lex lata

Borrowed from Latin lēx lāta (“the law borne”) (see below).

lex lata (uncountable)

1. (law) The law as it is.
   • 1997, Lyal S Sunga, The Emerging System of International Criminal Law

     At that point, little purpose would be served in maintaining categories fashioned so closely to the lex lata that the Code would crystallize traditional technical distinctions.

   • 2000, Nikolaos K. Tsagourias, The Jurisprudence of International Law

     This also betrays an interest in transforming world order by approximating lex lata with lex ferenda.

   • 2002, Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, 2001

     Lex ferenda serves as a label for something which has at least conceptual existence, as a contrast or opposite to lex lata, the law that exists and obliges the subjects of law to adopt, or to refrain from, certain defined courses of conduct in certain defined circumstances.

Literally "the law borne", i.e. ratified. Compare lēgislātor (“one who makes laws”); literally, "bearer of the law".

lēx lāta f sg (genitive lēgis lātae); third declension

1. (law) The law as it is.

Third-declension noun with a first-declension adjective, singular only.

• lēx ferenda