Legalize
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
To render lawful; to give authority of law to that which lacks it. Legalization; the conferting validity upon an act, contract, &c., which previous law does not authorize. The general principle is that the legislature may legalize, i. e. give validity to, an act done without its authority, which it might have authorized beforehand; but none other.