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Law

Definition: Law

Law

Noun

1. Legal document setting forth rules governing a particular kind of activity; "there is a law against kidnapping".

2. The collection of rules imposed by authority; "civilization presupposes respect for the law".

3. A generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature: "the laws of thermodynamics".

4. A rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and essential to or binding upon human society.

5. The learned profession that is mastered by graduate study in a law school and that is responsible for the judicial system; "he studied law at Yale".

6. The force of policemen and officers; "the law came looking for him".

7. The branch of philosophy concerned with the law.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

Date "law" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Specialty Definition: Law

Domain	Definition
Satire	LAW, n. Once Law was sitting on the bench, And Mercy knelt a-weeping. "Clear out!" he cried, "disordered wench! Nor come before me creeping. Upon your knees if you appear, 'Tis plain your have no standing here." Then Justice came. His Honor cried: "Your status? -- devil seize you!" "Amica curiae," she replied -- "Friend of the court, so please you." "Begone!" he shouted -- "there's the door -- I never saw your face before!" G.J. Source: Devil's Dictionary.
Computing	Law software law. Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.
Bible	Law a rule of action. (1.) The Law of Nature is the will of God as to human conduct, founded on the moral difference of things, and discoverable by natural light (Rom. 1:20; 2:14, 15). This law binds all men at all times. It is generally designated by the term conscience, or the capacity of being influenced by the moral relations of things. (2.) The Ceremonial Law prescribes under the Old Testament the rites and ceremonies of worship. This law was obligatory only till Christ, of whom these rites were typical, had finished his work (Heb. 7:9, 11; 10:1; Eph. 2:16). It was fulfilled rather than abrogated by the gospel. (3.) The Judicial Law, the law which directed the civil policy of the Hebrew nation. (4.) The Moral Law is the revealed will of God as to human conduct, binding on all men to the end of time. It was promulgated at Sinai. It is perfect (Ps. 19:7), perpetual (Matt. 5:17, 18), holy (Rom. 7:12), good, spiritual (14), and exceeding broad (Ps. 119:96). Although binding on all, we are not under it as a covenant of works (Gal. 3:17). (See COMMANDMENTS.) (5.) Positive Laws are precepts founded only on the will of God. They are right because God commands them. (6.) Moral positive laws are commanded by God because they are right. Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.
Biographical Satire	LAW, Andres Bonar, a Scotchman who gave up the iron business to become a mere member of Parliament. Is said to have spoken on Irish questions. Ambition: (?). Recreation: Travel, except in the south of Ireland. Address: Parliament. This will probably hold good for several editions of Who Was Who. Clubs: Conservative, of course. LAW,[6] Mother-in-, no relation of the above. A much-abused ancient whose life and story has been written by malicious biographers. In reality L. was a kind soul who invited us to dinner, permitted the gas to be turned down, and always knocked before she came into the room. Later she wiped the dishes, took care of her grandchild (see Baby), helped pay the bills, and told the neighbors what a fine son-in-law she had. Ambition: Daughter. Recreation: Our house. Address: Our house most of the time. Clubs: Suffrage. [6] Ed. Note: The editor will not be held responsible for the accuracy of the above. Source: Who was Who: 5000BC - 1914.
Law	The rules which govern our daily lives. (references)
Literature	Law To give one law. A sporting term, meaning the chance of saving oneself. Thus a hare or a stag is allowed "law"- i.e. a certain start before any bound is permitted to attack it; and a tradesman allowed law is one to whom time is given to "find his legs." Quips of the law, called "devices of Cépola," from Bartholemew Cépola, whose law-quirks, teaching how to elude the most express law, and to perpetuate lawsuits ad infinitum, have been frequently reprinted - once in octavo, in black letter, by John Petit, in 1503. The Man of Lawes Tale, by Chaucer. This story is found in Gower, who probably took it from the French chronicle of Nicholas Trivet. A similar story forms the plot of Emare, a romance printed in Ritson's collection. The treason of the knight who murders Hermengilde resembles an incident in the French Roman de la Violette, the English metrical romance of Le bone Florence of Rome (in Ritson), and a tale in the Gesta Romanorum, c. 69 (Madden's edition). (See Constance.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Slang in 1811	LAW. To give law to a hare; a sporting term, signifying to give the animal a chance of escaping, by not setting on the dogs till the hare is at some distance; it is also more figuratively used for giving any one a chance of succeeding in a scheme or proje. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
Statistics	One of the 25 fields of education in the ISCED which includes the following educational programmes/subject groups:local magistrates, 'notaires', law(general, international, labour, maritime, etc. ), jurisprudence, history of law. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Specialty Definition: English Law

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The law of England and Wales (but not Scotland and the other sections of the UK) is considered by some to be one of Great Britain's great gifts to the world. Also known generally as the common law (as opposed to civil law), it was exported to Commonwealth countries while the British Empire was established and maintained, and persisted after the Bristish withdrew or were expelled, to form the basis of the jurisprudence of many of those countries. Actually part of the English legal system has always been considered to be based upon the civil law, namely the ecclesiastical courts and the courts of admiralty.
The essence of common law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent to the fact before them. Because common law consisted of using what had gone before as a guide, common law places great emphasis on precedents. Thus a decision of the highest court in England and Wales, the House of Lords (the judicial members of which are referred to as Law Lords) is binding on every other court in the hierarchy, and they will follow its directions.
It is also for this reason that there is no Act of Parliament (the normal method for creating laws in the UK) making murder illegal. It is still a common law crime - so although there is no written Act passed by Parliament making murder illegal, it is illegal by virtue of the constitutional authority of the courts and their previous decisions. Murder carries a mandatory life sentence.
However, while England and Wales retains the common law the UK is part of the European Union and European Union Law is effective in the UK. The European Union consists mainly of countries which use civil law and so the civil law system is also in England in this form, and the European Court of Justice, a prodominantly civil law court, can direct UK courts on the meaning of EU law.
See also: Courts of England and Wales, Scottish Law, List of United Kingdom topics

External links

LawWiki tries to document the current laws in the UK.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "English Law."

Halakha

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Halakha (halakhah, halacha, halachah) is a Hebrew word, commonly used to refer to the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition. It comes from the Hebrew root word for "going". A literal translation does not yield the word "law"; rather it translates as "the way to go."
Halakha is based on the commandments in the Torah (five books of Moses) as viewed through the discussions and debates contained in the classical rabbinic literature, especially the Mishnah and the Talmud. Jews refer to the Torah as The Written Law, and the Mishnah and Talmud as the oral law.
Unlike secular precedent based systems, halakha is a religious system, whose axiom is that Jewish law represents the will of God. Most Orthodox Jews, hold that halakha represents the actual will of God, either directly, or as closely to directly as possible. If the laws in Jewish law codes are not the word of God per se, they are nonetheless derived from the literal word of God in the Torah, using a set of rules also revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and have been derived with the utmost accuracy and care. In this world view, one's ancestors are closer to the divine revelation and the later Mishnaic and Talmudic rabbis; as such, the corollary is that one must be extremely conservative changing or adapting Jewish law. This view is found in all branches of Orthodox Judaism, and in the right-wing of Conservative Judaism.
Other religious Jews equally hold that while God is real, for theological reasons they hold that the Torah is not the word of God in a literal sense. However, in this view the Torah is still held as mankind's record of its understanding of God's revelation, and thus still has divine authority. In this view, traditional Jewish law is still seen as binding. Jews who hold by this view generally try to use modern methods of historical study to learn how Jewish law has changed over time, and are more willing to change Jewish law in the present. This view is found within Conservative Judaism, and within the left wing of Orthodoxy.

Eras of history important in Jewish law

The Tannaim are the sages of the Mishna (70 CE-200 CE)

The Amoraim are the sages of the Talmud (200 CE - 500 CE)

The Savoraim are the classical Persian rabbis (500 CE - 600 CE)

The Geonim are the rabbis of Sura and Pumbeditha, in Babylonia (650 CE - 1250 CE)

The Rishonim are the rabbis of the early medieval period (1250 CE - 1550 CE)

The Acharonim are the rabbis of 1550 to the present.

Generally speaking, a rabbi in any one period of time does not overrule specific laws from earlier eras of Jewish history, unless one can find another rabbi from that era whose ruling can be used to support his view.

The laws of the Torah
According to the Talmud (Tractate Makot), there are 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah; In Hebrew these are known as the Taryag mitzvot. There are 248 positive mitzvot and 365 negative mitzvot given in the Torah, supplemented by seven mitzvot legislated by the rabbis of antiquity. However, in practice there is no one definitive list that explicates the 613 laws: Centuries after the idea of 613 laws came into existence various rabbis compiled lists of the 613 laws, yet each list varied slightly. The differences come about because in some places the Torah lists related laws together, so it is difficult to know whether one is dealing with a single law, which lists several cases, or several separate laws.
One list of the 613 mitzvot can be found here.

The halakhic process
The boundaries of Jewish law are determined through the halakhic process; the halakhic process is a religious-ethical system of legal precedents. In this system, one may re-interpret or change the law through a formal argument. These arguments are effectively, yet unofficially, peer-reviewed. When a rabbi proposes a new interpretation of a law, that interpretation is not normative for the Jewish community until it becomes accepted by other committed and observant members in the community. New legal precedents are based on the standard codes of Jewish law, and the responsa literature. The Hebrew term for the responsa is '"Sheelot U-Teshuvot"', literally "Questions and Answers".
There is no formal peer-review process for the entire Jewish community in general, since the Jewish community has no one central body that speaks for all of Judaism. However, within certain Jewish communities formal organized bodies exist: Each sect of Orthodox Hasidic Judaism has their own rebbe, who is their ultimate decisor of Jewish law. Within Modern Orthodox Judaism, there is no one committee or leader, but Modern Orthodox rabbis generally agree with the views set by consensus by the leaders of the Rabbinical Council of America. Within Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly has an official Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.

