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LSDefine
Simple English definitions for legal terms
lawgiver
Read a random definition: Fourteenth Amendment
A quick definition of lawgiver:
A lawgiver is someone who makes laws or interprets them. They can be a legislator who creates a whole set of laws or a judge who explains what the laws mean. It's like being the boss of the rules that everyone has to follow. Sometimes, the person who explains what the laws mean is even more important than the person who wrote them in the first place!
A more thorough explanation:
Definition: A lawgiver is a person who creates or interprets laws. This can include:
- A legislator who creates an entire set of laws.
- A judge who has the power to interpret laws.
Example: John Chipman Gray, in his book The Nature and Sources of the Law, quotes Bishop Hoadley who said, "Whoever has the authority to interpret any written or spoken laws is truly the lawgiver, not the person who first wrote or spoke them."
This means that the person who interprets the law has the power to decide how it should be applied, even if they did not create the law themselves. For example, a judge may interpret a law differently than how a legislator intended it to be interpreted, and their interpretation becomes the law for that particular case.