diff --git a/app/layout.jsx b/app/layout.jsx
index 562889c..b3f2151 100644
--- a/app/layout.jsx
+++ b/app/layout.jsx
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import React from "react";
 import "./globals.css";
 import ThemeToggle from "@/components/theme-toggle";
 import LogoutButton from "@/components/logout-button";
@@ -11,7 +12,7 @@ export const metadata = {
 export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
   return (
     <html lang="en">
-      <body className="min-h-screen bg-gray-50 text-gray-900">
+      <body className="flex min-h-screen flex-col bg-gray-50 text-gray-900">
         <script
           dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{
             __html: `try { const saved = localStorage.getItem('confidence-engine-theme'); const theme = saved === 'dark' || saved === 'light' ? saved : (matchMedia('(prefers-color-scheme: dark)').matches ? 'dark' : 'light'); document.documentElement.dataset.theme = theme; document.documentElement.style.colorScheme = theme; } catch (_) {}`,
@@ -26,7 +27,7 @@ export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
             </div>
           </div>
         </header>
-        {children}
+        <div className="flex-1">{children}</div>
         <footer className="app-chrome border-t border-gray-200/80 px-6 py-5">
           <LegalNavigation />
         </footer>
diff --git a/app/login/page.jsx b/app/login/page.jsx
index 0790c8b..8d7e9a8 100644
--- a/app/login/page.jsx
+++ b/app/login/page.jsx
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import LoginForm from "@/components/login-form";
 
 export default function LoginPage() {
   return (
-    <main className="mx-auto min-h-[calc(100vh-57px)] max-w-[1200px] px-6 py-16">
+    <main className="mx-auto max-w-[1200px] px-6 py-16">
       <div className="mx-auto flex flex-col gap-y-8 md:grid md:grid-cols-[minmax(0,1fr)_420px] md:gap-x-8 md:items-start">
         {/* Left column wrapper — contents on mobile for flex ordering, block on desktop as one grid cell */}
         <div className="contents md:block">
diff --git a/components/legal-page-layout.jsx b/components/legal-page-layout.jsx
index 9cb1916..3aa3c7c 100644
--- a/components/legal-page-layout.jsx
+++ b/components/legal-page-layout.jsx
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
 import React from "react";
 import Link from "next/link";
-import LegalNavigation from "@/components/legal-navigation";
 
 export default function LegalPageLayout({ title, children }) {
   return (
-    <main className="mx-auto min-h-[calc(100vh-57px)] max-w-3xl px-6 py-12 sm:py-16">
+    <main className="mx-auto max-w-3xl px-6 py-12 sm:py-16">
       <Link href="/login" className="text-sm font-medium text-teal-700 hover:underline">
         Back to sign in
       </Link>
@@ -14,9 +13,6 @@ export default function LegalPageLayout({ title, children }) {
           {children}
         </div>
       </article>
-      <footer className="mt-8 border-t border-gray-200 pt-5">
-        <LegalNavigation />
-      </footer>
     </main>
   );
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/components/theme-toggle.jsx b/components/theme-toggle.jsx
index 7aeef2d..1408806 100644
--- a/components/theme-toggle.jsx
+++ b/components/theme-toggle.jsx
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 "use client";
 
+import React from "react";
 import { useEffect, useState } from "react";
 import {
   readThemePreference,
diff --git a/docs/current-handoff.md b/docs/current-handoff.md
index f263d85..3236e64 100644
--- a/docs/current-handoff.md
+++ b/docs/current-handoff.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 - Public Privacy, Terms, and Cookie pages and shared legal navigation are available at `/privacy`, `/terms`, and `/cookies`.
 - The service is positioned as 18+. No cookie-consent banner is used because current browser storage is limited to essential authentication/session storage and functional UI preferences.
 - Legal wording remains subject to appropriate professional review.
+- Legal navigation is a single global normal-flow footer: it rests at the viewport bottom on short pages, long legal pages push it naturally below their content, and duplicate legal navigation was removed.
 
 ## Focused-investigation provider outage boundary
 
diff --git a/tests/legal-pages.test.jsx b/tests/legal-pages.test.jsx
index acbcb5c..22cd51c 100644
--- a/tests/legal-pages.test.jsx
+++ b/tests/legal-pages.test.jsx
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import PrivacyPage from "@/app/privacy/page.jsx";
 import TermsPage from "@/app/terms/page.jsx";
 import CookiesPage from "@/app/cookies/page.jsx";
 import LegalNavigation from "@/components/legal-navigation.jsx";
+import RootLayout from "@/app/layout.jsx";
 import { middleware } from "@/middleware.js";
 
 describe("public legal pages", () => {
@@ -16,6 +17,16 @@ describe("public legal pages", () => {
   ])("renders the %s heading", (heading, Page) => {
     const html = renderToStaticMarkup(<Page />);
     expect(html).toContain(`<h1 class="text-3xl font-bold tracking-tight text-teal-700">${heading}</h1>`);
+    expect(html).not.toContain('aria-label="Legal information"');
+  });
+
+  it("keeps the root layout as the single legal navigation owner", () => {
+    const html = renderToStaticMarkup(
+      <RootLayout>
+        <PrivacyPage />
+      </RootLayout>,
+    );
+    expect(html.match(/aria-label="Legal information"/g)).toHaveLength(1);
   });
 
   it("exposes all public legal links without cookie consent controls", () => {
