History Main / LegalizedEvil

* How {{Hell}} is run in ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'', as Lucifer is theoretically in charge ([[AsskickingEqualsAuthority because he can do horrible things to anyone who defies him]]) but the only laws canonically confirmed to exist are a ban on travel to the mortal realm and a trademark or copyright on the name of the "Lulu Land" amusement park. All other acts typically deemed as immoral in Hell are permitted and not punished under Lucifer's law. Drugs are sold from vending machines, civilian ownership of fully automatic weapons is widespread, sexual deviancy is the norm, genocidal turf wars among the demon lords are an annual thing, and there's nothing anyone can do about fraud and other bad business practices.

In many societal scenarios, there are rules and laws to enforce and maintain proper behaviors among the populace. There are ethics and codes of conduct that are considered acceptable and those that are not. The "Nots" most likely being heavily condemned and illegalized by the ruling authority of a setting.

However, what happens when what is deemed as contemptible in a society by majority is deemed as legal by a society's ruling authority? What happens when those deemed evil in a setting have the law on their side or at least whatever they are doing is deemed immoral but not deemed as illegal and therefore acceptable under the law? What happens when acts of immorality have legal backing and legitimacy on their side?

That is where this trope comes to play. Legalized Evil is a situation where an evil or series of acts deemed as morally wrong by a culture is actively overlooked and permitted by the law of the land of a setting. ValuesDissonance may be in play, but the trope requires that the characters in a setting acknowledge the acts that are legalized are morally wrong or improper even by their own standards. Often this trope occurs in authoritarian settings where a form of AnarchoTyranny is in place or societies where DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans or DespotismJustifiesTheMeans under a corrupt authority. In a CrapsackWorld where this trope is seen as a "good thing", expect it to be the LesserOfTwoEvils in comparison to some form of complete societal collapse.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Downplayed in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series when it comes to theft. Though the ruling authorities dislike it, the city of Ankh-Morpork ''sorta'' legalized thievery, but only for members of the ThievesGuild, who have limits on how many robberies, muggings, etc. they can do in a year, and each victim gets a receipt and is entitled to go a certain amount of time until they get robbed again by the Guild. Unlicensed thieves are still illegal, and probably pray that the police catch them instead of the Thieves' Guild, since the Guild is murderously protective of their privilege to commit theft with permission under the law.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': Demonstrated in the episode [[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E4BubblevisionBoughtAndScold "Bought And Scold"]], where SpoiledBrat Princess Morbucks convinces her dad to buy the entire city and make her mayor, and her only command is to declare that "Crime is Legal" (with a printed document for criminals to show off in the page image). Morbucks plunges the city into chaos purely to spite the Powerpuff Girls, who she threatens to throw in jail if they try and stop any criminals from doing any immoral acts they would otherwise be punished for. This bites Princess in the butt when ''she'' gets robbed and, as the girls note when they're summoned, there's nothing they can do since the theft ''was perfectly legal'', thus forcing Princess to re-illegalize crime to get her stuff back. [[spoiler:Turns out it the girls themselves were the theives in an effort to force Princess to change the law back and the get the old mayor his job back]].

** The Kryptonian island of Bokos in ''ComicBook/WorldsFinestComics'' number 191 not only legalizes crimes, but ''outlaws'' honest acts like returning stolen money and refusing to help thieves, which are punishable by [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment jetpack exile]], as in, the opposite of [[{{Prison}} our way of punishing crimes]].

** The Kryptonian island of Bokos in ''ComicBook/WorldsFinest'' number 191 not only legalizes crimes, but ''outlaws'' honest acts like returning stolen money and refusing to help thieves, which are punishable by [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment jetpack exile]], as in, the opposite of [[{{Prison}} our way of punishing crimes]].

* In ''[[ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire Buck Godot]]'', there's only one Law on New Hong Kong: "There is no Law on New Hong Kong." As such, absolutely ''anything'' goes when it comes to committing crimes, and there will never be any legal reprisal because there's no police, prison system, or criminal court. However, there's also no law against vigilante justice (including of the preemptive variety), carrying heavy weapons at all times, and doing anything you like to that guy who just looked at you funny. And since every citizen of the planet is fully aware of all of this, what could have been anarchy has very nearly become the model example of 'A universally-armed society is a polite society.' Or rather, the ''citizens'' have adjusted. Tourists are advised to step very, very carefully - just because there are no ''laws'', that does not mean there are no ''rules''.

Often the purpose of the trope is ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil, which is similar but does not require a ruler, as well as OutlawTown and TotalitarianGangsterism, which are often side-effects of this trope coming into place when immoral figures become the ruling authority over otherwise morally superior masses.

That is where this trope comes to play. [[TropeNamer Legalized Evil]] is a situation where an evil or series of acts deemed as morally wrong by a culture is actively overlooked and permitted by the law of the land of a setting. ValuesDissonance may be in play, but the trope requires that the characters in a setting acknowledge the acts that are legalized are morally wrong or improper even by their own standards. Often this trope occurs in authoritarian settings where a form of AnarchoTyranny is in place or societies where DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans or DespotismJustifiesTheMeans under a corrupt authority. In a CrapsackWorld where this trope is seen as a "good thing", expect it to be the LesserOfTwoEvils in comparison to some form of complete societal collapse.

