Lewdness

Llcentiousnees; an offense against the public economy, when of an open and notorious character; as, by frequenting houses of 111 fame, which is an indictable offense, or by some grossly scandalous and public indecency, for which the punishment at common law is fine and imprisonment. The various acts which constituted lewdness at common law are now generally covered by a variety of statutory offenses, as "indecent exposure," "lascivious cohabitation," etc.. LEX (Lat.) The law; a law for the government of mankind in society. Among the ancient Romans this word was frequently used as synonymous with right, jus. When put absolutely, it means the law of the Twelve Tables.

That form of immorality which has relation to sexual impurity. U. S. V. Males, 61 Fed. 41. See Lasciviousness; OBSc EmrY; Indecency. LEX (Lat.). In the Civil Law. A rule of law which magistrates and people had agreed upon by means of a solemn declaration of consensus. Sohm, Inst. R, L. 28, Its two main meanings are said to be; A written law; and a stated or written condition or understanding proposed and accepted. Nettleship, Lexlcog. In the later empire, which dates from the fourth century, there were two groups of the sources of the law, jus (q. v.), <. e. the old traditional law, and leges which had sprung from imperial legislation. Jus was based upon the law of the Twelve earlier emperors, whltffi, partly owing to their language and partly on account of the bald sententiousness, and the pregnant phraseology In which they were couched, came to be mainly used, both by the prietor and by the parties, through the classic literature where their results were set forth and worked out This resulted in identifying jus with jurist-made law, and on the edict of the Law of Citations (g. v.) by Valentinian III., the distinction between jus and lex was practically lost. See Inst. 1. 2. 3; Sohm, Inst. R. L, 82; Jds Scripta. In England there was no careful discrimination between jus, and lex, and consuetude, although they were not, in all contexts, used with exactly similar meaning. Leges was sometimes applied by both Glanville and Bracton to the unwritten laws of England, and although Bracton contrasts consmtudo with lex, there was no general definite theory as to the relation between enacted and unenacted law — the relation between law and custom, and the relation between law as it was and law as It ought to be. The king’s Justices claimed a certain power of improving the law, but they might not change the law, and the king might issue new writs without the consent of a national assembly, but not where such writs were contrary to the law. Jus commune was used by the canonists to distinguish the general and ordinary law of the universal church from any rules peculiar to a particular national or provincial church, and from the papal privilegia, and the phrase was also used in the dialogue on the Exchequer, but it was not until the time of Edward I. that it was superseded by lex communis, or that the common law could be contrasted with the statute law, the royal prerogative or local custom. 1 Poll. & Maitl. 154. Lex is used in a purely juridical sense, law, and not also right; while jus has an ethical as well as a juridical meaning, not only law, but right. 15 L. Q. R. 367 (by Salmond). Lex is usually concrete, while jus is abstract. Pollock, First Book of Jurispr. 14-18. In English we have no term which combines the legal and ethical meanings, as do jus and its French equivalent, droit, id. Among the following titles will be found many of the leges (plcbiscita) and senatus consulta; a conspectus of the principal laws that have come down to us fi’om the Empire, with particular titles or definite authorship, may be found in Hunter, Rom. Law 61. LEX /EBUTIA. (B. C., about 170; perhaps between B. 0. klO and 100.) The law which, with the leges Julice, in part abolished the legis aotiones. It was confined to legal proceedings before the prwtor urbanus, i. e. to those cases where a judicium was appointed to try a cause between Roman cl^ens ed In a city court without legia actio, merely by means ot the formula or preetorian decree of appointment, and, placed the legia actio and t^e formula, so far as the dvil law was concerned, on a footing of equality. In cases falling under the Jurisdiction of the centumvlral court, cases of voluntary Jurisdiction and damnum infectum, the legia actio remained in use; as, according to the preetorian law In such cases, no Judex was appointed, and consequently no formula was granted, and it was only in cases where there was no formula and no decree of appointment that the legia actio survived. Sohrn, Rom. L. 173. See Judex; Formula. LEX /ELIA 8ENTIA. (A. D. 4.) The law restraining the manumission of slaves. Morey, R. L. 99. See Manumission.

Llcontlousness; an offense against the public economy, when of an an open and notorious character; as by frequenting houses of ill fame, which is an indictable offense or by some grossly scandalous and public indecency, for which the punishment at common law is fine and imprisonment. Wharton. See Brooks v. State, 2 Yerg. (Tenn.) 483; U. S. v. Males (D. C.) 51 Fed. 42; Comin. v. Warded, 128 Mass. 54, 35 Am. Rep. 357; State v. Bauguess, 106 Iowa, 107, 76 N. W. 508.

— Open lewdness. Lewd or lascivious behav-Vjr practised without disguise, secrecy, or concealment. The adjective relates to the quality of the act, not to the place nor to the number of spectators. State v. Juneau, 88 Wis. 180, 59 N. W. 580, 24 In In A. 857, 43 Am. St. Rep. 877; State v. Millard, 18 Vt. 574, 46 Am. Dec. 170; Comm. v. Wardell, l28 Mass. 52, 35 Am. Rep. 357.