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Law [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. A rule, particularly an established or permanent rule, prescribed by the supreme power of a state to its subjects, for regulating their actions, particularly their social actions. Laws are imperative or mandatory, commanding what shall be done; prohibitory, restraining from what is to be forborn; or permissive, declaring what may be done without incurring a penalty. The laws which enjoin the duties of piety and morality, are prescribed by God and found in the Scriptures.

2. LAW is beneficence acting by rule.

3. Municipal law is a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power of a state, commanding what its subjects are to do, and prohibiting what they are to forbear; a statute.

4. Municipal or civil laws are established by the decrees, edicts or ordinances of absolute princes, as emperors and kings, or by the formal acts of the legislatures of free states. law therefore is sometimes equivalent to decree, edict, or ordinance.

5. law of nature, is a rule of conduct arising out of the natural relations of human beings established by the Creator, and existing prior to any positive precept. Thus it is a law of nature, that one man should not injure another, and murder and fraud would be crimes, independent of any prohibition from a supreme power.

6. Laws of animal nature, the inherent principles by which the economy and functions of animal bodies are performed, such as respiration, the circulation of the blood, digestion, nutrition, various secretions, etc.

7. Laws of vegetation, the principles by which plats are produced, and their growth carried on till they arrive to perfection.

8. Physical laws, or laws of nature. The invariable tendency or determination of any species of matter to a particular form with definite properties, and the determination of a body to certain motions, changes, and relations, which uniformly take place in the same circumstances, is called a physical law These tendencies or determinations, whether called laws or affections of matter, have been established by the Creator, and are, with a peculiar felicity of expression, denominated in Scripture, ordinances of heaven.

9. Laws of nations, the rules that regulate the mutual intercourse of nations or states. These rules depend on natural law or the principles of justice which spring from the social state; or they are founded on customs, compacts, treaties, leagues and agreements between independent communities.

10. By the law of nations, we are to understand that code of public instruction, which defines the rights and prescribes the duties of nations, in their intercourse with each other.

11. Moral law a law which prescribes to men their religious and social duties, in other words, their duties to God and to each other. The moral law is summarily contained in the decalogue or ten commandments, written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, and delivered to Moses on mount Sinai.

12. Exodus 20:1 .

13. Ecclesiastical law a rule of action prescribed for the government of a church; otherwise called canon law

14. Written law a law or rule of action prescribed or enacted by a sovereign, and promulgated and recorded in writing; a written statute, ordinance, edict or decree.

15. Unwritten or common law a rule of action which derives its authority from long usage, or established custom, which has been immemorially received and recognized by judicial tribunals. As this law can be traced to no positive statutes, its rules or principles are to be found only in the records of courts, and in the reports of judicial decisions.

16. By-law, a law of a city, town or private corporation. [See By.]

17. Mosaic law the institutions of Moses, or the code of laws prescribed to the Jews, as distinguished from the gospel.

18. Ceremonial law the Mosaic institutions which prescribe the external rites and ceremonies to be observed by the Jews, as distinct from the moral precepts, which are of perpetual obligation.

19. A rule of direction; a directory; as reason and natural conscience.

20. These, having not the law as a law to themselves. Romans 2:12 .

21. That which governs or has a tendency to rule; that which has the power of controlling.

22. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7:1 .

23. The word of God; the doctrines and precepts of God, or his revealed will.

24. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psalms 1:2 .

25. The Old Testament.

26. Is it not written in your law I said, ye are gods? John 10:34 .

27. The institutions of Moses, as distinct from the other parts of the Old Testament; as the law and the prophets.

28. A rule or axiom of science or art; settled principle; as the laws of versification or poetry.

29. law martial, or martial law the rules ordained for the government of an army or military force.

30. Marine laws, rules for the regulation of navigation, and the commercial intercourse of nations.

31. Commercial law law-merchant, the system of rules by which trade and commercial intercourse are regulated between merchants.

32. Judicial process; prosecution of right in courts of law

33. Tom Touchy is a fellow famous for taking the law of every body.

34. Hence the phrase, to go to law to prosecute; to seek redress in a legal tribunal.

35. Jurisprudence; as in the title, Doctor of Laws.

36. In general, law is a rule of action prescribed for the government of rational beings or moral agents, to which rule they are bound to yield obedience, in default of which they are exposed to punishment; or law is a settled mode or course of action or operation in irrational beings and in inanimate bodies.

