What's the difference between lawless and unlawful?

Lawless


Definition:

  • (a.) Contrary to, or unauthorized by, law; illegal; as, a lawless claim.
  • (a.) Not subject to, or restrained by, the law of morality or of society; as, lawless men or behavior.
  • (a.) Not subject to the laws of nature; uncontrolled.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Two other men were shot dead over the weekend, prompting the governing African National Congress (ANC) to warn that Marikana "cannot be allowed to deteriorate into a bastion of lawlessness".
  • (2) The work closely follows the theory developed by Lawless (1987).
  • (3) He does not have the ingenuity of Diego Maradona or the lawless wit of Luis Suárez, so does not cast spells over opponents, but he has shown that he can certainly help subdue them and uplift his team.
  • (4) The movie excels in its many trading-floor sequences, great chaotic indoor crowd-scenes worthy of Raoul Walsh, in which we can glimpse the primal, quasi-animalistic governing urges that propel an unregulated – that's to say, totally lawless – free-market economy, as the hawks are granted licence to feast upon the sparrows.
  • (5) They are fleeing, perforce, the most awful conditions imaginable: a vicious, endless civil war that sees schools targeted with barrel bombs, communities assaulted with chemical weapons, and whole cities destroyed in a conflict between lawless jihadi fanatics and regime forces fighting for survival.
  • (6) For a sense of the scale of the problem, consider the amount of relief money the UN has called for to aid the increasingly lawless region: $1bn (£630m).
  • (7) Two senior members of a feared Afghan insurgent group were killed early on Thursday in the first strike by a US drone outside Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.
  • (8) Viktor Nemets plays the decent, dogged driver who trundles through lawless rural badlands before grinding his gears in a gutted community where the menfolk have gone to the bad and the police are too busy tracing nude pictures out of girlie magazines to do anything about it.
  • (9) Mexican security forces have faced accusations of committing abuses amid the lawlessness of the country’s drug wars.
  • (10) Crew members of the Maersk Alabama, which suffered the raid off the coast of lawless Somalia in April 2009, told the New York Post the titular hero played by Tom Hanks in Paul Greengrass's critically acclaimed film was far from heroic.
  • (11) The murky nature of the seizures – seemingly both methodical and lawless – was amplified when the Russian Night Wolves biker gang, which has close ties to the Kremlin, arrived to guard the latter.
  • (12) These hulking monuments to American consumer culture make up the subject of Lawless' book Black Friday .
  • (13) His defiant reappearance underscores the difficulty of targeting leaders of militant groups in the lawless tribal belt of Pakistan .
  • (14) On 25 November, a protest in Makhachkala of up to 3,000 people called for an end to lawlessness among the security services.
  • (15) Mr Morgan said the PCC had made a vast improvement to standards of journalism from the "pretty lawless" state that had existed before.
  • (16) Addressing the overall context of the riots and the "abuse of modern technology", the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, said: "The level of lawlessness was shocking and wholly inexcusable.
  • (17) presidential spokesman for foreign affairs Teuku Faizasyah is quoted as saying: "[Indonesia] is portrayed as a cruel and lawless nation ...
  • (18) On Monday the Russian foreign ministry denounced the lawlessness it said “now rules in eastern regions of Ukraine as a result of the actions of fighters of the so-called Right Sector, with the full connivance” of Ukraine’s new authorities.
  • (19) Vandals have left none of the mall’s glass storefronts in tact – “kids coming in and breaking shit,” Lawless explains.
  • (20) The Front National has slammed Fillon as a symbol of lawless, ultra-free market, globalised capitalism.

Unlawful


Definition:

  • (a.) Not lawful; contrary to law.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Simon said he ruled against Belhaj because American, as well as British, officials were involved in the operation – the rendition of Belhaj and his pregnant wife to Tripoli in 2004 – which Belhaj wanted a British court to declare unlawful.
  • (2) On that basis, the court declared the renewal unlawful.
  • (3) The film director faced a jail term after he pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with Samantha Gailey (now Geimer), then aged 13.
  • (4) "It may not be nice, kind or flattering, but to put it as unlawful would be startling," White said.
  • (5) UK-US surveillance regime was unlawful ‘for seven years’ Read more The admission that the regime surrounding state snooping on legally privileged communications has also failed to comply with the European convention on human rights comes in advance of a legal challenge, to be heard early next month, in which the security services are alleged to have unlawfully intercepted conversations between lawyers and their clients to provide the government with an advantage in court.
  • (6) "When, not withstanding any caveats or prior assurances, there is still considered to be a real possibility of mistreatment and therefore there is considered to be a risk that the agencies' actions could be judged to be unlawful, the actions may not be taken without authority at a senior level.
  • (7) The tribunal added that Dean's dismissal was a consequence of unlawful harassment arising "not from treating the claimant differently from non-disabled associates [in enforcing the 'look policy'], but in treating her the same in circumstances where it should have made an adjustment".
  • (8) This administrative tool could enable certain immigrants living in the US unlawfully to remain in the country while they apply for a change of status.
  • (9) March 3, 2014 9.46am GMT David Smith (@SmithInAfrica) Nel reads more charges relating to unlawfully discharging firearms in 2012.
  • (10) Led by a handful of outspoken female voices, a rising tide of opinion has instead applauded Polanski's arrest for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old back in 1977.
  • (11) The families were appalled by the eventual verdict of accidental death rather than unlawful killing, and felt that the police force principally responsible for so many deaths had behaved, from the day of the disaster, without humanity.
  • (12) Asylum data breach: immigration unlawfully disclosed personal details Read more In an statement, the former deputy commander of the border protection command (BPC) Abigail Bradshaw said: “If Australia cannot effectively manage who can enter the country and the circumstances and conditions under which people enter then the security of the commonwealth is compromised.” She continued: “Current operations would be compromised by the release of this information.
  • (13) Last month McMullan admitted he personally commissioned private investigators to commit several hundred acts which could be regarded as unlawful, that use of illegal techniques was no secret at the paper, and that senior editors, including Coulson, must have been aware this was going on.
  • (14) The 29 people arrested are reportedly facing charges of joining an unlawful assembly under section 143 of the penal code, which carries a maxiumum 20-year jail term.
  • (15) Special intelligence operations are a new type of covert operation in which intelligence officers receive immunity from liability or prosecution where they may need to engage in conduct that would be otherwise unlawful.
  • (16) These ordinances give special protection to witnesses and power to restrict the places of residence of persons associating with unlawful societies, control traffic at night, and increase maximum penalties for certain offences."
  • (17) Clement-Jones told theguardian.com today that he had been assured the government's new clause 18 would allow for new regulations to be introduced that dealt with websites and other services that allow access to unlawfully copied material.
  • (18) Mark Lewis, the lawyer who acted for clients including Eriksson, said: “There are many more people who will now be able to make claims against the Mirror Group titles in respect of their unlawful activities.” Lewis is the lawyer who also brought the first successful phone-hacking legal claim against Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World.
  • (19) HRW said the proposed relocation would unlawfully reduce refugees' access to food, clothing, housing, healthcare and education.
  • (20) It alleged that Martinez took part in “racist and sexist comments as well as unwanted touching and other unlawful conduct”.