History Main / NotIllegalJustification

* During the "Funeral for a Friend" portion of ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', Director Westfield of Project Cadmus is told by the President of the United States himself that he cannot claim Superman's body for study. However, after he steals Superman's body and the Guardian catches him, he tells him that his orders were to let Metropolis have their funeral, interpreting that once it was over, his body was his to study. However, once Lois Lane finds proof of Cadmus' doing and finds Superman's body, the mere thought of an expose scares Westfield into returning Superman's body, but not before they get the DNA needed to later create the clone Superboy.

SisterTrope to CultureJustifiesAnything. LawfulEvil villains often have this attitude, and LawfulStupid characters will often side with them. These types of characters might end up creating a ToBeLawfulOrGood scenario. ThereShouldBeALaw may be an in-universe reaction to an act a character finds disgusting, but is not yet illegal. Unless a villain is punished for something illegal that they did, they could potentially end up OffOnATechnicality. An AmoralAttorney might use this when defending their clients.

** In "[[Recap/CSINYS04E11 Forbidden Fruit]]," Stella takes it upon herself to have a criminal moved from an upstate prison to a closer one in order to get the man's brother, an ex-con himself, to aid a case of hers by making forgeries of some ancient Greek coins. The Chief of Police calls Mac about why the prisoner is being moved, blindsiding him. Mac confronts Stella, telling her that her actions could potentially harm the investigation. She emphatically tells him that nothing she's doing is illegal, but he responds that she IS in violation of Lab policy and tells her to stop immediately. She says, "Fine!" then storms out and continues with her investigation anyway.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' and ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'' fanfiction ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10071826/1/A-Fox-Helps-a-Wild-Horse A Fox Helps a Wild Horse]]'', [[AbusiveParents Genma]] tries to justify leaving Ranma to pay off his debts by the fact that they're Ranma's under Japanese law, much to the disgust of Naruto and Nadoka.

* One ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' story has Dredd facing off against a criminal gang whose leader is an [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted chimpanzee]]. The chimp taunts Dredd that nothing he's done is actually illegal, because the laws that bind humans have never been updated to recognize the uplifted chimps as people. Dredd responds by having him impounded as a dangerous wild animal.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' episode "Magnificat", a woman kills three of her four children in a failed mass suicide attempt, and the detectives begin to suspect that she was driven to it by her emotionally abusive husband (who they initially suspected of planting the bomb used by his wife). However, despite the husband being a ControlFreak and a world-class JerkAss with a NeverMyFault attitude towards his wife's actions, ADA Carver points out that none of his actions amount to a changeable offense.

-->'''Homer:''' Shut up, shut up! If I don't hear you, it's not illegal!

->''"You know what? You can just shut your mustache! My conscience is clear. I have done nothing illegal. I have my rights, and I intend to keep on biggering and biggering, and turning more Truffula trees in to Thneeds. And nothing is going to stop me!"''

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

--> '''The Once-ler:''' ''(to the Lorax)'' You know what? You can just shut your mustache! My conscience is clear. I have done nothing illegal. I have my rights, and I intend to keep on biggering and biggering, and turning more Truffula trees in to Thneeds. And nothing is going to stop me!

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

The mentality of people who follow this trope can vary; a law-abiding villain [[VillainsWantMercy pleading for mercy]] might use the law in order to avoid retaliation by a hero and/or one of their victims. Some people may cite the law as a way of smugly taunting people who call them out or try to have them arrested. Others might say this out of [[EvilCannotComprehendGood bewilderment]], [[ObliviouslyEvil earnestly believing]] what they're doing is perfectly fine because they equate the law with morality. Still others might say this as a way of soothing their own conscience, telling themselves that their actions aren't wrong because they broke no laws.

There are a number of acts that this trope can apply to; an IndirectSerialKiller who [[DrivenToSuicide drives people to suicide]] might claim they're not murderers because their victims killed themselves. In a society that frowns on but legally allows [[OldManMarryingAChild adults marrying children]], a pedophile might use that fact defend themselves from their detractors. A [[AbusiveParents parent]] who kicks out their child as soon as they reach the age of majority might justify themselves by claiming that they have no legal obligation to take care of their child.

While these types of characters don't usually suffer any sort legal consequences, they will often suffer from some sort of karma regardless. Some common types include [[KarmicShunning being ostracized]], beaten, or [[AssholeVictim murdered]]. In religious works, these types of characters will often receive punishment by being [[DraggedOffToHell sent to hell]] or some other divine punishment. Some stories might have a character's primary evils be perfectly legal, while their secondary acts of evil are actually illegal, which will be used to catch someone who otherwise would have escaped the law.