37. Civil law criminal law [See Civil and Criminal.]

38. LAW s of honor. [See Honor.]

39. LAW language, the language used in legal writings and forms, particularly the Norman dialect or Old French, which was used in judicial proceedings from the days of William the conqueror to the 36th year of Edward III.

40. Wager of law a species of trial formerly used in England, in which the defendant gave security that he would, on a certain day, make his law that is, he would make oath that he owed nothing to the plaintiff, and would produce eleven of his neighbors as compurgators, who should swear that they believed in their consciences that he had sworn the truth.

41. One who violates the law

Law [Interjection] Webster's Dictionary 1913

An exclamation of mild surprise.

Law [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. In general, a rule of being or of conduct, established by an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling regulation; the mode or order according to which an agent or a power acts.

2. In morals: The will of God as the rule for the disposition and conduct of all responsible beings toward him and toward each other; a rule of living, conformable to righteousness; the rule of action as obligatory on the conscience or moral nature.

3. The Jewish or Mosaic code, and that part of Scripture where it is written, in distinction from the gospel; hence, also, the Old Testament.

4. An organic rule, as a constitution or charter, establishing and defining the conditions of the existence of a state or other organized community.

5. Any edict, decree, order, ordinance, statute, resolution, judicial, decision, usage, etc., or recognized, and enforced, by the controlling authority.

6. In philosophy and physics: A rule of being, operation, or change, so certain and constant that it is conceived of as imposed by the will of God or by some controlling authority; as, the law of gravitation; the laws of motion; the law heredity; the laws of thought; the laws of cause and effect; law of self-preservation.

7. In matematics: The rule according to which anything, as the change of value of a variable, or the value of the terms of a series, proceeds; mode or order of sequence.

8. In arts, works, games, etc.: The rules of construction, or of procedure, conforming to the conditions of success; a principle, maxim; or usage; as, the laws of poetry, of architecture, of courtesy, or of whist.

9. Collectively, the whole body of rules relating to one subject, or emanating from one source; -- including usually the writings pertaining to them, and judicial proceedings under them; as, divine law; English law; Roman law; the law of real property; insurance law.

10. Legal science; jurisprudence; the principles of equity; applied justice.

11. Trial by the laws of the land; judicial remedy; litigation; as, to go law.

12. An oath, as in the presence of a court.

Law [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Same as Lawe, v. t.

Law Encyclopedia Britannica

LAW

THE present article will be limited to the consideration of the phenomena presented for study by positive laws.

The objects which laws ought to subserve, the principles of legislation, the sphere of law, the province of government, and other topics of a similar nature which are generally to be found in writings professing to treat of law in the abstract have been discussed under the heading Government and elsewhere. It will be convenient, and it will be following the lines of a very remarkable development of English thought, to take actual laws as positive facts, without reference to their goodness or badness, and examine, so far as it can be done within the limits at our command, the character which they present when looked at from different points of view. This conception of the science of law, which is closely related to the scientific ideas of the time, has been developed by the efforts of the modern school of English jurists. In former times the science of law meant anything but science as we have been taught to conceive it by physical philosophers. It meant if anything a philosophy of legal principles not necessarily related to any system of actual law. A philosophy of laws actually existing in fact is what we in England at least should now consider the science of law to be. By universal consent the somewhat shifting term jurisprudence has been limited to this meaning. Jurisprudence is the science of positive laws. The present article will attempt to present simply the leading principles and conclusions of jurisprudence....