The thirteen rules by which Jewish law was derived
During the time of the Mishnah, the oral law was said to be derived from the written Torah by virtue of one or more of the following methods:

A fortiori: We find a similar law in a more lenient case; how more so should that law apply to our stricter case!
Gezera Shava, similarity in phrase: We find a similar law in a verse containing a similar phrase to one in our verse. This method can only be used by oral tradition.
Binyan Av, either by one or two Scriptures: We find a similar law in another case, why shouldn't we assume that the same law applies here? Now the argument may go against this inference, finding some law which applies to that case but not to ours. This type of refutation is valid only if the inference was from one Scripture, not if it was from two Scriptures.
Klal Ufrat, a generality and a particularity: If we find a phrase signifying a particularity following that of a generality, the particularity particularises the generality and we only take that particular case into account.
Prat Ukhlal, a particularity and a generality: If the order is first the particularity and then the generality, we add from the generality upon the particularity, even to a broad extent.
Klal Ufrat Ukhlal, a generality, a particularity and a generality: If there is a particularity inserted between two generalities, we only add cases similar to the particularity.
A generality that requires a particularity, and a particularity that requires a generality:
Every thing that was within the general rule and was excluded from the rule to teach us a rule, we don't consider this rule as pertaining only to this excluded case, but to the entire general case.
Anything that was included in a general rule, and was excluded to be susceptible to one rule that is according to its subject, it is only excluded to be treated more leniently but not more strictly.
Anything that was included in a general rule and was excluded to be susceptible to one rule that is not according to its subject, it is excluded to be treated both more leniently and more strictly.
Anything that was included in a general rule and was excluded to be treated by a new rule, we cannot restore it to its general rule unless Scripture restores it explicitly.
A matter that is inferred from its context, and a matter that is inferred from its ending.
The resolution of two Scriptures that contradict each other [must wait] until a third Scripture arrives and resolves their apparent contradiction.

Categories of law
Judaism divides the laws into two basic categories:
Laws in relation to God, and
Laws about relations with other people.
Violations of the latter are considered to be more severe, as one must obtain forgiveness both from the offended person and from God.
Laws are also divided into positive and negative commands, which are treated differently in terms of Divine and human punishment. Positive commands add to your balance, violation of negative commands detracts from it. One thus wants to do as many positive commands as possible, and violate as few negative commands as possible, so as to improve one's standing with God.
In earlier days, when Jews had a functioning court system, courts were empowered to administer physical punishments for various violations, upon conviction by far stricter standards of evidence than are acceptable in American courts: corporal punishment, incarceration, excommunication. Since the fall of the Temple, executions have been forbidden. Since the fall of the autonomous Jewish communities of Europe, the other punishments have also fallen by the wayside. Today, then, one's accounts are reckoned solely by God.
In antiquity, there was a body called the Sanhedrin, a Supreme Court and legislature for Judaism, which had the power to create and administer binding law on all Jews. That court ceased to function in its full mode in 40 CE. Today, application of Jewish law is left to the local rabbi, and the local rabbinical courts, with only local applicability.

Sins: Violations of Jewish law
Judaism regards the violation of mitzvot (Hebrew language, "commandments") to be a sin. The term sin is theologically loaded, as it means different things to Jews and Christians. In Christianity a sin is a crime committed against God, from which one will suffer a tremendous divine punishment, unless one repents. Judaism has a wider definition of the term sin, and also uses it to include violations of Jewish law that are not necessarily a lapse in morality. Further, Judaism holds it as given that all people sin at various points in their lives, and hold that God always tempers justice with mercy.
The generic Hebrew word for any kind of sin is aveira. Based on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) Judaism describes three levels of sin.
Pesha - An intentional sin; an action committed in deliberate defiance of God;
Ovon - This is a sin of lust or uncontrollable emotion. It is a sin done knowingly, but not done to defy God;
Cheit - This is an unintentional sin.

Judaism holds that no human being is perfect, and all people have sinned many times. However a state of sin does not condemn a person to damnation; only one or two truly grievous sins lead to anything approaching the Christian hot hell.

How Halakha is viewed today
Orthodox Judaism holds that the words of the Torah (Pentateuch) were indeed dictated by God to Moses in almost precisely the way that they exist in the Torah today. The laws contained in the Written Torah were given along with detailed explanations, how to apply and interpret them. Some of the details of this additional transmission have been lost over the millennia and reconstructed in accordance with internally consistent rules. The collective corpus of this non-biblical revelation is called the Oral Law. It is these interpretations that constitute the basis of religious laws that Jews know today.
Conservative Judaism holds that the current text of the Torah is a composite that was redacted together from earlier sources. Conservative Jews hold that it is possible to believe that God is real and that prophets like Moses really were inspired by God. However, whatever records and traditions relating to such events were apparently transmitted in various forms for many centuries. This says nothing about whether the Torah is based on God or not, and so this idea not a theological threat. Therefore Conservative Judaism teaches that one should make use of literary and historical analysis to understand how these texts developed, and to help them understand how they may applied in our own day.
Conservative Jews view the laws and customs from the various law codes as the basis for normative Jewish law. Solomon Schechter writes "however great the literary value of a code may be, it does not invest it with infallibility, nor does it exempt it from the student or the Rabbi who makes use of it from the duty of examining each paragraph on its own merits, and subjecting it to the same rules of interpretation that were always applied to Tradition". [Solomon Schechter].
Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism both hold that modern views of how the Torah and rabbinic law developed imply that the body of rabbinic Jewish law is no longer normative (seen as binding) on Jews today. Therefore Jews are not expected or taught to follow most of halakha. Those in the traditionalist wing of these movements hold that each Jew is obligated to interpret the Torah, Talmud and other Jewish works for themselves, and this interpretation will create separate commandments for each person. Those in the neo-traditional wing of Reform include Rabbis Eugene Borowitz and Gunther Plaut.
Those in liberal and classical wing of Reform believe that in this day and era most Jewish religious rituals are no longer necessary, and many hold that following most Jewish laws are actually counter-productive. They propose that Judaism has entered a phase of ethical monotheism, and that the laws of Judaism are only remnants of an earlier stage of religious evolution, and should not be followed. This is considered heretical not only by Orthodoxy, but by Conservative Judaism, and perhaps by some in the traditional wing of Reform.

Gentiles and Jewish law
All denominations of Jews hold that gentiles are not obligated to follow Halakha; only Jews are obligated do so. Judaism has always held that gentiles are obligated only to follow the seven Noahide laws; these are laws that the oral law derives from the covenant God made with Noah after the flood, which apply to all descendants of Noah, i.e. all of mankind. The Noahide laws are derived in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 57a), and are listed here:

Murder is forbidden.
Theft is forbidden.
Sexual immorality is forbidden.
Eating the flesh of a living animal is forbidden.
Belief in, and/or prayer to idols is forbidden.
Blaspheming against God is forbidden.
All gentile societies must establish a system of legal justice to administer these laws.

Codes of Jewish law
The Torah and the Talmud are not formal codes of law; they are sources of law. There are many formal codes of Jewish law that have developed over the past few thousand years. The major codes are:

The Mishnah, composed by Rabbi Judah the Prince, in 200 CE, as a basic outline of the state of the Oral Law in his time. This was the framework upon which the Talmud was based.

The Hilchot of Raabbi Alfassi (1013-1103), summations of the legal material in the Talmud.

The Mishnah Torah (also known as the Yad Ha-Hazaqah), by Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, the Rambam). The 14 volumes in this work encompass the full range of Jewish law, as formulated for all ages and places. It completely reorganizes and reformulates the laws in a logical system. It opens with a section on systematic philosophical theology, derived largely from Aristotelian science and metaphysics, which it regards as the most important component of Jewish law.

The Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (The Semag) of Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Coucy (13th century, Coucy, France.)

The Arba'ah Turim (The Tur, The Four Columns) by Rabbi Jacob ben Asher. (1270 to 1343, Toledo, Spain.) The Tur followed Maimonides's precedent in arranging his work in a topical order. However, the Tur covers only those areas of Jewish religious law that were in force in the author's time. The code is divided into four main sections; almost all Jewish codes of law since this time have followed the Tur's arrangement of material.
Orah Hayyim - "The Path of Life" worship and ritual observance in the home and synagogue, through the course of the day, the weekly sabbath and the festival cycle.
Yoreh De'ah - "Teach Knowledge" assorted ritual prohibitions, dietary laws and regulations concerning menstrual impurity.
Even Ha-'Ezer ("The Rock of the Helpmate" marriage, divorce and other issues in family law).
Hoshen Mishpat - "The Breastplate of Judgment" The administration and adjudication of civil law.

The Beis Yosef, and the Shulkhan Arukh of Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488 - 1575). The Beis Yosef is a huge commentary on the Tur in which Rabbi Karo clarifies the opinions of rabbinic authorities who lived after the time of Rabbi Yaakov. The Shulkhan Arukh is a more concise collection of the Beis Yosef. (Literally translated, Shulkhan Aurkh means "set table".) In writing the Shulkhan Arukh, Rabbi Yosef followed the chapter divisions of the Tur. Sephardic Jews use the Shulkhan Arukh as the basis for their daily practice.

Rabbi Moshe Isserles (Cracow, Poland, 1525 to 1572) noted that the Shulkhan Arukh was based on the Sephardic tradition, and he created a series of glosses to be appended to the text of the Shulkhan Arukh for cases where Sephardi and Ashkenazi customs differed. The glosses are called Hamapah, the "Tablecloth" for the "Set Table". His comments are now incorporated into the body of all printed editions of the Shulkhan Arukh; they are printed in a different script.

The Shulchan Aruch HaRav of Rabbi Shneiur Zalman of Liadi (c. 1800) was an attempt to recodify the law as it stood at that time; unfortunately, most of the work was lost in a fire prior to publication. It is held in esteem by some Hasidim.

The Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh of Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried (Hungary 1804 to 1886). This book became immensely popular after its publication due to its simplicity. This work is not binding in the same way as the Mishneh Torah or the Shulkhan Arukh, and based on the very strict Hungarian customs of the 19th century. It is still popular among Orthodox Judaism, as a framework for study, if not always for practice.

The Mishnah Berurah of Rabbi Yisroel Meir ha-Kohen, better known as The Chofetz Chaim. (Poland, 1838 to 1933). The Mishnah Berurah has become the authoritative halakhic guide for much of Orthodox Ashkenazic Jewry in the postwar period, supplanting the more scholarly Aruch haShulchan of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Halevi Epstein.

"A Guide To Jewish Religious Practice", by Rabbi Isaac Klein, with contributions from the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly. This work is based on the previous traditional law codes, but written from a Conservative Jewish point of view. It is not accepted among Orthodox Jews.

