There's a certain event that causes the player to give up posession of the Sword of Justice. I had it equipped on Lae'zel. After giving it away, I checked Lae'zel's equipment, and it was still there. However, when I hovered over it, it only showed the flavor text and Lae'zel appeared to have no weapon equipped.
I was able to unequip the sword, completely restoring it, and equip it back to Lae'zel, and now it's as if I never gave it away.
EDIT:
It happened again, sort of, with the Staff of Crones, or whatever it was called. The item remained in my equipment, but this time I was
not able to unequip it. Once I put something else in the slot, it just disappeared.
Also: Not sure if this is intentional or not, but it seemed weird regardless. I had the staff in my camp chest, and Gale mentioned to me that we have it, but I didn't have the chance to give it to him. Seems weird because it's like 30 meters away, and this was kind of a dire matter.
Also, also: I had a dialogue option to give him the Sword of Justice
again. I didn't click it because I wanted to see what would happen with the staff, and now when I talk to him I don't have the option to give him anything, so now I'm wondering if maybe I
didn't give him the sword the first time? Still a bug, regardless, because the whole thing played out as if I did.