The human race may be conceived as parcelled out into a number of distinct groups or societies, differing greatly in size and circumstances, in physical and moral characteristics of all kinds. But they all resemble each other in this that they reveal on examination certain rules of conduct in accordance with which the relations of the members inter se are governed. Such rules we may for the present, without anticipating a somewhat difficult discussion, term laws. Each society has its own system of laws, and all the systems, so far as they are known, constitute the appropriate subject matter of jurisprudence. The jurist may deal with it in the following ways. He may first of all examine the leading conceptions common to all the systems, or in other words define the leading terms common to them all. Such are the terms law itself, right, duty, property, crime, and so forth, which, or their equivalents, may, notwithstanding delicate differences of connotation, be regarded as common terms in all systems. That kind of inquiry is what is known in England as analytical jurisprudence. It regards the conceptions with which it deals as fixed or stationary, and aims at expressing them distinctly and exhibiting their logical relations with each other. What is really meant by a right and by a duty, and what is the true connexion between a right and a duty, are types of the questions proper to this inquiry. Shifting our point of view, but still regarding systems of law in the mass, we may consider them, not as stationary, but as changeable and changing, we may ask what general features are exhibited by the record of the change. This, somewhat crudely put, may serve to indicate the field of historical jurisprudence. In its ideal condition it would require an accurate record of the history of all legal systems as its material. As yet the record is exceedingly incomplete, and the results are proportionately limited. But whether the material be abundant or scanty, the method is the same. It seeks the explanation of institutions and legal principles in the facts of history. Its aim is to show how a given rule came to be what it is. The legislative source—the emanation of the rule from a sovereign authority—is of no importance here; what is important is the moral source—the connexion of the rule with the ideas prevalent during contemporary periods. This method, it is evident, involves, not only a comparison of successive stages in the history of the same system, but a comparison of different systems, of the Roman with the English, of the Hindu with the Irish, and so on. The historical method as applied to law may be regarded as a special example of the method of comparison. The comparative method is really employed in all generalizations about law; for, although the analysis of legal terms might be conducted with exclusive reference to one system, the advantage of testing the result by reference to other systems is obvious. But, besides the use of comparison for purposes of analysis and in tracing the phenomena of the growth of laws, it is evident that for the purposes of practical legislation the comparison of different systems may yield important results. Laws are contrivances for bringing about certain definite ends, the larger of which are identical in all systems. The comparison of these contrivances not only serves to bring their real object, often obscured as it is in details, into clearer view, but enables legislators to see where the contrivances are deficient, and how they may be improved.

The “science of law,” as the expression is generally used, means the examination of laws in general in one or other of the ways just indicated. It means an investigation of laws which exist or have existed in some given society in fact—in other words, positive laws; and it means an examination not limited to the exposition of particular systems. Analytical jurisprudence is in England associated chiefly with the name of John Austin (q.v.), whose Province of Jurisprudence Determined systematized and completed the work begun in England by Hobbes, and continued at a later date and from a different point of view by Bentham. The best view of the subject will be obtained by taking Austin’s principal positions in outline, and considering the criticisms which later jurists have bestowed upon them.

Austin’s first position is to distinguish between laws properly so called and laws improperly so called. In any of the older writers on law, we find the various senses in which the word is used grouped together as variations of one common meaning. Thus Blackstone advances to his proper subject, municipal laws, through (1) the laws of inanimate matter, (2) the laws of animal nutrition, digestion, &c., (3) the laws of nature, which are rules imposed by God on men and discoverable by reason alone, and (4) the revealed or Divine law, which is part of the law of nature directly expounded by God. All of these are connected by this common element that they are “rules of action dictated by some superior being.” And some such generalization as this is to be found at the basis of most treatises on jurisprudence which have not been composed under the influence of the analytical school. Austin disposes of it by the distinction that some of those laws are commands, while others are not commands. The so-called laws of nature are not commands; they are uniformities which resemble commands only in so far as they may be supposed to have been ordered by some intelligent being. But they are not commands in the only proper sense of that word,—they are not addressed to reasonable beings, who may or may not will obedience to them. Laws of nature are not addressed to anybody, and there is no pos sible question of obedience or disobedience to them. Austin accordingly pronounces them laws improperly so called, and confines his attention to laws properly so called, which are commands addressed by a human superior to a human inferior.