See also: Judaism -- Responsa -- Law -- Mishpat Ivri

External links

FAQ on halakha and Jewish law
The Noahide laws
Jewfaq.org's Halakhah article
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Halakha."

Law

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

simple:Law
This article is about law in society. For other article subjects named law see law (disambiguation).
This article is concerned with laws of politics and jurisprudence: rules of conduct which mandate and/or proscribe specified relationships among people and organizations; as well as punishments for those who do not follow the established rules of conduct.
In ethics and moral philosophy this type of law is often called a "human legal code" to distinguish it from more fundamental laws applicable to all beings (metaphysics, ontology). Such a body of laws can be seen as a legally-enforced ethical code or as a "secular moral code" (to the degree that political leaders replace religious leaders as moral examples). Because lawyers and jurists more than other professions are self-regulating, almost by definition, they are often held to higher standards of behaviour or at least a stricter etiquette. These concerns are not part of this article, because those expectations and disciplines are specific to each legal code. This article takes an English-speaking point of view and deals with other legal traditions and codes by way of comparison only.

Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence refers to two different things. First, in common law jurisdictions, it means simply "case law", i.e. the law that is established through the decisions of the courts and other officials. Second, it means the philosophy of law, or legal theory, which studies not what the law is in a particular jurisdiction (say, Turkey or the United States) but law in general--i.e. those attributes common to all legal systems.
Jurisprudence in the second sense is conventionally divided into two parts: descriptive, or analytic, jurisprudence, and normative jurisprudence. Analytic jurisprudence studies what law 'is', normative jurisprudence studies what law 'ought to be'.
Among the most important questions of analytic jurisprudence are these: What is a law What is a legal system? What is the relationship between law and power? What is the relationship between law and justice or morality? Does every society have a legal system? How should we understand concepts like legal rights and legal obligations or duties? The most influential works of analytic jurisprudence include: Jeremy Bentham, Of Laws in General; Hans Kelsen, The Pure Theory of Law, H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law, and Ronald Dworkin, Law's Empire''.
Among the most important questions of normative jurisprudence are these: What is is the proper function of law? What sorts of acts should be subject to punishment, and what sorts of punishment should be permitted? What is justice? What rights do we have? Is there a duty to obey the law? What value has the rule of law? The most influential works of normative jurisprudence include all the classics of political philosophy. Among contemporary writers, the following have been particularly influential: John Rawls, A Theory of Justice H.L.A. Hart, Punishment and Responsibility; Joel Feinberg, The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law; Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom; Ronald Dworkin, A Matter of Principle

Codification of Law
Law is the formal codification of customs which have achieved such acceptance as become the enforced norm. The process of acceptance is accelerated by the existence of legislative bodies which seek to impose laws.
Law codification involves the legislation and regulation of statutes; as well as the resolution of disputes. In the civil law system codification is also an attempt to structure the law according to fundamental ethical principles to create a sense of order and simplicity that all members of society can comprehend, not merely university trained jurists. Stating the law in simple, precise terms, understandable to the lay person without a specialized legal education, is the only way they can reasonably obey it or be fairly sanctioned for not obeying it.
This overlaps with the idea of a formal social legal code as understood in ethics. This may be understandable to the educated lay person but perhaps not to the ordinary lay person. For example, one can explain the idea of precedent more easily than that of the reasonable man, but it may be much harder to explain why precedent is "fair" to one without "higher education". The following are examples of such lay explanations of different branches of law, and theories of law.
They are not comprehensive.

Branches of Law, a sampling
Please note: Wikipedia does not give legal advice.

Administrative law refers to the body of law which regulates bureaucratic managerial procedures and is administered by the executive branch of a government; rather than the judicial or legislative branches (if they are different in that particular jurisdiction). This body of law regulates international trade, manufacturing, pollution, taxation, and the like. This is sometimes seen as a subcategory of civil law and sometimes called public law as it deals with regulation and public institutions.

Canon law refers to laws of the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic churches.

Case law (precedental law) regulates, via precedents, how laws are to be understood. Case law, also called common law or judge-made law, is derived from the body of rulings made by a country's courts. In the United States, the primary source of case law relating to federal and constitutional questions is the Supreme Court of the United States. The states, each with its own final court of appeals, generate case law that is only binding precedent in that state. In countries that were once part of the British Empire the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the House of Lords are primary sources of case law, though not necessarily binding precedent, as each country has its own court of last resort.

Civil law has three accepted meanings:
Secular law is the legal system of a theocratic government, such as that in England, during the reign of Henry II
Private law seeks to regulate relationships between persons and organizations including contracts and responsible behaviour such as through liability through negligence. This body of law enforces statutes or the common law by allowing a party, whose rights have been violated, to collect damages from a defendant. Where monetary damages are deemed insufficient, civil court may offer other remedies in equity; such as forbiding someone to do an act (eg; an injunction) or formally changing someone's legal status (eg; divorce). This body of law includes the law of torts in common law systems, or in civilian systems, the Law of Obligations.
The civilian legal system or civil law system is the general typology of legal systems found in most countries. It is an alternative to common law system and has its roots in Roman law. It is employed by almost every country that was not a colony of Great Britain. In most jurisdictions the civil law is codified in the form of a civil codes, but in some, like Scotland it remains uncodified. Most codes follow the Code Napolean in some fashion. Notably, the German code was developed from Roman law with reference to German legal tradition.

Commercial law, often considered to be part of civil law, covers business and commerce relations including sales and business entities.

Common law is derived from Anglo-Saxon customary law, also referred to as judge-made law, as it developed over the course of many centuries in the English courts. It is a system of law used in England, many of the states of the United States (except California and Louisiana) and other former British possessions such as in the Laws of Australia, Canada, India, and Ireland.

Criminal law (penal law) is the body of laws which regulate governmental sanctions (such as imprisonment and/or fines) as retaliation for crimes against the social order.

International law governs the relations between states, or between citizens of different states, or international organizations. Its two primary sources are customary law and treaties.

Islamic law (Sharia), is derived from the Koran and used in many Middle Eastern nations; such as in the Laws of Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Procedural Law are rules and regulations found in an legal system that regulate access to legal institutions such as the courts, including the filing of private lawsuits and regulating the treatment of defendants and convicts by the public criminal justice system. Within this field are laws regulating arrests and evidence, injunctions and pleadings. Procedural law defines the procedure by which law is to be enforced. See criminal procedure and civil procedure.

Socialist law is the term for civil law as practiced within states of the former Soviet Union and its satellites; as well as within the Laws of China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. With the end of the Cold War, most of these nations are incorporating laws compatible with private property and capitalism.

Law as academic discipline and profession
In addition to being part of the societal framework law is also an academic discipline and a profession. Lawyers are sometimes called by other names, as in England where the profession is divided between solicitors and barristers. Sometimes they are also called notaries. They are professionally trained in the United States at graduate schools of law leading to the J.D degree (Juris Doctor). In other countries legal education is considered to start at the undergraduate stage taught in faculty of law leading to the LL.B or B.C.L degrees. NOTE: In Canada at least, the LL.B. requires a previous undergraduate degree to study. Law is an undergraduate degree mainly in civil law countries. Most of these schools also have advanced legal degrees such as the LL.M and the J.S.D degrees. Many persons who attend law school never practice law but use their knowledge of law in another profession. See Law (academic) and jurisprudence For law as a profession, see lawyer, jurist and practice of law.

Further Discussion
Most laws and legal systems --at least in the Western world-- are quite similar in their essential themes, arising from similar values and similar social, economic, and political conditions, and they typically differ less in their substantive content than in their jargon and procedures.
One of the fundamental similarities across different legal systems is that, to be of general approval and observation, a law has to appear to be public, effective, and legitimate, in the sense that it has to be available to the knowledge of the citizen in common places or means, it needs to contain instruments to grant its application, and it has to be issued under given formal procedures from a recognized authority.
In the context of most legal systems, laws are enacted through the processes of constitutional charter, constitutional amendment, legislation, executive order, rulemaking, and adjudication; within Common law jurisdictions, rulings by judges are an important additional source of legal rules.
However, de facto laws also come into existence through custom and tradition. (See generally Consuetudinary law; Anarchist law.)
Law has an anthropological dimension. In order to have a culture of law, people must dwell in a society where a government exists whose authority is hard to evade and generally recognised as legitimate. People forego personal revenge or self-help and choose instead to take their grievances before the government and its agents, who arbitrate disputes and enforce penalties.
This behaviour is contrasted with the culture of honor, where respect for persons and groups stems from fear of the disproportionate revenge they may exact if their person, property, or prerogatives are not respected. Cultures of law must be maintained. They can be eroded by declining respect for the law, achieved either by weak government unable to wield its authority, or by burdensome restrictions that attempt to forbid behaviour prevalent in the culture or in some subculture of the society. When a culture of law declines, there is a possibility that an undesirable culture of honor will arise in its place.
A particular society or community adopts a specific set of laws to regulate the behavior of its own members, to order life in its political territory, to grant or acknowledge the rights and privileges of its citizens and other people who may come under the jurisdiction of its courts, and to resolve disputes.
There are several distinct laws and legal traditions, and each jurisdiction has its own set of laws and its own legal system. Individually codified laws are known as statutes, and the collective body of laws relating to one subject or emanating from one source are usually identified by specific reference. (E.g., Roman law, Common law, and Criminal law.)
Moreover, the several different levels of government each produce their own laws, though the extent to which law is centralized varies. Thus, at any one place there can be conflicting laws in force at the local, regional, state, national, or international levels.
(See conflict of laws, Preemption of State and Local Laws.)

