Editing Legalization

{{Short description|Process of removing legal prohibitions}}
{{Redirect|Legalize|the Mr Eazi song|Legalize (song)|the Russian hip hop band of similar spelling|Ligalize}}
{{For|the process of certifying a document so that it will be recognized by the legal system of a foreign country|Document legalization}}
{{Refimprove|date=March 2015}}
'''Legalization''' is the process of removing a [[law|legal]] prohibition against something which is currently not legal.

Legalization is a process often applied to what are regarded, by those working towards legalization, as [[victimless crime]]s, of which one example is the consumption of [[illegal drug]]s (see [[drug legalization]]).

Legalization should be contrasted with [[decriminalization]], which removes criminal charges from an action, whereas legalization also adds in regulation, such as a minimum age to legally purchase, poses and use a drug like cannabis.

Proponents of [[libertarianism]] support legalization of what they regard as victimless crimes, such as [[recreational drug use|recreational drug and alcohol use]], [[gun ownership]], and [[legalization of prostitution|prostitution]].

In [[immigration to the United States|U.&nbsp;S. immigration]] context, the term "legalization" is colloquially used to refer to a process whereby a person illegally present in the country can obtain [[Permanent residence (United States)|lawful permanent residence]]. Since 1929, the US law has provided the legalization procedure known as [[Permanent residence (United States)#Registry|registry]], which simply requires the applicant to prove that he has continuously resided in the country since before a certain specified "registry date" (originally, 1921; presently, 1972), and is not inadmissible on other grounds (criminal history, ''etc.'').<ref name=bruno2001>{{citation|url=http://congressionalresearch.com/RL30578/document.php?2study=Immigration+Registry+as+Means+of+Obtaining+Lawful+Permanent+Residence" |title=Immigration: Registry as Means of Obtaining Lawful Permanent Residence (CRS Report for Congress) |date=2001-08-22 |first=Andorra|last=Bruno |publisher=Congressional Research Service}}</ref><ref name=holtzman2015>{{citation|ssrn=2561911 |last=Holtzman|first= Alexander Thomas|title= A Modest Proposal: Legalize Millions of Undocumented Immigrants with the Change of a Single Statutory Date  |date=2015-01-01|doi=10.2139/ssrn.2561911|s2cid=152827972}}</ref> One legalization proposal that was widely discussed recently{{when|date=March 2015}} was the [[DREAM Act]].

==See also==
{{wikt}}
* [[Drug liberalization]]
* [[Legal prostitution]]
* [[Legality of cannabis]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Criminology]]
[[Category:Economics of regulation]]
[[Category:Justice]]
[[Category:Libertarian theory]]
[[Category:Public policy]]
[[Category:Regulation]]
[[Category:Legal terminology]]
[[Category:Concepts in political philosophy]]
[[Category:Philosophy of law]]