This distinction seems so simple and obvious that the energy and even bitterness with which Austin insists upon it now seems superfluous. But the indiscriminate identification of everything to which common speech gives the name of a law was, and still is, a fruitful source of confusion. Blackstone’s statement that when God “put matter into motion He established certain laws of motion, to which all movable matter must conform,” and that in those creatures that have neither the power to think nor to will such laws must be invariably obeyed, so long as the creature itself subsists, for its existence depends on that obedience, imputes to the law of gravitation in respect of both its origin and its execution the qualities of an Act of Parliament. On the other hand the qualities of the law of gravitation are imputed to certain legal principles which, under the name of the law of nature, are asserted to be binding all over the globe, so that “no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this.” Nonsense like this so exasperated Austin that he never fails to stigmatize the use of “natural laws” in the sense of scientific facts as improper, or as metaphorical. A later writer has pointed out that law in the scientific sense has acquired a position of its own, from which it is impossible to dislodge it, and which involves none of the ambiguities and confusions against which Austin protested. It would be as reasonable for the man of science as for the jurist to set up his own conception of law as the only legitimate one. There is perhaps only one field of inquiry where the two opposed conceptions of law are still to be found entangled. The “laws of political economy” still hover in the minds of many between the jural and the scientific conception. Certain economical principles appear to have acquired a double character,—that of scientific generalizations, and that of rules which may be disobeyed. Measures are pronounced to be a violation of the laws of political economy, with a vague implication that these being laws of nature any violation of them must be particularly heinous.

Having eliminated metaphorical or figurative laws, we restrict ourselves to those laws which are commands. This word is the key to the analysis of law, and accordingly a large portion of Austin’s work is occupied with the determination of its meaning. A command is an order issued by a superior to an inferior. It is a signification of desire distinguished by this peculiarity that “the party to whom it is directed is liable to evil from the other, in case he comply not with the desire.” “If you are able and willing to harm me in case I comply not with your wish, the expression of your wish amounts to a command.” Being liable to evil in case I comply not with the wish which you signify, I am bound or obliged by it, or I lie under a duty to obey it. The evil is called a sanction, and the command or duty is said to be sanctioned by the chance of incurring the evil. The three terms command, duty, and sanction are thus inseparably connected. As Austin expresses it in the language of formal logic, “each of the three terms signifies the same notion, but each denotes a different part of that notion, and connotes the residue.”

All commands, however, are not laws. That term is reserved for those commands which oblige generally to the performance of acts of a class. A command to your servant to rise at such an hour on such a morning is a particular command, but not a law or rule; a command to rise always at that hour is a law or rule. Of this distinction it is sufficient to say in the meantime that it involves, when we come to deal with positive laws, the rejection of particular enactments to which by inveterate usage the term law would certainly be applied. On the other hand it is not, according to Austin, necessary that a true law should bind persons as a class. Obligations imposed on the grantee of an office specially created by parliament would imply a law; a general order to go into mourning addressed to the whole nation for a particular occasion would not be a law.

So far we have arrived at a definition of laws properly so called. Austin holds superiority and inferiority to be necessarily implied in command, and such statements as that “laws emanate from superiors” to be the merest tautology and trifling. Elsewhere he sums up the characteristics of true laws as ascertained by the analysis thus :— (1) laws, being commands, emanate from a determinate source; (2) every sanction is an evil annexed to a command; and (3) every duty implies a command, and chiefly means obnoxiousness to the evils annexed to commands.

Of true laws, those only are the subject of jurisprudence which are laws strictly so called, or positive laws. Austin accordingly proceeds to distinguish positive from other true laws, which are either laws set by God to men or laws set by men to men, not, however, as political superiors nor in pursuance of a legal right. The discussion of the first of these true but not positive laws leads Austin to his celebrated discussion of the Utilitarian theory. The laws set by God are either revealed or unrevealed, i.e., either expressed in direct command, or made known to men in one or other of the ways denoted by such phrases as the “light of nature,” “natural reason,” “dictates of nature,” and so forth. Austin maintains that the principle of general utility, based ultimately on the assumed benevolence of God, is the true index to such of His commands as He has not chosen to reveal. His exposition of the meaning of the principle is a most valuable contribution to moral science, though he rests its claims ultimately on a basis which many of its supporters would disavow. And the whole discussion is now generally condemned as lying outside the proper scope of the treatise, although the reason for so condemning it is not always correctly stated. It is found in such assumptions of fact as that there is a God, that He has issued commands to men in what Austin calls the “truths of revelation,” that He designs the happiness of all His creatures, that there is a predominance of good in the order of the world—which do not now command universal assent. It is impossible to place these propositions on the same scientific footing as the assumptions of fact with reference to human society on which jurisprudence rests. If the “Divine laws” were facts like Acts of Parliament, it is conceived that the discussion of their characteristics would not be out of place in a scheme of jurisprudence.