Legal systems and traditions
Anarchist law - Canon law - Civil law - Common law - English Law - European Union Law - International law - Roman law - Scottish Law - Socialist law - Sharia (Islamic law)

Legal subject areas
Administrative law - Admiralty - Alternative dispute resolution - Appellate review - Civil procedure - Civil rights - Commercial law - Comparative law - Consuetudinary law - Contracts - Constitutional law - Courts of England and Wales - Corporations law - Criminal law - Criminal procedure - Environmental law - Equity - Evidence - Family law - Human rights - Immigration - Intellectual property - Jurisprudence - Law and economics - Law of Obligations - Labor law - Land use - List of items for which possession is restricted - Philosophy of law - Practice of law - Private law - Procedural law - Property law - Statutory law - Tax law - Torts - Trusts and Estates - Cyber law

Subjects Auxiliary to Law
Government - Legal history - Law and literature - Political science

Terms, case law, legislation and other resources

Law topics overview
List of jurists
List of legal topics
List of basic criminal justice topics
List of international public law topics

List of Supreme Court of Canada cases
List of Judicial Committees of the Privy Council & House of Lords cases
List of United States Supreme Court cases
List of leading legal cases in copyright law

List of treaties
List of Uniform Acts (United States)
List of United States Federal Legislation

Legal books

Black's Law Dictionary
Halsbury's Laws of England
Corpus Juris Secundum
Recueil Dalloz

Further Reading

Cheyenne Way: Conflict & Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence, Karl N. Llewellyn and E. Adamson Hoebel, University of Oklahoma Press, 1983, trade paperback, 374 pages, ISBN 0806118555
Other books by Karl N. Llewellyn

See also

law (principle),
religious law,
legal code,
natural law

External link

Law & Legal News & Reference
Directory and Engine to find lawyers by area of expertise and/or by location
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Law."

LAW

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

LAW is a US Army light anti-tank weapon
LAW is a law society called Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "LAW."

Law (academic)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

While Law is a part of society, the academic study of law, both as a science, that is, jurisprudence, and by students preparing to be lawyers is taught in the United States at specialized postgraduate law schools. In other countries the course of study is different, for example, in England, prospective lawyers simply major in law as an undergraduate, or take a special one year course in law after having majored in some other discipline.
The education of a lawyer is partly taken up with general principles of law and partly with the laws and procedures of the jurisdiction the law school is located in, that information being necessary for passing the bar in a specific jurisdiction.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Law (academic)."

Law (disambiguation)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Law can refer to more than one thing:

In human society, law describes the body of words and institutions that regulate behavior and punishments for misconduct.
In science, a law of nature or physical law is a statement that describes regular or patterned relationships among observable phenomena.
Laws of logic and mathematics describe the nature of rational thought.
Laws of economics and psychology describe the nature of human behavior and interaction.
Many adages are popularly known as "laws"; such as Murphy's law.

''This is a disambiguation page; that is, one that just points to other pages that might otherwise have the same name. If you followed a link here, you might want to go back and fix that link to point to the appropriate specific page.'
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Law (disambiguation)."

Law (principle)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

(For law within legal systems see Law).
The term "law" is often used to refer to universal principles that describe the fundamental nature of something, to universal properties and relationships between things, or to descriptions that purport to explain these principles and relationships. For example, "physical law"s, or "scientific lawss" attempt to describe the fundamental nature of the universe itself. Laws of mathematics and logic describe the nature of rational thought and inference. Laws of economics describe the nature of human behavior and interaction.
Within most fields of study, and in science in particular, the elevation of some principle of that field to the status of "law" usually takes place after a very long time during which the principle is used and tested and verified. Though in some fields of study such laws are simply postulated as a foundation and assumed. Mathematical laws are somewhere in between: they are often arbitrary and unproven in themselves, but they are sometimes judged by how useful they are in making predictions about the real world.
Finally, the term is sometimes applied to less rigorous ideas that may be interesting observations or relationships, practical or ethical guidelines (also called rules of thumb), and even humorous parodies of such laws.
Examples of scientific laws include Boyle's law of gases, conservation laws, Ohm's law, and others. Laws of other fields of study include Occam's razor as a principle of philosophy and the Pareto principle of economics. Examples of observed phenomena often described as laws include the Titius-Bode law of planetary positions, Zipf's law of linguistics, Moore's law of technological growth. Other laws are pragmatic and observational, such as the law of unintended consequences.
Some humorous parodies of such laws include adages such as Murphy's law and its many variants, and Godwin's law of Internet conversations.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Law (principle)."

Law school

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In the United States, the institution where future lawyers obtain a legal degree is called a law school. In most cases, law schools grant the J.D, though some schools still award the LL.B degree which is still common in other common law jurisdictions, mostly commonwealth countries. A law school is usually an autonomous entity within a larger university and considered to be a graduate school program. In other jurisdictions these programs are more completely integrated into the other university faculties, such as in Canada where they are often called a faculty of law. Even though the first degree is considered at doctoral degree the other degrees that are awarded included the Master of Laws degree (L.L.M.) and the Doctor of Laws degree (J.S.D.).
See also: List of law schools, school of law
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Law school."

Library of Congress Classification:Class K -- Law

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Class K: Law is a classification used by the Library of Congress classification system. This page outline the sub-classes of Class K.

K Law in general; Comparative and uniform law; Jurisprudence

KBR History of canon law

KBU Law of the Roman Catholic Church; The Holy See

KD to KDK Law of the United Kingdom and Ireland

KDZ America; North America

KE Law of Canada

KF Law of the United States

KG Latin America - Mexico and Central America - West Indies; Caribbean area

KH South America

KJ to KKZ European Law

KL to KWX Asia and Eurasia, Africa, Pacific Area, and Antarctica

KZ Law of Nations

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Library of Congress Classification:Class K -- Law."

Physical law

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

This article is about law in science, for law as it refers to the legal system see: law
A physical law or a law of nature is a scientific generalization based on empirical observations. It is different from a theory which is a framework designed to make predictions and to explain physical laws. Laws of nature are different from legal code (see law). Legal code is the creation of man, sometimes perhaps inspired by higher beings. Laws of nature are conclusions from scientific experiments. Some of the more famous laws of nature are Isaac Newton's theories of (now) classical mechanics, presented in his Principia Mathematica and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
Within most fields of study, and in science in particular, the elevation of some principle of that field to the status of "law" usually takes place after a very long time during which the principle is used and tested and verified. Though in some fields of study such laws are simply postulated as a foundation and assumed.
Mathematical laws are something in between: they are often arbitrary and unproven in themselves, but they are then judged by how useful they are in making predictions about the real world.

Examples of scientific laws include Boyle's law of gases, conservation laws, Ohm's law, the four laws of thermodynamics and others.
Laws of other fields of study include Occam's razor as a principle of philosophy and the Pareto principle of economics.
Examples of observed phenomena often described as laws include the Titius-Bode law of planetary positions, Zipf's law of linguistics, Moore's law of technological growth. Other laws are pragmatic and observational, such as the law of unintended consequences.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Physical law."

Precedent

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Precedent is the principle in law of using the past in order to assist in current interpretation and decision-making. Precedent can be of two types. Binding or mandatory precedent is a precedent under the doctrine of stare decisis that a court must consider when deciding a case. Advisory precedent are cases which a court may use but is not required to use to decide its cases. In general, binding precedent involves decisions made by a higher court in a common law jurisdiction.
Precedent in law can also be divided into custom and case law.
Long-held custom which has traditionally been recognized by courts and judges is the first kind of precedent. Custom can be so deeply entrenched in the society at large that it gains the force of law. There need never have been a specific case decided on the same or similar issues in order for a court to take notice of customary or traditional precedent in its deliberations.
The other type of precedent is case law. This type of precedent is granted more or less weight in the deliberations of a court according to a number of factors. Most important is whether the precedent is "on point," that is, does it deal with a circumstance identical or very similar to the circumstance in the instant case? Second, when and where was the precedent decided? A recent decision in the same jurisdiction as the instant case will be given great weight. Next in descending order would be recent precedent in jurisdictions whose law is the same as local law. Least weight would be given to precedent which stems from dissimilar circumstances, older cases which have since been contradicted, or cases in jurisdictions which have dissimilar law.
Precedents viewed against passing time can serve to establish trends, thus indicating the next logical step in evolving interpetations of the law. For instance, if women have been enjoying greater and greater equality under the law, then the next legal decision on that subject may serve to bring still greater equality.
See also: stare decisis

The argument on setting a precedent is a common fallacy in discussion. It consists in saying that to act correctly in circumstances X would be inadvisable, in case others consider that this would set a precedent for acting in circumstances Y, where (it is argued) X and Y are superficially similar but (on close examination) are in fact radically different.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Precedent."

Property law

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Property law is the law that in the common law legal system governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land as distinct from personal or moveable possessions) and in personal property. In the civil law system the division is called movable and immovable property. Movable, roughly corresponding to personal property and immovable to real estate or real property and the associated rights and obligations thereon.
The concept, idea or philosophy of property underlies all property law. In some jurisdictions, historically all property was owned by the monarch and it devolved through feudal land tenure or other feudal systems of loyalty and fealty to the monarch.
The French Revolution introduced the idea of the absolute ownership of property, it is such ownership that was introduced into the civil law by the Code Napoleon. This is in contradistinction with the ideas of property in common law that remained tied to their feudal past.
See also: Personal property, Property, Exclusive right, Usucaption, Usufruct

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Property law."

Religious law

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In the religious sense, law has several meanings:
Law can be thought of as the ordering principle of reality; knowledge as revealed by God defining and governing all human affairs.
Law, in the religious sense, also includes codes of ethics and morality which are upheld and required by God. Examples include customary Hindu law, Islamic law, and the divine law of the Mosaic code or Torah.
State churches and similar established religions are branches of the governments that establish them. In some jurisdictions, this means that they operate legal systems of their own or play a part in the legal system of those governments. Canon law is one such sort of legal system; it was administered in ecclesiastical courts. In England, the system of equity was originally established by the Church.
In Christianity, law is often contrasted with grace: the contrast here speaks to attempts to gain salvation by obedience to the code of laws, as opposed to seeking salvation through faith in the atonement made by Jesus on the cross. Compare legalism and antinomianism.
See also Law.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Religious law."

United States Code

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

United States Code
The general and permanent laws of the United States of America.

