legislative

(lej’is-la-tiv), a.andn. [= F. légis-_ lat if = Sp. Pg. It. legislativo; as legislate + -ive.] I, a. 1. Pertaining to or resulting from legislation; ordained by a legislator or a legislature; having statutory force or quality: as, legislative proceedings; a legislative prohibition. R The poet is a kind of lawgiver, and those qualities are’ proper to the legislative style. Dryden. 2. Having power to legislate; enacting or uttering laws; lawmaking: as, a legislative body; legislative authority.—8, Of or belonging to a 745 legislative legislature; relating to or consisting of a body of legislators: as, a legislative committee; a legislative vote; a legislative rece .—Legislative A embly. See a embly.—Legislative power, the power to make or alter laws. See judicial power (under judicial), and executive, 1. II. ». A person, as a prince or dictator, or a body of persons, as a parliamentary a embly, invested with authority to make or alter laws. Compare executive. The power of the legislative, being derived from the people by a positive voluntary grant and institution, can be no other than what that positive grant conveyed, which being only to make laws and not to make legislators, the legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands. Locke, Civil Government, xi.