The second set of laws properly so called, which are not positive laws, consists of three classes:—(1) those which are set by men living in a state of nature; (2) those which are set by sovereigns but not as political superiors, e.<∕., when one sovereign commands another to act according to a principle of international law; and (3) those set by subjects but not in pursuance of legal rights. This group, to which Austin gives the name of positive morality, helps to explain his conception of positive law. Men are living in a state of nature, or a state of anarchy, when they are not living in a state of government or as members of a political society. “Political society” thus becomes the central fact of the theory, and some of the objections that have been urged against it arise from its being applied to conditions of life in which Austin would not have admitted the existence of a political society. Again, the third set in the group is intimately connected with positive laws on the one hand and rules of positive morality which are not even laws properly so called on the other. Thus laws set by subjects in consequence of a legal right are clothed with legal sanctions, and are laws positive. A law set by guardian to ward, in pursuance of a right which the guardian is bound to exercise, is a positive law pure and simple; a law set by master to slave, in pursuance of a legal right which he is not bound to exercise, is, in Austin’s phraseology, to be regarded both as a positive moral rule and as a positive law. On the other hand the rules set by a club or society, and enforced upon its members by exclusion from the society, but not in pursuance of any legal right, are laws, but not positive laws. They are imperative and proceed from a determinate source, but they have no legal or political sanction. Closely connected with this positive morality, consisting of true but not positive laws, is the positive morality whose rules are not laws properly so called at all, though they are generally denominated laws. Such are the laws of honour, the laws of fashion, and, most important of all, international law.

Nowhere does Austin’s phraseology come more bluntly into conflict with common usage than in pronouncing the law of nations (which in substance is a compact body of well-defined rules resembling nothing so much as the ordinary rules of law) to be not laws at all, even in the wider sense of the term. That the rules of a private club should be law properly so called, while the whole mass of international jurisprudence is mere opinion, shocks our sense of the proprieties of expression. Yet no man was more careful than Austin to observe these proprieties. He recognizes fully the futility of definitions which involve a painful struggle with the current of ordinary speech. But in the present instance the apparent paralogism cannot be avoided if we accept the limitation of laws properly so called to commands proceeding from a determinate source. And that limitation is so generally present in our conception of law that to ignore it would be a worse anomaly than this. No one finds fault with the statement that the so-called code of honour or the dictates of fashion are not, properly speaking, laws. We repel the same statement applied to the law of nature, because it resembles in so many of its most striking features—in the certainty of a large portion of it, in its terminology, in its substantial principles—the most universal elements of actual systems of law, and because, moreover, the assumption that brought it into existence was nothing else than this, that it consisted of those abiding portions of legal systems which prevail everywhere by their own authority. But, though “positive morality” may not be the best phrase to describe such a code of rules, the distinction insisted on by Austin is unimpeachable.

The elimination of those laws properly and improperly so called which are not positive laws brings us to the definition of positive law, which is the keystone of the system. Every positive law is “set by a sovereign person, or sovereign body of persons, to a member or members of the independent political society wherein that person or body is sovereign or superior.” Though possibly sprung directly from another source, it is a positive law, by the institution of that present sovereign in the character of a political superior. The question is not as to the historical origin of the principle, but as to its present authority. “The legislator is he, not by whose authority the law was first made, but by whose authority it continues to be law.” This definition involves the analysis of the connected expressions sovereignty, subjection, and independent })olitical society, and of determinate body,— which last analysis Austin performs in connexion with that of commands. These are all excellent examples of the logical method of which he was so great a master. The broad results alone need be noticed here. In order that a given society may form a society political and independent, the generality or bulk of its members must be in a habit of obedience to a certain and common superior; whilst that certain person or body of persons must not be habitually obedient to a certain person or body. All the italicized words point to circumstances under which it might be difficult to say whether a given society is political and independent or not. Several cf these Austin has discussed,— e.g., the state of things in which a political society yields obedience which may or may not be called habitual to some external power, and the state of things in which a political society is divided between contending claimants for sovereign power, and it is uncertain which shall prevail, and over how much of the society. So long as that uncertainty remains we have a state of anarchy. Further, an independent society to be political must not fall below a number which can only be called considerable. Neither then in a state of anarchy, nor in inconsiderable communities, nor among men living in a state of nature, have we the proper phenomena of a political society. The last limitation goes some way to meet the most serious criticism to which Austin’s system has been exposed, and it ought to be...

