭


    I had a day off today and was watching the fallout from the UK Supreme Court's ruling on Boris' prorogation of Parliament on TV.

    One thing that struck me was how every commentator on TV used the word 'unlawful' instead of 'illegal'. Even opposition politicians used 'unlawful.' On the internet, of course, the public are much less restrained and words like illegal were frequently used in discussions.

    It got me thinking if there is a legal distinction between the words 'unlawful' and 'illegal'? Why aren't opposition politicians calling the British PM's decision 'illegal'?

    TIA.


Comments

  • #2
    GM228
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,922 ✭✭✭GM228


    They are frequently used as synonymous terms, but, illegal means proscribed by law whereas unlawful means not conforming to or recognised by law.

    You could say that something illegal is expressly proscribed by statute or common law, and something unlawful is just not expressly authorized.


  • #3
    0lddog
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,292 ✭✭✭0lddog


    Are there any circumstances in which The Queen ( ER II ) could order a UK PM to be locked up in the Tower of London ?


  • #4
    GM228
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,922 ✭✭✭GM228


    0lddog wrote: »
    Are there any circumstances in which The Queen ( ER II ) could order a UK PM to be locked up in the Tower of London ?

    No.


  • #5
    0lddog
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,292 ✭✭✭0lddog


    GM228 wrote: »
    No.
    :mad:


  • #6
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,580 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    GM228 wrote: »
    No.
    Well, she could order it, but it would likely be illegal.

    But possibly fun and would create vast amounts of schadenfreude.


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  • #7
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,998 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    GM228 wrote: »
    They are frequently used as synonymous terms, but, illegal means proscribed by law whereas unlawful means not conforming to or recognised by law.

    You could say that something illegal is expressly proscribed by statute or common law, and something unlawful is just not expressly authorized.
    Well, you could say that, but you don't have to, and lawyers typically don't. There's a whole category of grounds of judicial review called "illegality" (as contrasted with "irrationality" and "procedural impropriety"), and it deals with things which do not conform rather than things which are proscribed. When practioners of administrative law describe Johnson's advice to the monarch as "illegal" this is the sense they are invoking, and this is language commonly used to invoke it. "Unlawful" works just as well in this context, and is also used.

    Tl;dr: in this context at least, these terms are usually synonymous. If you want to indicate that something is proscribed by law, you would use words like "forbidden" or "prohibited" (or, if appropriate, "criminal").


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