laŭleĝa

Three pieces, and it defines itself: laŭ according to, leĝo a law, -a the adjective ending. According to the law. English needs two words for this idea depending on register, lawful and legal, and Esperanto needs one.

The laŭ- family. This is the third member the course has met and the pattern is now worth naming. Laŭdire at rank 1907 is laŭ plus diri, according to what is said, hence reportedly or allegedly. Laŭvorta at rank 2399 is laŭ plus vorto, according to the words, hence literal; its own page promised laŭleĝa as an example you would be able to read unaided, and here it is, one rank band later. Beyond those three: laŭvica in turn, laŭeble as far as possible, laŭplaĉe as you please, laŭnome by name. Fix laŭ as "in accordance with" and the whole set stops being vocabulary and starts being arithmetic.

The fence with the specialist words. Laŭleĝa says an act conforms to the law. It is not the adjective for law as a subject or a profession: that is jura (jura fakultato, a law faculty; jurstudento, a law student), from juro, right or jurisprudence. Nor is it leĝa, which exists and means pertaining to statute, as in leĝa teksto. The one that trips people is the gap between laŭleĝa and justa, which is the point of the third example: lawful describes the rule, just describes the outcome, and a great deal of history sits in the space between them.

The negatives are regular and both are in daily use. Kontraŭleĝa is unlawful, against the law, and it is the stronger of the two. Malleĝa is also heard. The adverb laŭleĝe means lawfully, and the noun laŭleĝeco is legality.