SisterTrope to CultureJustifiesAnything. LawfulEvil villains often have this attitude, and LawfulStupid characters will often side with them. These types of characters might end up creating a ToBeLawfulOrGood scenario. ThereShouldBeALaw may be an in-universe reaction to an act a character finds disgusting, but is not yet illegal. Unless a villain is punished for something illegal that they did do, they could potentially end up OffOnATechnicality. An AmoralAttorney might use this when defending their clients.

See also LoopholeAbuse, ReadTheFinePrint, BotheringByTheBook JustFollowingOrders, ExactWords and NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught. Opposite to ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight. Compare BorrowedWithoutPermission, when a character insist that they're "borrowing" rather than stealing. Overlaps with InhumanableAlienRights when acts that would be illegal towards humans are legal towards non-humans on the grounds of them having no legal rights. Contrast ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem for when someone with power uses flat out breaks the rules they created. If the villain can't be punished for these actions due to their legality, the authorities might be able to still be able to bring them in via JusticeByOtherLegalMeans. TheJailBaitWait can be one way where this is invoked (usually to disgusted reactions). See also AnimalAthleteLoophole, or "It's not illegal for a dog to play basketball".

Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease, as what's considered right and wrong can vary from person to person, plus we don't want to attack real life people by calling them "evil."

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': In the story that launched the famous Hard-Travelling Heroes Saga in The70s, Green Lantern and ComicBook/GreenArrow face a viciously cruel landlord that makes life for his tenants hell, for profit. The man points out that, according to the law, he can do whatever he wants with his property. This causes the otherwise "by the book" Green Lantern to help Green Arrow to find a way to provoke the shady landlord into committing actual crimes so they can send him to prison. The event shakes the Lantern's mentors, the Guardians of the Universe, out of their LawfulStupid mentalities enough so that they agree to send one of their own number to spend time living among humanity for a while.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax2012'': When the Lorax confronts him, The Once-ler rationalizes that the [[EcocidalAntagonist environmental atrocities]] he' committed are fine, under the logic nothing he is doing is illegal.

* ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'': It's revealed that Shane keeps a laminated copy of Texas's "Romeo and Juliet law"[[note]]a law permitting sexual relationships between a legal minor and a legal adult as long as they're within 3 years of age, e.g., a 16 and 18 year old[[/note]] in his wallet in the event that anyone confronts him about the ethics of dating 17-year-old Tessa.

** Tanya even goes on to write a thesis for how to interpret wartime law to justify the shelling of cities and the killing of civilians. Her philosophies would be put to use in the Battle of Arene, where she warns the people in the city to evacuate: according to her thesis, anyone who chooses to stay could be considered "unlawful combatants", and soldiers could engage them as such.

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': The POW camp in the short story "The Borders of Infinity" applies this trope in a rather nasty manner. So many square meters per inmate? An opaque, luminous force shield encloses that much open ground and field latrines. No periods of darkness for over twelve hours? No darkness at all, ever. Water? Everyone gets a cup along with their clothes and a bedroll (the taps by the latrines work most of the time). Access to medical personnel? Plenty of medics are mixed in with the general population, but they mentioned nothing about equipment. Food? A pile of ICRC-equivalent compliant ration bars (one per inmate) appear at a random location on the camp perimeter twice per day. No solitary confinement for more than 24 hours? No beatings or rapes by guards? No guards....

* ''Series/Castle2009'': "Ghosts" has true-crime author Lee Wax interviewing a woman who was a wanted eco-terrorist. Cynthia Dern, Wax knew, was lying about the events of the night that an oil tanker was blown up. So Lee Wax made sure to let it slip to the family and friends of those involved in the incident that Cynthia was still alive and the subject of interviews, so that one of them would arrange for Cynthia to be arrested and Lee Wax could then tear up her contract with Cynthia and write the story she wanted to write. Unfortunately, the end result was Cynthia Dern ending up dead. Castle calls her out on it. She points out that nothing she did was illegal, and that she'd even cleared it all with her lawyer. Castle agrees that it wasn't illegal, but it was slimy, so he kicks her out of the precinct, and just to add insult to injury, he tells her she's going in one of his books as an antagonist.