Title 1 General Provisions

Title 2 The Congress

Title 3 The President

Title 4 Flag and Seal, Seat Of Government, and the States

Title 5 Government Organization and Employees

Title 6 Surety Bonds (repealed)

Title 7 Agriculture

Title 8 Aliens and Nationality

Title 9 Arbitration

Title 10 Armed Forces (including the Uniform Code of Military Justice)

Title 11 Bankruptcy

Title 12 Banks and Banking

Title 13 Census

Title 14 Coast Guard

Title 15 Commerce and Trade

Title 16 Conservation

Title 17 Copyrights

Title 18 Crimes and Criminal Procedure

Title 19 Customs Duties

Title 20 Education

Title 21 Food and Drugs

Title 22 Foreign Relations and Intercourse

Title 23 Highways

Title 24 Hospitals and Asylums

Title 25 Indians

Title 26 Internal Revenue Code

Title 27 Intoxicating Liquors

Title 28 Judiciary and Judicial Procedure

Title 29 Labor

Title 30 Mineral Lands and Mining

Title 31 Money and Finance

Title 32 National Guard

Title 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters

Title 34 Navy (repealed)

Title 35 Patents

Title 36 Patriotic Societies and Observances

Title 37 Pay and Allowances Of the Uniformed Services

Title 38 Veterans' Benefits

Title 39 Postal Service

Title 40 Public Buildings, Property, and Works

Title 41 Public Contracts

Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare

Title 43 Public Lands

Title 44 Public Printing and Documents

Title 45 Railroads

Title 46 Shipping

Title 47 Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs

Title 48 Territories and Insular Possessions

Title 49 Transportation

Title 50 War and National Defense

External Link

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html - United States Code
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "United States Code."

Abbreviations & Acronyms: Law

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
Entry	Source	Expression	Field
LAW	English	Loyalist Association of Workers	N/A
LAWASIA	English	Law Association for Asia and the Western Pacific	Law
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Synonyms: Law

Synonyms: constabulary (n), jurisprudence (n), law of nature (n), legal philosophy (n), natural law (n), police (n), police force (n), practice of law (n). (additional references)

Synonyms by domain: -in-law (law).

Synonyms within Context: Law

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Conformity	Rule, nature, principle; law; order of things; normal state, natural state, ordinary state, model state, normal condition, natural condition, ordinary condition, model condition; standing dish, standing order; Procrustean law; law of the Medes and Persians; hard and fast rule.
Legality	Legislature; law, code, corpus juris, pandect, charter, enactment, statute, rule; canon; (precept); ordinance, institution, regulation; bylaw, byelaw; decree; (order); ordonnance; standing order; plebiscite; (choice).
Permission	Noun: permission, leave; allowance, sufferance; tolerance, toleration; liberty, law, license, concession, grace; indulgence; (lenity); favor, dispensation, exemption, release; connivance; vouchsafement.
Precept	Rule, canon, law, code, corpus juris, lex scripta, act, statute, rubric, stage direction, regulation; form, formula, formulary; technicality; canon law; norm.
Right	Morals; (duty); law; honor; (probity); virtue.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Law

Non-English Usage: "Law" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses.

Sranan (crazy, insane, mad, nuts).

Modern Usage: Law

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Our society cannot condone men who take the law into their own hands (A Time to Kill; writing credit: Akiva Goldsman) There've been a lot of changes in the law. (Fletch; writing credit: Andrew Bergman. Based on the novel by Gregory McDonald.) Excuse me, officers, but I hate to ask a law enforcement official to bend the rules, especially for Penal Code 117, Section 33b, but our house is at stake (The Brady Bunch Movie; writing credit: Betty Thomas, written by Laurice Elehwany, Rick Copp, Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner) People gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep they don't care (High Noon; writing credit: Carl Foreman) From their first day on Earth they will be able top look up and know that there is law and order in the heavens (Moonraker; writing credit: Christopher Wood)
Lyrics	Doin' everything yo just to survive Above the law, I take our stand (Get Ready For This; performing artist: 2 Unlimited) Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law (We Didn't Start The Fire; performing artist: Billy Joel) Don't worry about the law (Ugly; performing artist: Bubba Sparxxx) She let the law take it from there (Goodbye Earl; performing artist: Dixie Chicks) Give me room to lay the law and let me go. (Criminal; performing artist: Fiona Apple)
Clever	To succeed in the other trades, capacity must be shown; in the law, concealment of it will do. (references; author: Mark Twain) Silver's law: If Murphy's law can go wrong it will. (references; author: unknown) Murphy's Law isn't recursive. Washing your car to make it rain doesn't work. (references; author: unknown) People who love sausage and respect the law should never watch either of them being made. (references; author: unknown) You're trailer trash when you can't get married to your sweetheart because there's a law against it. (references; author: unknown)
Movie/TV Titles	Above the Law (2000) Law and Disorder (1974) The Law (1974) Newman's Law (1974) Crime & the Law (1973)
Song Titles	L.A.Law (performing artist: Law) Seein' Red (performing artist: Unwritten Law)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Commercial Usage: Law

Domain	Title
References	The Law Debenture Corporation p.l.c.: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference) Internet Law Library, Inc.: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference) Towry Law Plc: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference) Law Enforcement Equipment in Australia: A Strategic Entry Report, 1999 (reference) (more reference examples)

Books	Medical Law, Ethics, and Bioethics for Ambulatory Care (reference) Florida Real Estate Principles, Practices & Law (Florida Real Estate Principles Practices and Law, 25th Ed) (reference) Law of Environmental and Toxic Torts: Cases, Materials and Problems, 2d (reference) Shapo and Shapo's Law School Without Fear: Strategies for Success, 2d (reference) A treatise on the law of deeds : their form, requisites, execution, acknowledgment, registration, construction, and effect (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	Adams Canadian Labour Law (reference) International Financial Law Review 1000 (reference) Reconceiving Reality: Women & International Law (reference) Aba Section Of Patent Trademark And Copyright Law Committee Reports (reference) Ali-aba Business Law Course Materials Journal (reference) (more periodical examples)

Theater & Movies	The Standard Deviants - Big Business Pack (Business Law, Accounting Parts 1 & 2, Finance Part 1, Marketing) (reference) Above the Law (reference) The Steven Seagal Collection (Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Out for Justice) (reference) Long Arm of the Law (reference) Wrong Arm of the Law (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	In Battle There Is No Law (reference) Law (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

High Tech	Law & Order: Dead on the Money (reference) Employment Law Made E-Z (reference) (more camera examples; more video game examples; more computer examples; more electronic examples; more software examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Image Slideshow: Law

Photo Album: Law

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Law office shingle - Either lawyer humor or an avid fisherman. Credit: America's Coastlines.		Salmon being counted when passing through weirs. By law, a certain percentage of salmon runs had to be allowed to escape commercial fisheries in order to spawn. To check the percentage, counting weirs were maintained on many streams. F&W - 10,111. Credit: Fisheries.
	A restoration worker uses a marine radio on board the Cunan Law to prepare for a site visit. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center.		Small boats, rigid hull inflatables, were used to support the restoration effort. Divers left the Cunan Law, where they were housed and fed, and were transported to the reef by the tenders. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center.
	Let sleeping dogs lie unless the car starts to back up. Apparently there was no leash law at Puntarenas as dogs seemed to roam about the town at will. Credit: Small World.		Law Enforcement Ranger arresting a member of the public. Credit: Lori Cook.
	A member of BLM law enforcement shows the way to explorers of Arizona lands. Credit: Unknown.		Front (east) portico. Photograph by Jack E. Boucher, November 1959. (Reproduction Number: HABS, VT, 14-WOOD,1-4) Job Lyman, a young lawyer from Northampton, Massachusetts, finished this house in the village of Woodstock in 1810. He and his bride, Mary Hall, lived in it for many years while Job practiced law in town. The finely carved Neoclassical detailing on the entrance porch suggests Lyman's refined taste and the prosperity of Woodstock at the time of construction. Decorated with fluted Ionic columns and scrolled ornament, the porch also features steps made of granite from a nearby quarry. Credit: Library of Congress.
	Doctor In Law Or Physic, in Congregation Robes. / T. Uwins delt. J. Agar sculpt. Credit: National Library of Medicine.		Love. Law. Physic. / Marks fec. Credit: National Library of Medicine.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Digital Photo Gallery: Law


"Law Series 4" by Peter Skadberg Commentary: "Law series. Use is free on approved usage. Contact is required. We respond within 24 hours. ."	"Cambridge Law" by Philip Jackson Commentary: "Cambridge Law Facility."
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

Familiar Quotations: Law

Author	Quotation
Blaise Pascal	Law, without force, is impotent.
Calvin Coolidge	One with the law is a majority.
Confucius	Kindness is greater than law.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe	Only law can give us freedom.
John Arbuthnot	Law is a bottomless pit.
John Locke	Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.
Oliver Cromwell	Necessity has no law.
Thomas Jefferson	Taste cannot be controlled by law.
William Pitt The Elder	Where law ends, tyranny begins.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Historic Usage: Law

Author	Date	Quotation
Magna Carta	1215	We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the realm and mean to observe it well. (reference)
John Locke	1690	The law man was under, was rather for appropriating. (Second Treatise of Government)
US Constitution	1791	Clause 3: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. (reference)
US Bill of Rights	1795	Amendment III. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. (reference)
Amendment to US Constitution	1795-1999	If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. (reference)
Marbury v. Madison	1803	It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. (reference)
Communist Manifesto	1848	Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests. (reference)
Treaty of Versailles	1919	Such persons shall, if found guilty, be sentenced to punishments laid down by law. (reference)
Winston S. Churchill	1946	But we must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence. ("Iron Curtain" Speech)
United Nations	1948	Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Use in Literature: Law

Title	Author	Quote
Contact	Carl Sagan	You know, someone in my position---new inventions, new industries---is always on the thin edge of breaking some law or other
Sylvie and Bruno	Carroll, Lewis	We need something more than a fixed Law of Nature to settle which nerve shall carry it.
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	It is wrong to be so absorbed in the divine law as not to perceive the human law
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	Joyce, James	The Ruler of the universe entreated you, a creature of clay, to love Him Who made you and to keep His law.
King Richard III	Shakespeare, William	the great King of kings Hath in the tables of his law commanded That thou shalt do no murder
Grapes of Wrath	Steinbeck, John	Sometimes a fella got to sift the law.
Gulliver's Travels	Swift, Jonathan	I must then hire another to defend my right, it being against all rules of law that any man should be allowed to speak for himself
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	Such is the universal law, which no man can ever outwit, and with regard to the railroad even we may say it is as broad as it is long
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Non-Fiction Usage: Law

