Law (lô), n. [OE. lawe,
laghe, AS. lagu, from the root of E. lie: akin
to OS. lag, Icel. lög, Sw. lag, Dan.
lov; cf. L. lex, E. legal. A law is that
which is laid, set, or fixed; like statute, fr. L.
statuere to make to stand. See Lie to be prostrate.]
1. In general, a rule of being or of conduct,
established by an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling
regulation; the mode or order according to which an agent or a power
acts.
☞ A law may be universal or particular, written or unwritten,
published or secret. From the nature of the highest laws a degree of
permanency or stability is always implied; but the power which makes
a law, or a superior power, may annul or change it.
These are the statutes and judgments and laws,
which the Lord made.
Lev. xxvi. 46.
The law of thy God, and the law of the
King.
Ezra vii. 26.
As if they would confine the Interminable . . .
Who made our laws to bind us, not himself.
Milton.
His mind his kingdom, and his will his
law.
Cowper.
2. In morals: The will of God as the rule for
the disposition and conduct of all responsible beings toward him and
toward each other; a rule of living, conformable to righteousness;
the rule of action as obligatory on the conscience or moral
nature.
3. The Jewish or Mosaic code, and that part
of Scripture where it is written, in distinction from the
gospel; hence, also, the Old Testament.
What things soever the law saith, it saith to
them who are under the law . . . But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the
law and the prophets.
Rom. iii. 19, 21.
4. In human government: (a)
An organic rule, as a constitution or charter, establishing and
defining the conditions of the existence of a state or other
organized community. (b) Any edict,
decree, order, ordinance, statute, resolution, judicial, decision,
usage, etc., or recognized, and enforced, by the controlling
authority.
5. In philosophy and physics: A rule of
being, operation, or change, so certain and constant that it is
conceived of as imposed by the will of God or by some controlling
authority; as, the law of gravitation; the laws of
motion; the law heredity; the laws of thought; the
laws of cause and effect; law of self-
preservation.
6. In mathematics: The rule according to
which anything, as the change of value of a variable, or the value of
the terms of a series, proceeds; mode or order of sequence.
7. In arts, works, games, etc.: The rules of
construction, or of procedure, conforming to the conditions of
success; a principle, maxim; or usage; as, the laws of poetry,
of architecture, of courtesy, or of whist.
8. Collectively, the whole body of rules
relating to one subject, or emanating from one source; -- including
usually the writings pertaining to them, and judicial proceedings
under them; as, divine law; English law; Roman
law; the law of real property; insurance
law.
9. Legal science; jurisprudence; the
principles of equity; applied justice.
Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common
law itself is nothing else but reason.
Coke.
Law is beneficence acting by rule.
Burke.
And sovereign Law, that state's collected
will
O'er thrones and globes elate,
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.
Sir W.
Jones.
10. Trial by the laws of the land; judicial
remedy; litigation; as, to go law.
When every case in law is right.
Shak.
He found law dear and left it
cheap.
Brougham.
11. An oath, as in the presence of a
court. [Obs.] See Wager of law, under Wager.
Avogadro's law (Chem.), a fundamental
conception, according to which, under similar conditions of
temperature and pressure, all gases and vapors contain in the same
volume the same number of ultimate molecules; -- so named after
Avogadro, an Italian scientist. Sometimes called
Ampère's law. -- Bode's law
(Astron.), an approximative empirical expression of the
distances of the planets from the sun, as follows: --
Mer. Ven. Earth. Mars. Aste. Jup. Sat. Uran. Nep.
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
0 3 6 12 24 48 96 192 384
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- ---
4 7 10 16 28 52 100 196 388
5.9 7.3 10 15.2 27.4 52 95.4 192 300
where each distance (line third) is the sum of 4 and a multiple of
3 by the series 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, etc., the true distances being given
in the lower line. -- Boyle's law
(Physics), an expression of the fact, that when an elastic
fluid is subjected to compression, and kept at a constant
temperature, the product of the pressure and volume is a constant
quantity, i. e., the volume is inversely proportioned to the
pressure; -- known also as Mariotte's law, and the law of
Boyle and Mariotte. -- Brehon laws.
See under Brehon. -- Canon law,
the body of ecclesiastical law adopted in the Christian Church,
certain portions of which (for example, the law of marriage as
existing before the Council of Tent) were brought to America by the
English colonists as part of the common law of the land.