* In the ''Series/ForThePeople'' episode "Flippity-Flop", Jill demands that Roger press charges against the DEA after they hold a raid that arrests the man Brian Torres. Torres is subsequently locked in a solitary holding cell and forgotten for four days, and when he's finally found he's severely malnourished and had begun hallucinating and trying to break out with his bare hands. Roger points out that the DEA technically did nothing wrong, so legally he can't press any charges against them. He changes his tune after he sees the security footage from the cell, but when he tries to charge the agent responsible with police brutality the agent demands a public defender and Jill is forced to use Roger's same initial argument against him.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' episodes "Magnificat" a woman kills three of her four children in a failed mass suicide attempt, and the detectives begin to suspect that she was driven to it by her emotionally abusive husband (who they initially suspected of planting the bomb used by his wife). However, despite the husband being a ControlFreak and a world-class JerkAss with a NeverMyFault attitude towards his wife's actions, ADA Carver points out that none of his actions amount to a changeable offense.

** "The Gold Job" has a BrotherSisterTeam of gold buyers who tell people to send them their gold and they'll send them a check. Except that they lowball the value of the gold and send them paltry checks. For most of the people, this means they have no choice but to take the check because by the time they get it, the item they sent in has already been melted down, and so they can't get a return on the money. Nate even notes to the client that it's all technically legal.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' if The Dragonborn uses The Thu'um in the city, they may be confronted by a guard asking them to stop. If asked if using the Thu'um is against the law, the guard will admit that it isn't, but asks them to stop because it makes the citizens nervous.

* {{Deconstructed}} in ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' where most people have said that regardless of the legal ambiguity of the title characters less-than-altruistic acts, it doesn't change that fact that what he does is wrong morally.

-->'''Lamb''': So what? She's eighteen. It's legal.

* ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith'' {{novelization}}: When Mace Windu tries to arrest Chancellor Palpatine on suspicion of being the Sith Lord masterminding the Clone Wars, Palpatine replies in part that being a Sith Lord is not illegal. [[JustifiedTrope This is an additional element of his trap for the Jedi]]: the line is [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint a rhetorical red herring]] since the primary charge would actually be high treason rather than being a member of the wrong religion, but Palpatine is recording the whole confrontation to bolster his cover story for ThePurge that the Jedi had attempted a coup, and does some ManipulativeEditing on it later.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E20TheTroubleWithTrillions The Trouble with Trillions]]'', Homer forgest to do the taxes. With only minutes to spare, he begins fraudulently writing details in an effort to complete an entire tax audit, but when Marge tries to say something about his obviously false information, he covers his ears to create plausible deniability.

See also LoopholeAbuse, ReadTheFinePrint, BotheringByTheBook JustFollowingOrders, ExactWords and NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught. Opposite to ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight. Compare BorrowedWithoutPermission, when a character insist that they're "borrowing" rather than stealing. Overlaps with InhumanableAlienRights when acts that would be illegal towards humans are legal towards non-humans on the grounds of them having no legal rights. Contrast ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem for when someone with power uses flat out breaks the rules they created. If the villain can't be punished for these actions due to their legality, the authorities might be able to still be able to bring them in via JusticeByOtherLegalMeans. TheJailBaitWait can be one way where this is invoked (usually to disgusted reactions).

The mentality of people who follow this trope can vary; a law-abiding villain [[VillainsWantMercy pleading for mercy]] might use the law in order to avoid retaliation by a hero and/or one of their victims. Some people may cite the law as a way of smugly taunting people who call them out or try to have them arrested. Others might say this out [[EvilCannotComprehendGood bewilderment]], [[ObliviouslyEvil earnestly believing]] what they're doing is perfectly fine because they equate the law with morality. Still others might say this as a way of soothing their own consciouses, telling themselves that their actions aren't wrong because they broke no laws.

There are a number of acts that this trope can apply too; an IndirectSerialKiller who [[DrivenToSuicide drives people to suicide]] might claim they're not murderers because their victims killed themselves. In a society that frowns on but legally allows [[OldManMarryingAChild adults marrying children]], a pedophile might use that fact defend themselves from their detractors. A [[AbusiveParents parent]] who kicks out their child as soon as they reach the age of majority might justify themselves by claiming that they have no legal obligation to take care of their child.

-->'''Juuga:''' See, you don't get it at all! There's nothing illegal in network marketing!
-->'''Chise:''' Just because it's technically legal doesn't mean it's okay to do!
-->'''Juuga:''' You misunderstand! Multi-level marketing runs on properly regulated trading and distribution chains!
-->'''Chise:''' You're not even hiding your true form anymore!