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9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 354
[17,871 words — estimated reading time: 1.8 hours]

Law Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

a rule of action; a precept or command, coming from a superior authority, which an inferior is bound to obey. The manner in which God governs rational creatures is by a law, as the rule of their obedience to him, and this is what we call God’s moral government of the world. The term, however, is used in Scripture with considerable latitude of meaning; and to ascertain its precise import in any particular place, it is necessary to regard the scope and connection of the passage in which it occurs. Thus, for instance, sometimes it denotes the whole revealed will of God as communicated to us in his word. In this sense it is generally used in the book of Psalms, i, 2; xix, 7; cxix; Isaiah viii, 20; xlii, 21. Sometimes it is taken for the Mosaical institution distinguished from the Gospel, John i, 17; Matt. xi, 13; xii, 5; Acts xxv, 8. Hence we frequently read of the law of Moses as expressive of the whole religion of the Jews, Heb. ix, 19; x, 28. Sometimes, in a more restricted sense, for the ritual or ceremonial observances of the Jewish religion. In this sense the Apostle speaks of the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” Eph. ii, 15; Heb. x, 1; and which, being only a shadow of good things to come,” Christ Jesus abolished by his death, and so in effect destroyed the ancient distinction between Jew and Gentile, Gal. iii, 17. Very frequently it is used to signify the decalogue, or ten precepts which were delivered to the Israelites from Mount Sinai. It is in this acceptation of the term that the Lord Jesus declares he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it,” Matt. v, 17; and he explains its import as requiring perfect love to God and man, Luke x, 27. It is in reference to this view that St. Paul affirms, By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living ...

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Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
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Law of nations Encyclopedia Britannica

LAW OF NATIONS. See International Law.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 370
[6 words — estimated reading time: 1 minute]

Law-abiding [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Abiding the law; waiting for the operation of law for the enforcement of rights; also, abiding by the law; obedient to the law; as, law-abiding people.

Law-day [\N] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. LAW-DAY , n

2. A day of open court.

3. A leet or sheriff's tourn.

Law-fall [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Depression of the jaw; hence, depression of spirits.

Lawbreaker [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

One who disobeys the law; a criminal.

Lawe [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

To cut off the claws and balls of, as of a dog's fore feet.

Lawer [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A lawyer.

Lawes Encyclopedia Britannica

LAWES, Henry (1595-1662), a prominent member of the school of early English musicians, which culminated in Purcell, and was nipped in the bud by his early death, was born at Dinton in Wiltshire in December 1595, and received his musical education from John Cooper, better known under his Italian pseudonym Giovanni Coperario, a famous composer of the day. In 1626 he was received as one of the gentlemen of the chapel royal, which place he held till the Commonwealth put a stop to church music. But even during that songless time Lawes continued his work as a composer, and the famous collection of his vocal pieces, Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voyces, was published in 1653, being followed by two other books under the same title in 1655 and 1658 respectively. When in 1660 the king returned, Lawes once more entered the royal chapel, and composed an anthem for the coronation of Charles II. His death took place October 11, 1662. Lawes’s name has become known beyond musical circles by his friendship with Milton, whose Cornus he supplied with incidental music for the performance of the masque in 1634. The poet in return immortalized his friend in the famous sonnet beginning :—

Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song First taught our English music how to span Words with just note and accent, not to scan With Midas’ cars, committing short and long....

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 370
[340 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]

Lawful [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Agreeable to law; conformable to law; allowed by law; legal; legitimate. That is deemed lawful which no law forbids, but many things are lawful which are not expedient.

2. Constituted by law; rightful; as the lawful owner of lands.

Lawful [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Conformable to law; allowed by law; legitimate; competent.

2. Constituted or authorized by law; rightful; as, the lawful owner of lands.

Lawfully [Adverb] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Legally; in accordance with law; without violating law. We may lawfully do what the laws do not forbid.

Lawfulness [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

The quality of being conformable to law; legality. The lawfulness of an action does not always prove its propriety or expedience.

Lawgiver [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

One who makes or enacts a law; a legislator.

Lawgiver [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

One who makes or enacts a law or system of laws; a legislator.

Lawgiving [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Making or enacting laws; legislative.

Lawgiving [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Enacting laws; legislative.