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Under U.S. law since 1970, marijuana has been a Schedule I controlled substance. (references)
		State law should mandate the availability of these services while permitting parental refusal. (references)
		In some states, the law extends these services to all diagnosed children from birth to age three. (references)
Business		The text of the law is long and detailed. (references)
		Roman Law prohibits what it does not permit. (references)
		The Trademark Law of 1939 is still in force. (references)
Children	Sri Lanka	No cases are known to have been filed under this law. (references)
	Gabon	Protection for children's rights is not codified in law. (references)
	Yemen	Child abuse is not prohibited by law, and it was a problem. (references)
Civil Liberties	France	The About-Picard law does not define cults. (references)
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	The law had not yet been adopted at year's end. (references)
	Congo	A 1996 Press law regulates the newspaper industry. (references)
Discrimination	Armenia	The religion law discriminates against some religious groups. (references)
	Romania	An emergency ordinance has the effect of law unless it is nullified by the Parliament. (references)
	Botswana	However, neither the Constitution nor the law prohibits discrimination by private persons or entities. (references)
Economic History	Finland	Finnish law is codified. (references)
	Hong Kong	There is no anti-trust law. (references)
	Burma	Burma has no trademark law. (references)
Human Rights	China	Many are not well versed in the law. (references)
	Angola	Provisions for bail exist in the law. (references)
	Kazakhstan	The law sanctions pretrial detention. (references)
Indigenous People	Mexico	In 1998 Quintana Roo's state Legislature passed a similar usages and customs law. (references)
	Guatemala	The University of San Carlos offers a postgraduate degree in indigenous customary law. (references)
	Namibia	The law assigns to traditional leaders the role of guardians of culture and tradition. (references)
Minorities	Canada	The Quebec courts heard two cases challenging this law. (references)
	Hungary	The Ombudsman continued to promote a uniform antidiscrimination law. (references)
	Moldova	The 1989 language law reinstituted obligatory use of the Latin script. (references)
Political Economy	Cambodia	A new land law went into effect in July. (references)
	SPAIN	A 40 hour workweek is established by law. (references)
	OMAN	Oman has a trademark law, which it enforces. (references)
Political Rights	Peru	Also in July, the Congress modified the election law. (references)
	Barbados	Citizens have this right in law and exercise it in practice. (references)
	Peru	The modified law prohibits reelection of a president to successive terms. (references)
Trade	Uae	Agency law does not pertain to food products. (references)
	Nepal	No special labeling or marking is required by law. (references)
	Poland	Banks are limited by law to their exposure to creditors. (references)
Travel	Turkey	Distributor / retailer markups are not limited by law, only demand and competition. (references)
	Singapore	Persons violating the law, even unknowingly, may be expelled, arrested or imprisoned. (references)
	Barbados	A new telecommunications law should allow U.S. telephone service providers to operate in Barbados in 2001. (references)
Women	Armenia	The law cites specific punishments for rape. (references)
	Malaysia	Non-Muslim women are subject to civil (secular) law. (references)
	Nigeria	Shari'a personal law protects widows' property rights. (references)
Worker Rights	Tuvalu	The workday by law is set at 8 hours. (references)
	Lebanon	Forced labor is not prohibited by law. (references)
	Mozambique	Child labor is regulated by the labor law. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	FLY-:SPECK:, n. The prototype of punctuation. It is observed by Garvinus that the systems of punctuation in use by the various literary nations depended originally upon the social habits and general diet of the flies infesting the several countries. These creatures, which have always been distinguished for a neighborly and companionable familiarity with authors, liberally or niggardly embellish the manuscripts in process of growth under the pen, according to their bodily habit, bringing out the sense of the work by a species of interpretation superior to, and independent of, the writer's powers. The "old masters" of literature -- that is to say, the early writers whose work is so esteemed by later scribes and critics in the same language -- never punctuated at all, but worked right along free-handed, without that abruption of the thought which comes from the use of points. (We observe the same thing in children to-day, whose usage in this particular is a striking and beautiful instance of the law that the infancy of individuals reproduces the methods and stages of development characterizing the infancy of races.) In the work of these primitive scribes all the punctuation is found, by the modern investigator with his optical instruments and chemical tests, to have been inserted by the writers' ingenious and serviceable collaborator, the common house-fly -- Musca maledicta. In transcribing these ancient MSS, for the purpose of either making the work their own or preserving what they naturally regard as divine revelations, later writers reverently and accurately copy whatever marks they find upon the papyrus or parchment, to the unspeakable enhancement of the lucidity of the thought and value of the work. Writers contemporary with the copyists naturally avail themselves of the obvious advantages of these marks in their own work, and with such assistance as the flies of their own household may be willing to grant, frequently rival and sometimes surpass the older compositions, in respect at least of punctuation, which is no small glory. Fully to understand the important services that flies perform to literature it is only necessary to lay a page of some popular novelist alongside a saucer of cream-and-molasses in a sunny room and observe "how the wit brightens and the style refines" in accurate proportion to the duration of exposure.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Spoken Usage: Law

Speaker	Phrase(s)
Dennis Miller	Advocate of law and order though I am, I have to admit that there's something kind of creepy about having the hand on the on-off switch of civil liberties belong to John Ashcroft.
Ellen Levin	That's a good question. We have a law that's called the Son of Sam law in New York, and that prohibits any criminal from profiting from their crime.
Gloria Allred	There's a new law that's going to take effect in January, kind of, amending the old son of Sam law. And it will allow convicted murderers to write a book, but the victims should be the ones that profit from any book, if there are profits.
Jay McGraw	You know I do, I think that law school is kind of the responsible choice. You know once you're a lawyer, you're always a lawyer, and so I thought now would be a good time, and it is useful stuff. I mean the things I've learned there I use even this week.
Linda Fairstein	Long before I went to law school, and I started by doing a nonfiction book about the reforms and the work we had done, but this was a dream I'd had. And so, I started doing the fiction. This is the fifth book in the series.
Lynne Cheney	The federal government has a strong Sunshine Law as well. And that's what Mrs. Clinton ran afoul of. She brought in people from the outside, treated them as government employees to have meetings. So that was the problem.
Mark Geragos	It's all public. Just listen to me for a second. The probation report has to come out. It's called a pre-plea report. Under California law, it's a public record. Any sentence had to have a probation report.
Michael Chertoff	I don't know that I would talk to the father. I think usually, when we make decisions about charging, at least initially, we don't make those based on family issues. We make it based on the facts and the law.
Norman Mineta	Well, first of all, bag-match is not the silver bullet all by itself. As I indicated earlier, security is a multi-layered approach. And the law itself that Congress passed gave us a blueprint in terms of mandates of how we should screen baggage.
Rush Limbaugh	What makes a mockery of the tax law, Senator Daschle, is tax law itself.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Speeches: Law

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
George Washington	1789-1797	If there are any circumstances in the law which consistently with its main design may be so varied as to remove any well-intentioned objections that may happen to exist, it will consist with a wise moderation to make the proper variations.
Thomas Jefferson	1801-1809	A communication will also be made of our progress in the execution of the law respecting the vessels directed to be sold.
John Quincy Adams	1825-1829	Liberty and law have marched hand in hand.
Abraham Lincoln	1861-1865	Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.
Herbert C. Hoover	1929-1933	Such progress, however, can continue only so long as business manifests its respect for law.
Harry S. Truman	1945-1953	We believe that all men have a right to equal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the common good.
Dwight Eisenhower	1953-1961	For in that body rests the best hope of our age for the assertion of that law by which all nations may live in dignity.
Ronald Reagan	1981-1989	Nor to declare martial law to prevent our people from voting for the kind of govenment they want.
Bill Clinton	1993-2001	Protections in law should be protections in fact.
George W. Bush	2001-2005	Accountability for results is now the law of the land.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Usage Frequency: Law

"Law" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.70% of the time. "Law" is used about 25,319 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	96.7%	24,484	351
Noun (proper)	3.3%	835	8,415
Total	100.00%	25,319	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Name Usage Frequency: Law

The following table summarizes the usage of "law" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified.

Name	Usage/Gender	Usage per 100 million Persons	Rank in USA
Law	Last name	11,000	1,088
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Derived & Related Names: Law

The following table summarizes names derived from the word "law".
Name	Gender	Language	Meaning
Deuteronomy	N/A	Biblical	Repetition of the law
Dothan	N/A	Biblical	The law
Hammedatha	N/A	Biblical	He that troubles the law
India	N/A	Biblical	Law
Jeduthun	N/A	Biblical	His law
Mithredath	N/A	Biblical	Breaking the law
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Usage in Company Names: Law

Country	Name	Country	Name
United Kingdom	The Law Debenture Corporation p.l.c.	USA	Internet Law Library, Inc.
	(more examples...)

Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.