-->'''Morrison:''' Your ''right''? Well, I am here to claim the right of a '''HUSBAND!'''
-->''*cue EpicFlail, followed by SpitefulSpit*''

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'': When Harry and Ron find that they have missed the Hogwarts Express, they decide to fly the car to Hogwarts, and Ron clumsily tries to justify this, in spite of underage wizards not being allowed to use magic. This gets them into terrible trouble.
--> '''Ron:''' We're stuck, right? And we've got to get to school, haven't we? And even underage wizards are allowed to use magic if it's a real emergency, section nineteen or something of the Restriction of Thingy...

[[folder:Web Videos]]

-->'''Joker:''' Wendy is so adorable. So sweet, Bats. But at midnight... she becomes sexy. ''[evil laughter]''
-->'''Batman:''' Joker, what the fuck? Joker, I would rather you do other things. This is ''legal'', technically, but I don't like it, it's weird. This is just weird, Joker.

* ''Series/KeyAndPeele'': In one skit, a man has a PottyEmergency, but the seatbelt sign is still on. A flight attendant tells him it's against the rules to get up to use the bathroom while the sign is still on, but the man insists that if it's not illegal, he can do whatever he wants. He ends up being thrown around when the plane runs into some turbulence.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': After Optimus defeats the Headmaster and [[ItMakesSenseInContext Sentinel gets his head back]], Captain Fanzone tries to arrest Headmaster for the crimes of property damage and assault. Just then, Powell (who took over Sumdac Systems and hired Headmaster) shows up and uses this excuse, saying that a) alien robots aren't covered by the Constitution, so Optimus and Sentinel don't have rights in America, and (b) there was no property damage because Headmaster was destroying property owned by Sumdac Systems, and there's no law against destroying your ''own'' property.[[note]]He also tries to claim that the incident happened in international waters between the U.S. and Canada, but that one doesn't work because there ''aren't'' international waters between the countries, just a borderline.[[/note]] Fanzone is forced to let Headmaster go as a result.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' and ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'' fanfiction ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10071826/1/A-Fox-Helps-a-Wild-Horse A Fox Helps a Wild Horse]], [[AbusiveParents Genma]] tries to justify leaving Ranma to pay off his debts by the fact that they're Ranma's under Japanese law, much to the disgust of Naruto and Nadoka.

Generally speaking, just because something is legal doesn't mean it's considered moral; while every society has its share of taboos, not every given taboo is explicitly illegal. While some understand and hold this this idea, others have no qualms about performing even the most reprehensible actions under the reasoning that so long as there is no written law forbidding it, it's perfectly okay.

[[/folder]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Films- Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

[[/folder]]

'''Indices'''
* CrimeAndPunishmentTropes
* MoralityTropes
* CynicismTropes
* ExcuseOfAnIndex
* EvilTropes

* One of the original ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' mysteries has a lovely young lady contact the detective about her mysterious suitor. Shortly after her mother died, she'd inherited a tidy sum in the will, which excluded her then-husband. The heiress was being courted by a mysterious suitor, who took pains to not reveal his face. Holmes instantly deduced what was going on, and called the lady's stepfather into his office. When Holmes spelled out that the man was posing as his stepdaughter's suitor in order to leech her inheritance, the man grew flustered, and declared, "It is not actionable!" since there is no law that forbids his shenanigans. Holmes threatens to club the varlet, which makes him flee. Watson wonders if Holmes will inform the young lady, but Holmes defers: "A woman believes her heart more than her head."

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': The POW camp in the short story "The Borders of Infinity" applies this trope in a rather nasty manner. So many square meters per inmate? An opaque, luminous force shield encloses that much open ground and field latrines. No periods of darkness for over twelve hours? No darkness at all, ever. Water? Everyone gets a cup along with their clothes and a bedroll (the taps by the latrines work most of the time). Access to medical personnel? Plenty of medics mixed in with the general population, but they mentioned nothing about equipment. Food? A pile of ICRC-equivalent compliant ration bars (one per inmate) appear at a random location on the camp perimeter twice per day. No solitary confinement for more than 24 hours? No beatings or rapes by guards? No guards....

The mentality of people who follow this trope can vary; a law-abiding villain [[VillainsWantMercy pleading for mercy]] might use the law in order to avoid retaliation by a hero and/or one of their victims. Some people may site the law as a way of smugly taunting people who call them out or try to have them arrested. Others might say this out [[EvilCannotComprehendGood bewilderment]], [[ObliviouslyEvil earnestly believing]] what they're doing is perfectly fine because they equate the law with morality. Still others might say this as a way of soothing their own consciouses, telling themselves that their actions aren't wrong because they broke no laws.