Lawing [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Expeditation; the act of cutting off the claws and balls of the fore feet of mastiffs to prevent them from running after deer.

Lawing [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Going to law; litigation.

2. Expeditation.

Lawless [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Not subject to law; unrestrained by law; as a lawless tyrant; lawless men.

2. Contrary to law; illegal; unauthorized; as a lawless claim.

3. He needs no indirect nor lawless course.

4. Not subject to the ordinary laws of nature; uncontrolled.

5. He, meteor-like, flames lawless through the void.

Lawless [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Contrary to, or unauthorized by, law; illegal; as, a lawless claim.

2. Not subject to, or restrained by, the law of morality or of society; as, lawless men or behavior.

3. Not subject to the laws of nature; uncontrolled.

Lawlessly [Adverb] Webster's Dictionary 1828

In a manner contrary to law.

Lawlessness [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. The quality or state of being unrestrained by law; disorder.

2. One who enacts or ordains laws; a legislator; a lawgiver.

3. Law-makers should not be law-breakers.

4. A low dealer in law; a pettifogger.

Lawm [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A very fine linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric with a rather open texture. Lawn is used for the sleeves of a bishop's official dress in the English Church, and, figuratively, stands for the office itself.

Lawmaker [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A legislator; a lawgiver.

Conformity Roget’s Thesaurus §82

N. {opp. 83} conformity, conformance, observance, habituation, naturalization, conventionality, agreement, example, instance, specimen, sample, quotation, exemplification, illustration, case in point, object lesson, elucidation, standard, model, pattern, 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

V. conform to, conform to rule, accommodate oneself to, adapt oneself to, rub off corners, be regular, move in a groove, follow observe the rules, go by the rules, bend to the rules, obey the rules, obey the precedents, comply with, tally with, chime in with, fall in with, be guided by, be regulated by, fall into a custom, fall into a usage, follow the fashion, follow the crowd, follow the multitude, pass muster, do as others do, hurler avec les loups, stand on ceremony, when in rome do as the romans do, go with the stream, go with the flow, swim with the stream, swim with the current, swim with the tide, blow with the wind, stick to the beaten track, keep one in countenance, exemplify, illustrate, cite, quote, quote precedent, quote authority, appeal to authority, put a case, produce an instance, elucidate, explain

Adj. conformable to rule, regular, according to regulation, according to rule, according to hoyle, according to cocker, according to gunter, en regle, selon les regles, well regulated, orderly, symmetric, conventional, of daily occurrence, of everyday occurrence, in the natural order of things, ordinary, common, habitual, usual, everyday, workaday, in the order of the day, naturalized, typical, normal, nominal, formal, canonical, orthodox, sound, strict, rigid, positive, uncompromising, procrustean, secundum artem, shipshape, technical, exemple, illustrative, in point

Adv. conformably, by rule, agreeably to, in conformity with, in accordance with, in keeping with, according to, consistently with, as usual, ad instar, instar omnium, more solito, more-majorum, for the sake of conformity, as a matter of course, of course, pro forma, for form's sake, by the card, invariably, &c. (uniformly) 16, for example, exempli gratia, e, g, inter alia, among other things, for instance

Phr. cela va sans dire, ex pede herculem, noscitur a sociis, ne e quovis ligno mercurius fiat, "they are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations", "the nail that sticks up will get hammered down", "stick your neck out and it may get cut off."

Precept Roget’s Thesaurus §697

N. precept, direction, instruction, charge, # prescript, prescription, recipe, receipt, golden rule, maxim, rule, canon, law, code, corpus juris, lex scripta, act, statute, rubric, stage direction, regulation, form, formula, formulary, technicality, canon law, norm, order

Permission Roget’s Thesaurus §760

N. permission, leave, allowance, sufferance, tolerance, toleration, liberty, law, license, concession, grace, indulgence, favor, dispensation, exemption, release, connivance, vouchsafement, authorization, warranty, accordance, admission, permit, warrant, brevet, precept, sanction, authority, firman, hukm, pass, passport, furlough, license, carte blanche, ticket of leave, grant, charter, patent, letters patent

