Also known as: unlawfully · unlawfulness · illegal
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An adjective characterizing conduct, status, or objectives that violate a statute, constitutional provision, common-law rule, or public policy.
Una Ueda drives a vehicle without a valid license and strikes a pedestrian who later dies. Prosecutors charge involuntary manslaughter on the theory that the death resulted from commission of an unlawful act. The court allows the charge to proceed because the predicate violation supplies the required element under the unlawful-act doctrine.
Ursula Upton, counsel for a defendant in civil litigation, directs her client to hide internal emails that could be produced in discovery. The ethics board charges a violation because the lawyer assisted in unlawfully concealing material with potential evidentiary value. Discipline follows directly from the prohibition on such assistance.
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Ugo Uberti, a mortgage broker, refuses to process a home loan application submitted by a family of Mexican national origin while approving identical applications from other applicants. The family sues under federal fair housing law. The broker's refusal constitutes an unlawful denial of a residential real estate transaction on a prohibited basis.
Uma Underwood creates a trust whose sole purpose is to fund ongoing violations of environmental regulations. After new statutes criminalize the funded activity, the trustee petitions for termination. The court ends the trust because its purpose has become unlawful.
Ulysses Ulrich remains confined in a state facility after the legal basis for his detention has expired. Federal agents obtain a warrant authorizing entry to free a person who is unlawfully restrained. The warrant issues on that statutory ground.
Ursula Ureña and Union Steel sign a supply agreement containing two clauses that cannot both be performed without violating antitrust law. The court adopts the reading that renders one clause inoperative rather than the reading that leaves both clauses unlawful. This choice supplies a reasonable and effective meaning to the remaining terms.
No. An unlawful act that is a misdemeanor or a felony outside the narrow felony-murder category can still support involuntary manslaughter under the unlawful-act doctrine when death results.
Yes. The prohibition reaches any unlawful obstruction or alteration of evidence, whether or not the underlying conduct is itself a crime.
A trust purpose becomes unlawful when it violates a statute, contravenes public policy, or becomes impossible to achieve, triggering termination even if the trust instrument does not expressly provide for it.
No. The rule prefers any interpretation that gives a reasonable, lawful, and effective meaning over one that leaves part of the agreement unreasonable, unlawful, or without effect.
…when it is being delivered in the ordinary course of nature." Id. , at 691. He concluded that the 1861 Act's use of the word "unlawfully," imported the same meaning expressed by the specific proviso in the 1929 Act, even though there was no mention of preserving the mother's life in the 1861 Act. He then construed the phrase…