At the risk of possible FlameBait and Edit Wars, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' as there are places in RealLife that have laws permitting acts that people both foreign and domestic would consider ethically bankrupt.

* In ''[[ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire Buck Godot]]'', there's only one Law on New Hong Kong: "There is no Law on New Hong Kong." As such, absolutely ''anything'' goes when it comes to committing crimes, and there will never be any legal reprisal because there's no police, prison system, or criminal court. However, there's also no law against vigilante justice (including of the preemptive variety), carrying heavy weapons at all times, and doing anything you like to that guy who just looked at you funny. And since every citizen of the planet is fully aware of all of this, what could have been anarchy has very nearly become the model example of 'A universally-armed society is a polite society.' Or rather, the ''citizens'' have adjusted. Tourists are advised to step very, very carefully.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, Cardassians could not onlykill Bajorans with impunity under Cardassian military law, but take random Bajoran women as [[SexSlave "Comfort Women"]] and discard them at their leisure.

* In [[ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire Buck Godot]], there's only one Law on New Hong Kong: "There is no Law on New Hong Kong." As such, absolutely ''anything'' goes when it comes to committing crimes, and there will never be any legal reprisal because there's no police, prison system, or criminal court. However, there's also no law against vigilante justice (including of the preemptive variety), carrying heavy weapons at all times, and doing anything you like to that guy who just looked at you funny. And since every citizen of the planet is fully aware of all of this, what could have been anarchy has very nearly become the model example of 'A universally-armed society is a polite society.' Or rather, the ''citizens'' have adjusted. Tourists are advised to step very, very carefully.

* In [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire Buck Godot]], there's only one Law on New Hong Kong: "There is no Law on New Hong Kong." As such, absolutely ''anything'' goes when it comes to committing crimes, and there will never be any legal reprisal because there's no police, prison system, or criminal court. However, there's also no law against vigilante justice (including of the preemptive variety), carrying heavy weapons at all times, and doing anything you like to that guy who just looked at you funny. And since every citizen of the planet is fully aware of all of this, what could have been anarchy has very nearly become the model example of 'A universally-armed society is a polite society.' Or rather, the ''citizens'' have adjusted. Tourists are advised to step very, very carefully.

* ''TabletopGame/BlueRose'': The only law in Kern is that citizen need to do their shifts in the Lich King's mines. He doesn't care in the least what they get up to the rest of the time, at long as they don't threaten his rule. There is an informal system of local community leaders trying to maintain some kind of order, but of course their ability to punish wrong-doers is limited.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': Demonstrated in the episode [[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E4BubblevisionBoughtAndScold "Bought And Scold"]], where SpoiledBrat Princess Morbucks convinces her dad to buy the entire city and make her mayor, and her only command is to declare that "Crime is Legal" (with a printed document for criminals to show off in the page image). Morbucks plunges the city into chaos purely to spite the Powerpuff Girls, who she threatens to throw in jail if they try and stop any criminals from doing any immoral acts they would otherwise be punished for.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legalized_evil1.jpg]]

* Demonstrated in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode [[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E4BubblevisionBoughtAndScold Bought And Scold]], where SpoiledBrat Princess Morbucks convinces her dad to buy the entire city and make her mayor, and her only command is to declare that "Crime is Legal" (with a printed document for criminals to show off in the page image). Morbucks plunges the city into chaos purely to spite the Powerpuff Girls, who she threatens to throw in jail if they try and stop any criminals from doing any immoral acts they would otherwise be punished for.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', crime seems to be permitted on a planetary scale considering how [[BigBad Aku]] ([[EvilOverlord the demonic king of Earth]]) runs his evil empire. Instead of a totalitarian regime where everything is strictly monitored and controlled, Aku allows the whole world to be consumed by an endless state of violence and warfare in which all sorts of villains, warlords, criminals, and monsters run rampant and terrorize innocent people as they please with full permission under his authority. Aku even has his minions escort new criminals to parts of Earth that are relatively peaceful to be destroyed once they arrive as government policy. The normal citizens of Aku's empire are either miserable and actively despise the way their society is run or just reached TooBleakStoppedCaring status and don't have any care to change a way of life they acknowledge has been corrupt for millennia.

* ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIThePhantomMenace'': This is why the Trade Federation are desperately trying to keep the invasion of Naboo a ClosedCircle, as it's very much ''not'' legalized and would get them thrashed by the Federation if word got out. Instead they're trying to force the Queen to sign a document legalizing the invasion, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bogging down any retaliation in so much diplomatic red tape]].

At the risk of possible FlameBait and Edit Wars, '''No Real Life Examples Please''' as there are places in RealLife that have laws permitting acts that people both foreign and domestic would consider ethically bankrupt.