Expressions: Law

Expressions using "law": a contract which is governed by English law ♦ a loophole in the law ♦ abide by the law ♦ abuse of law ♦ according to the law ♦ action at law ♦ administer the law ♦ administrative law ♦ admiralty law ♦ Amdahl's Law ♦ amenable to the law ♦ amend a law ♦ American law reports ♦ Ampere's law ♦ annulment of law ♦ antitrust law ♦ appeal to the law ♦ archaic law ♦ arm of the law ♦ articles of law ♦ as set forth in the law ♦ assistance in law enforcement ♦ attorney at law ♦ Avogadro law ♦ Avogadro's law ♦ Bachelor in Law ♦ banking law ♦ Bankrupt law ♦ bankruptcy law ♦ baric wind law ♦ basic law ♦ become law ♦ behavior law ♦ behaviour law ♦ Bernard Law Montgomery ♦ Bernoulli law ♦ Bernoulli's law ♦ binding law ♦ blue law ♦ blue sky law ♦ Bode law ♦ bodes law ♦ Bode's law ♦ Body of a law ♦ boltzmann distribution law ♦ Book of the Law of Moses ♦ boyles law ♦ Boyle's law ♦ Boyle's law pressure suit ♦ brazen law of wages ♦ breach of the law ♦ breach of the press law ♦ break prescribed by law ♦ break the law ♦ Brewster law ♦ Brewster's law ♦ Brooks's Law ♦ brother in law ♦ Buys Ballot's law ♦ by law ♦ bye law ♦ canon law ♦ case law ♦ Ceremonial law ♦ Charles' law ♦ civil law ♦ club law ♦ code of land law ♦ code of law ♦ color of law ♦ colour of law ♦ commercial law ♦ common law ♦ common law husband ♦ common law wife ♦ company law ♦ comparative law ♦ comply with the law ♦ computer law ♦ conclusion of law ♦ conservation law ♦ constitional law ♦ constitutional law ♦ Conway's Law ♦ Corporation Tax Law ♦ Coulomb's law ♦ court of law ♦ criminal law ♦ crown law ♦ customary law ♦ Dalton's law ♦ Dalton's law of partial pressures ♦ daughter in law ♦ declare martial law ♦ defunct law ♦ distribution law ♦ divine law ♦ doctor of law ♦ domestic relations law ♦ Draper law ♦ due process of law. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "law": law-abiders, law-abiding, law-abiding citizen, law-abidingly, law-abidingness, law-adjudication, law-agent, law-and-order, law-based, law-bender, law-book, law-books, law-bound, law-breaker, law-breakers, law-breaking, law-case, law-changing, law-code, law-codes, law-confinement, law-court, law-courts, law-creating, law-creation, law-dominated, law-economics, law-enforcement, law-enforcers, law-enforcing, Law-fall, law-free, law-giver, law-givers, law-giving, law-governed, law-implementation, law-keeping, law-like, law-machine, law-maintenance, law-maker, law-makers, law-making, law-men, law-namely, law-offender, law-office, law-of-mass, law-oriented, law-reform, law-related, law-school, law-suit, law-suits, law-village, law-violator, law-worthy, law-writer.
	Ending with "law": Attorney-at-law, Bi-law, Case-law, Civil-law, Cousin-in-law, Father-in-common-law, Ma-in-law, Martial-law, Mom-in-law, mothers-in-law, Mum-in-law, Nephew-in-law, parents-in-law, Poor-law, Power-law, Public-law, Square-law, Uncle-in-law.
	Containing "law": anti-law-and-order, common-law marriage, corn-law-loving, Father-in-law-to-be, mother-in-law plant, Sister-in-law-to-be.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Law

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
law	6,148	florida law	693
law school	2,906	law dictionary	656
law enforcement	2,503	law enforcement humor	655
lemon law	1,941	california law	627
labor law	1,869	texas law	627
law enforcement job	1,742	california labor law	620
law and order	1,467	immigration law	600
employment law	1,179	unwritten law	596
family law	1,072	health law	592
law firm	1,028	law library	565
jude law	995	in law	559
bankruptcy law	968	tax law	525
law school ranking	909	state law	512
new tax law	876	child support law	512
real estate law	811	business law	507
criminal law	736	black law dictionary	499
divorce law	728	federal law	485
megans law	711	ohms law	483
international law	702	common law marriage	482
copyright law	701	child labor law	457
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Modern Translation: Law

Language		Translations for "law"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaans		wet, reg (correct, exact, jurisprudence, proper, right, true). (various references)

Albanian		ligj (constitution, enactment, jus, lex, ordinance, principle, statute). (various references)

Arabic		قانون (canon, norm, rule), الحقوق (legal science), شريعة (Sharia), ‏فقيه قانوني, ‏مجموعة القوانين (statute book), ‏ناموس (code, gnat), ‏قانون (act, code, enactment, legislation, regulation, rule, statute), ‏سيادة (dominion, lordship, mastery, seigniory, sovereign, supremacy, suzerainty), ‏سلطة (arm, chicory, command, hold, horn, influence, power, prerogative, rule, seigniory), ‏عدالة (equity, just, justice), ‏القانون (legislation), ‏شريعة (canon, code, dispensation, legislation, religious law). (various references)

Bulgarian		юриспрунденция (jurisprudence), съдопроизводство, съдебна процедура (pleadings, proceedings), съдийство (judicature, judiciary, magistracy), съд (bar, bench, container, court, court of justice, court of law, inquest, judgement-seat, judicature, judiciary, jury, law court, receptacle, tribunal, utensil, vas, vessel), закономерност, законност (legality, legitimacy, validity), закон (act, decree, measure, prescript, principle, regulation, statute), адвокатура, право (authorization, claim, clean, directly, due, fair, flush, jurisprudence, jus, perquisite, place, pretension, right, slap, smack, spang, straight, straightway, upright), правен (juristic, juristical, legal), природен закон. (various references)

Chinese		法律 . (various references)

Czech		zákon (act, statute), právo (claim, jus, justice, right), předpis (observance, ordinance, precept, prescription, recipe, regulation, rule, sub). (various references)

Danish		lov (regulation). (various references)

Dutch		wet (act), rechtskundig, rechts-, recht (correct, direct, exact, jurisprudence, proper, right, right-angle, square, straight, tax), juridisch. (various references)

Esperanto		leĝo. (various references)

Faeroese		lóg (by-laws, regulations, statute). (various references)

Farsi		قانون مدنی , قانون (Code, Edict, Regulation, Rule, Statute), قاعده (Frame, Norm, Regulation, Rule, Theorem), حقوق (Due, Emolument, Pension, Salary, Stipend), حق (Due, Right, Title), تعقیب قانونی کردن (Indict, Litigate, Sue), داتا, بربست (Rule). (various references)

Finnish		laki (act, crown, statute, summit, top). (various references)

French		loi. (various references)

Frisian		wet. (various references)

German		Gesetz (act, bill, statute), recht (claim, correct, exact, fairly, justice, plain, pretty, privilege, proper, properly, quite, really, right, right hand, right wing, rightist, Square, title, true). (various references)

Greek		νόμοσ (county, department, statute), νόμος (rule), νομικόσ (jurist, lawyer, legal), νομική (jurisprudence), δίκαιο νομικήσ. (various references)

Hawaiian		ligj. (various references)

Hebrew		חוק (act, custom, decree, enactment, measure, ordinance, regulation, rule, statute). (various references)

Hungarian		törvény (act, canon, enactment, statute). (various references)

Icelandic		lög. (various references)

Indonesian		hukum (magistrate). (various references)

Irish		dlí. (various references)

Italian		legge (act, constitution, rule, statute). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		法律 , 定則 (established rule), 典 (celebration, ceremony, law code, rule), 典　 (rule), 典範 (model, standard), 法学 (jurisprudence), 法学　 (jurisprudence), 定め (agreement, appointment, arrangement, decision, destiny, fate, karma, provision, regulation, rule), 法則　 (rule), 辟 (crime, false, punish, ruler), 法律　, 法度 (ban, ordinance, prohibition), レ点 (LAN, local, local area network, local color, local content, local minima, local news, local observer, low, low absorber, low angle, mark showing character order in Chinese texts, raw, row, tick mark), 理法 , 規律 (order, rules), 規律　 (order, rules), 法則 (rule). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ロー (low, raw, row), きりつ (discipline, order, regulations, rules, standing up), さだめ (agreement, appointment, arrangement, decision, destiny, fate, karma, provision, regulation, rule), のり (dried seaweed, laver, mood, paste, ride, riding, rule, -seater, spread, starch), ほうがく (compass point, direction, Japanese music, jurisprudence, way), ほうそく (rule), ほうりつ, りほう, へき (bias, break, burst, crime, false, inferiority complex, pierce, prejudice, punish, ruler, split, tear), はっと (ban, ordinance, prohibition), ていそく (established rule, low gear, slow speed), てんぱん (model, standard). (various references)

Korean		법률 (A-law, Laws). (various references)

Malay		hukum. (various references)

Manx		slattys (parliamentary act, regulation, statute). (various references)

Norwegian		lov, rett (course, directly, straight), jus. (various references)

Papiamen		lei, hurdíko. (various references)

Pig Latin		awlay.(various references)

Portuguese		lei (act, decree, institution, judge-made law, legislation, ordination, statute), jurisprudência (judge-made law, jurisprudence, pundit). (various references)

Romanian		lege (act, act of parliament, bill, custom, jus, principle, religion, rule, sanction, statute, tradition). (various references)

Russian		закон (act, jurisdictions, jus, lex, ordinance). (various references)

Scottish		lagh (method : air lagh, order). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		zakon (bylaw, lex, statute), uredba (assize, statute), pravo (charter, correctly, directly, franchise, jus, justice, right, smack, straight, straightway), pravni (juridical, juridicial, juristic, juristical, legal), pravilo (norm, observance, precept, rule, scripture). (various references)

Spanish		ley (act, fad, statute). (various references)

Sranan		plakati. (various references)

Swedish		lag (act, code, company, enactment, gang, liquor, party, set, side, solution, statute, syrup, team), juridik (jurisprudence). (various references)

Tagalog		batás. (various references)

Thai		กฎหมาย (enactment, ordinance), วิชากฎหมาย. (various references)

Turkish		yasal çözüm, yasa (act, act of congress, code, enaction, regulation, statute), kural (code, disposition, precept, regulation, rule, statute), kanun (act, act of congress, act of parliament, Canon, code, enaction, rule, statute), ilke (basis, doctrine, guideline, keynote, principle, tenet), hukuk (juristic, juristical, jus, legal), dava (action, case, cause, claim, instance, lawsuit, litigation, plea, pleading, process, prosecution, suit, trial). (various references)

Turkmen		wesяet, kanun. (various references)

Ukrainian		юриспруденція (jurisprudence, nomology), суд (bank, court, judicature, tribunal), закон (act, decree, enactment, establishment, lex, ordinance, statute), право (charter, power, right), правила (regulations). (various references)

Vietnamese		luật luật học, luật (prescript), ra oai tuỳ cơ ứng biến, quy luật (rule), phép tắc (principle, rule), phép (talismanic, trick), nghề luật sư tiến sĩ luật khoa toà án, điều lệ pháp luật, định luật. (various references)

Welsh		deddf (act, statute), cyfraith. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Ancestral Language Translations: Law

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	colius, constituta, constituti, constitutis, constitutum, iÃ»s, iora, iosue, iura, iure, iuris, ius, ius iuris, iusque, iussa, iussi, iussum, jus, lege, legem, leges, legesque, legi, legibus, legis, legum, lex, lex legis, lex,legis, numenius, scriptum. (various references)
Avestan	200-600	dâta. (various references)
Middle English	1100-1500	lawe. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Bible Trace: Law