Wharton. -- Civil law, a term used by
writers to designate Roman law, with modifications thereof which have
been made in the different countries into which that law has been
introduced. The civil law, instead of the common law, prevails in the
State of Louisiana. Wharton. -- Commercial
law. See Law merchant (below). --
Common law. See under Common. --
Criminal law, that branch of jurisprudence
which relates to crimes. -- Ecclesiastical
law. See under Ecclesiastical. --
Grimm's law (Philol.), a statement
(propounded by the German philologist Jacob Grimm) of certain
regular changes which the primitive Indo-European mute consonants,
so-called (most plainly seen in Sanskrit and, with some changes, in
Greek and Latin), have undergone in the Teutonic languages. Examples:
Skr. bhātr, L. frater, E. brother, G.
bruder; L. tres, E. three, G. drei, Skr.
go, E. cow, G. kuh; Skr. dhā to
put, Gr. ti-qe`-nai, E. do, OHG, tuon, G.
thun. -- Kepler's laws
(Astron.), three important laws or expressions of the
order of the planetary motions, discovered by John Kepler.
They are these: (1) The orbit of a planet with respect to the sun is
an ellipse, the sun being in one of the foci. (2) The areas swept
over by a vector drawn from the sun to a planet are proportioned to
the times of describing them. (3) The squares of the times of
revolution of two planets are in the ratio of the cubes of their mean
distances. -- Law binding, a plain style
of leather binding, used for law books; -- called also law
calf. -- Law book, a book containing,
or treating of, laws. -- Law calf. See
Law binding (above). -- Law day.
(a) Formerly, a day of holding court, esp. a
court-leet. (b) The day named in a mortgage
for the payment of the money to secure which it was given. [U.
S.] -- Law French, the dialect of Norman, which
was used in judicial proceedings and law books in England from the
days of William the Conqueror to the thirty-sixth year of Edward
III. -- Law language, the language used in
legal writings and forms. -- Law Latin.
See under Latin. -- Law lords,
peers in the British Parliament who have held high judicial
office, or have been noted in the legal profession. --
Law merchant, or Commercial
law, a system of rules by which trade and commerce are
regulated; -- deduced from the custom of merchants, and regulated by
judicial decisions, as also by enactments of legislatures. --
Law of Charles (Physics), the law that
the volume of a given mass of gas increases or decreases, by a
definite fraction of its value for a given rise or fall of
temperature; -- sometimes less correctly styled Gay Lussac's
law, or Dalton's law. -- Law of
nations. See International law, under
International. -- Law of nature.
(a) A broad generalization expressive of the
constant action, or effect, of natural conditions; as, death is a
law of nature; self-defense is a law of nature. See
Law, 4. (b) A term denoting the
standard, or system, of morality deducible from a study of the nature
and natural relations of human beings independent of supernatural
revelation or of municipal and social usages. -- Law of
the land, due process of law; the general law of the
land. -- Laws of honor. See under
Honor. -- Laws of motion
(Physics), three laws defined by Sir Isaac Newton: (1)
Every body perseveres in its state of rest or of moving uniformly in
a straight line, except so far as it is made to change that state by
external force. (2) Change of motion is proportional to the impressed
force, and takes place in the direction in which the force is
impressed. (3) Reaction is always equal and opposite to action, that
is to say, the actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal
and in opposite directions. -- Marine law,
or Maritime law, the law of the sea; a
branch of the law merchant relating to the affairs of the sea, such
as seamen, ships, shipping, navigation, and the like.
Bouvier. -- Mariotte's law. See
Boyle's law (above). -- Martial
law.See under Martial. -- Military
law, a branch of the general municipal law, consisting
of rules ordained for the government of the military force of a state
in peace and war, and administered in courts martial.
Kent. Warren's Blackstone. -- Moral
law, the law of duty as regards what is right and wrong
in the sight of God; specifically, the ten commandments given by
Moses. See Law, 2. -- Mosaic, or
Ceremonial, law. (Script.)
See Law, 3. -- Municipal law,
or Positive law, a rule prescribed by
the supreme power of a state, declaring some right, enforcing some
duty, or prohibiting some act; -- distinguished from
international and constitutional law. See Law,
1. -- Periodic law. (Chem.) See
under Periodic. -- Roman law, the
system of principles and laws found in the codes and treatises of the
lawmakers and jurists of ancient Rome, and incorporated more or less
into the laws of the several European countries and colonies founded
by them. See Civil law (above). -- Statute
law, the law as stated in statutes or positive
enactments of the legislative body. -- Sumptuary
law. See under Sumptuary. -- To go
to law, to seek a settlement of any matter by bringing
it before the courts of law; to sue or prosecute some one. --
To take, or have, the law
of, to bring the law to bear upon; as, to take the
law of one's neighbor. Addison. -- Wager of
law. See under Wager.
Syn. -- Justice; equity. -- Law, Statute,
Common law, Regulation, Edict, Decree.
Law is generic, and, when used with reference to, or in
connection with, the other words here considered, denotes whatever is
commanded by one who has a right to require obedience. A
statute is a particular law drawn out in form, and distinctly
enacted and proclaimed. Common law is a rule of action founded
on long usage and the decisions of courts of justice. A
regulation is a limited and often, temporary law, intended to
secure some particular end or object. An edict is a command or
law issued by a sovereign, and is peculiar to a despotic government.
A decree is a permanent order either of a court or of the
executive government. See Justice.