V. permit, give permission, give power, let, allow, admit, suffer, bear with, tolerate, recognize, concede, accord, vouchsafe, favor, humor, gratify, indulge, stretch a point, wink at, connive at, shut one's eyes to, grant, empower, charter, enfranchise, privilege, confer a privilege, license, authorize, warrant, sanction, intrust, give carte blanche, give the reins to, give scope to, leave alone, leave it to one, leave the door open, open the door to, open the flood gates, give a loose to, let off, absolve, release, exonerate, dispense with, ask permission, beg permission, request permission, ask leave, beg leave, request leave

Adj. permitting, permissive, indulgent, permitted, patent, chartered, permissible, allowable, lawful, legitimate, legal, legalized, licit, unforbid, unforbidden, unconditional

Adv. by leave, with leave, on leave, speciali gratia, under favor of, pace, ad libitum, (at will) 600, by all means, yes

Phr. avec permissin, brevet d'invention

Right Roget’s Thesaurus §922

N. right, what ought to be, what should be, fitness, summum jus, justice, equity, equitableness, propriety, fair play, impartiality, measure for measure, give and take, lex talionis, astraea, nemesis, themis, scales of justice, evenhanded justice, karma, suum cuique, clear stage, fair field and no favor, level playing field, morals, law, honor, virtue

V. be right, stand to reason, see justice done, see one righted, see fair play, do justice to, recompense, bold the scales even, give and take, serve one right, put the saddle on the right horse, give every one his due, give the devil his due, audire alteram partem, deserve

Adj. right, good, just, reasonable, fit, equal, equable, equatable, evenhanded, fair, legitimate, justifiable, rightful, as it should be, as it ought to be, lawful, (legal) 963, deserved

Adv. rightly, bon droit, au bon droit, in justice, in equity, in reason, without distinction of persons, without regard to persons, without respect to persons, upon even terms

Phr. dieu et mon droit, "in equal scale weighing delight and dole", justitia cuum cuique distribuit, justitiae soror incorrupta fides, justitia virtutem regina, "thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just"

Int. all right, fair's fair

Legality Roget’s Thesaurus §963

N. legality, legitimacy, legitimateness, # legislature, law, code, corpus juris, constitution, pandect, charter, enactment, statute, rule, canon, ordinance, institution, regulation, bylaw, byelaw, decree, ordonnance, standing order, plebiscite, legal process, form, formula, formality, rite, arm of the law, habeas corpus, fieri facias, jurisprudence, nomology, legislation, codification, equity, common law, lex, lex nonscripta, law of nations, droit des gens, international law, jus gentium, jus civile, civil law, canon law, crown law, criminal law, statute law, ecclesiastical law, administrative law, lex mercatoria, constitutionalism, constitutionality, justice, court, tribunal, judge, lawyer, attorney, legal counsel

V. legalize, enact, ordain, decree, pass a law, enact a regulation, legislate, codify, formulate, regulate

Adj. legal, legitimate, according to law, vested, constitutional, chartered, legalized, lawful, statutable, statutory, legislatorial, legislative, regulatory, regulated

Adv. legally, in the eye of the law, de jure

Phr. ignorantia legis neminem excusat, "where law ends tyranny begins"

King James Bible KJV Bible

Berean Standard Bible BSB Bible

716 KJV and 492 BSB verses contain “law” — showing the first 20. Show all 749 verses (searchable)

Genesis 11:31

And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.

Genesis 19:12

And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:

Then the two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—a son-in-law, your sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here,

Genesis 19:14

And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.

So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

Genesis 26:5

Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

Genesis 38:8

And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.

Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”

Genesis 38:11

Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father’s house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

Genesis 38:13

And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.

When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”

Genesis 38:16

And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?

Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.

Genesis 38:24

And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

Genesis 38:25

When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.

As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?”

Genesis 47:26

And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s.

So Joseph established a law that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh, and it is in effect in the land of Egypt to this day. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.

Genesis 49:10

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.

Exodus 3:1

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus 4:18

And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” “Go in peace,” Jethro replied.

Exodus 12:49

One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.

The same law shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”

Exodus 13:9

And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD’S law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt.

It shall be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For with a mighty hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.

Exodus 16:4

Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions.

Exodus 16:28

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

Then the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and instructions?

Exodus 18:1

When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt;

Now Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about all that God had done for Moses and His people Israel, and how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

Exodus 18:2

Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,

After Moses had sent back his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro had received her,