Language	Date	Source	Luke Chapter 9, Verse 22
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Eipwn oti dei ton uion tou anqrwpou polla paqein kai apodokimasqhnai apo twn presbuterwn kai arcierewn kai grammatewn kai apoktanqhnai kai th trith hmera egerqhnai
Latin	405	Vulgate	Dicens quia oportet Filium hominis multa pati et reprobari a senioribus et principibus sacerdotum et scribis et occidi et tertia die resurgere
Old English	990	West Saxon	Forþam þe hit gebyreð þæt mannes sunu fela þinga þolige. and beo aworpen fram ealdrum and ealdormannum: and fram bocerum. and beon ofslegen. þriddan dæge arisan;
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	And seide these thingis, For it bihoueth mannus sone to suffre many thingis, and to be repreued of the elder men, and of the princis of prestis, and of scribis, and to be slayn, and the thridde dai to rise ayen.
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	Sayinge: that the sonne of man must suffre many thinges and be reproved of the elders and of the hye prestes and scribes and be slayne and the thirde daye ryse agayne.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be put to death, and be raised the third day.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	Saying, The Son of man will undergo much and be put on one side by the rulers and the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and be put to death, and on the third day he will come back to life.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Matched Bible Translations: Law

Language	Luke Chapter 9, Verse 22
Cebuano	Ug siya miingon, "Ang Anak sa Tawo kinahanglan magaantus sa daghang mga butang, ug igasalikway siya sa mga anciano ug sa mga sacerdote nga punoan ug sa mga escriba, ug pagapatyon, ug sa ikatulo ka adlaw pagabanhawon siya."
Chinese	又說、人子必須受許多的苦、被長老、祭司長和文士棄絕、並且被殺、第三日復活。
Croatian	Reèe: "Treba da Sin Èovjeèji mnogo pretrpi, da ga starješine, glavari sveæenièki i pismoznanci odbace, da bude ubijen i treæi dan da uskrsne."
Danish	idet han sagde: "Menneskesønnen skal lide meget og forkastes af de Ældste og Ypperstepræsterne og de skriftkloge og ihjelslås og oprejses på den tredje Dag."
Dutch	Zeggende: De Zoon des mensen moet veel lijden, en verworpen worden van de ouderlingen, en overpriesters, en Schriftgeleerden, en gedood en ten derden dage opgewekt worden.
Finnish	ja sanoi: "Ihmisen Pojan pitää kärsimän paljon ja joutuman vanhinten ja ylipappien ja kirjanoppineiden hyljittäväksi ja tuleman tapetuksi ja kolmantena päivänä nouseman ylös".
French	Il ajouta qu`il fallait que le Fils de l`homme souffrît beaucoup, qu`il fût rejeté par les anciens, par les principaux sacrificateurs et par les scribes, qu`il fût mis à mort, et qu`il ressuscitât le troisième jour.
German	und sprach: Des Menschen Sohn muß noch viel leiden und verworfen werden von den Ältesten und Hohenpriestern und Schriftgelehrten und getötet werden und am dritten Tage auferstehen.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Yesus berkata juga, "Anak Manusia memang harus banyak menderita dan ditentang oleh pemimpin-pemimpin dan imam-imam kepala, serta guru-guru agama. Ia akan dibunuh, tetapi pada hari ketiga akan dibangkitkan kembali."
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	kata-Nya, "Bahwa wajib Anak manusia merasai banyak sengsara, dan ditolak oleh orang tua-tua dan kepala-kepala imam serta ahli Taurat, sehingga dibunuh, kemudian Ia bangkit pula pada hari yang ketiga."
Italian	«Il Figlio dell'uomo, disse, deve soffrire molto, essere riprovato dagli anziani, dai sommi sacerdoti e dagli scribi, esser messo a morte e risorgere il terzo giorno».
Manx Gaelic	Gra, Shegin da Mac y dooinney ymmodee reddyn y hurranse, as ve beg soit jeh liorish y chanstyr, as ny ard-saggyrtyn, as ny scrudeyryn, as ve er ny varroo, as girree reesht yn trass laa.
Maori	I mea ano ia, Kua takoto te tikanga kia maha nga mamae o te Tama a te tangata, kia whakakahoretia ano ia e nga kaumatua, e nga tohunga nui, e nga karaipi, kia whakamatea, a i te toru o nga ra ka whakaarahia.
Norwegian	og han sa: Menneskesønnen skal lide meget og forkastes av de eldste og yppersteprestene og de skriftlærde og slåes ihjel, og opstå på den tredje dag.
Portuguese	e disse-lhes: É necessário que o Filho do homem padeça muitas coisas, que seja rejeitado pelos anciãos, pelos principais sacerdotes e escribas, que seja morto, e que ao terceiro dia ressuscite.
Rumanian	Apoi a adqugat cq Fiul omului trebuie sq pqtimeascq multe, sq fie tqgqduit de bqtrkni, de preoyii cei mai de seamq wi de cqrturari, sq fie omorkt, wi a treia zi sq knvieze.
Russian	УЛБЪБЧ, ЮФП уЩОХ юЕМПЧЕЮЕУЛПНХ ДПМЦОП НОПЗП РПУФТБДБФШ, Й ВЩФШ ПФЧЕТЦЕОХ УФБТЕКЫЙОБНЙ, РЕТЧПУЧСЭЕООЙЛБНЙ Й ЛОЙЦОЙЛБНЙ, Й ВЩФШ ХВЙФХ, Й Ч ФТЕФЙК ДЕОШ ЧПУЛТЕУОХФШ.
Shuar	Nuyá Jesus Tímiayi "Wi Aents Ajasuitjiana ju ti waitsatniuitjai. Wíi shuara uuntri, tura ni Pátriri uuntrisha tura ni jintinniurisha nakitrurar Maantuáwartatui. Túrasha iwiartusarmatai menaintiu tsawant jeamtai nantaktiatjai."
Spanish	Y les dijo: --Es necesario que el Hijo del Hombre padezca muchas cosas, y que sea desechado por los ancianos, por los principales sacerdotes y por los escribas, y que sea muerto y que resucite al tercer día.
Swahili	Akaendelea kusema: "Ni lazima Mwana wa Mtu apate mateso mengi na kukataliwa na wazee na makuhani wakuu na walimu wa Sheria; atauawa, lakini siku ya tatu atafufuliwa."
Swedish	Och han sade: "Människosonen måste lida mycket, och han skall bliva förkastad av de äldste och översteprästerna och de skriftlärda och skall bliva dödad, men på tredje dagen skall han uppstå igen."
Uma	Na'uli' wo'o-mi: "Aku' Ana' Manusia' kana mporata wori' kaparia. Rasapuaka-a mpai' totu'a ngata, imam pangkeni hante guru agama. Rapatehi-a mpai', aga hi eo katolu-na tuwu' nculii' moto-a."
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations & Misspellings: Law

Derivations
	Words beginning with "law": lawbook, lawbooks, lawbreaker, lawbreakers, lawbreaking, lawbreakings, lawed, lawful, lawfully, lawfulness, lawfulnesses, lawgiver, lawgivers, lawine, lawines, lawing, lawings, lawless, lawlessly, lawlessness, lawlessnesses, lawlike, lawmaker, lawmakers, lawmaking, lawmakings, lawman, lawmen, lawn, lawnmower, lawnmowers, lawns, lawny, lawrencium, lawrenciums, laws, lawsuit, lawsuits, lawyer, lawyered, lawyering, lawyerings, lawyerlike, lawyerly, lawyers. (additional references)
	Words ending with "law": blaw, byelaw, bylaw, catclaw, clapperclaw, claw, coleslaw, declaw, dewclaw, flaw, outlaw, pilaw, prelaw, scofflaw, slaw, windflaw. (additional references)
	Words containing "law": baklawa, baklawas, blawed, blawing, blawn, blaws, byelaws, bylaws, catclaws, clapperclawed, clapperclawing, clapperclaws, clawed, clawer, clawers, clawhammer, clawing, clawless, clawlike, claws, coleslaws, declawed, declawing, declaws, dewclaws, fallaway, fallaways, flawed, flawier, flawiest, flawing, flawless, flawlessly, flawlessness, flawlessnesses, flaws, flawy, nonlawyer, nonlawyers, outlawed, outlawing, outlawries, outlawry, outlaws, pilaws, rollaway, scalawag, scalawags, scofflaws, slaws, superlawyer. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Law" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Alaw, Alfwy, alsw, alw, alwa, aww, blaw, eaw, elaw, glaw, Kaw, Klaw, laa, Lacw, laf, laiw, Laj, lal, laow, laq, lau, lauw, lawa, lawb, lawd, Lawji, lawt, lawy, Leuw, lewa, lewe, lewo, lewp, liw, liwa, lja, lkw, lla, Lliw, loaw, loawm, loew, lovw, lowa, lowx, lsw, lta, luaw, luq, luw, lza, oaw, Qawi, tlaw, uaw, Xaw. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Rhyming with "Law"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "law" (pronounced lÄ")
2	l Ä"	blah, La, voila.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Anagrams: Law

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: awl.
	Words within the letters "a-l-w"
	-1 letter: al, aw, la.
	Words containing the letters "a-l-w"
	+1 letter: alow, awls, awol, bawl, blaw, claw, flaw, lawn, laws, pawl, slaw, wail, wale, walk, wall, waly, waul, wawl, weal, yawl.
	+2 letters: aglow, allow, alway, awful, awols, bawls, blawn, blaws, brawl, bylaw, claws, crawl, drawl, flaws, flawy, lawed, lawns, lawny, pawls, pilaw, rawly, shawl, slaws, swail, swale, trawl, wails, waldo, waled, waler, wales, walks, walla, walls, wally, waltz, wanly, wauls, wawls, weald, weals, whale, wheal, woald, yawls.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern

5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Images: Photo Album
8. Images: Digital Art

9. Quotations: Familiar
10. Quotations: Historic
11. Quotations: Fiction
12. Quotations: Non-fiction

13. Quotations: Spoken
14. Quotations: Speeches
15. Usage Frequency
16. Names: Frequency

17. Names: Derived from
18. Names: Company Usage
19. Expressions
20. Expressions: Internet

21. Translations: Modern
22. Translations: Ancient
23. Bible Trace
24. Abbreviations

25. Acronyms
26. Derivations
27. Rhymes
28. Anagrams

29. Bibliography

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.