law

n. rule enacted by a community or country; body of rules by which order and justice is maintained; study of laws, jurisprudence; legal profession; custom, principle, convention

v. litigate; sue, prosecute

portable light anti-tank weapon made in United States

LAW may refer to:Lightweight Anti-tank Weapon, like the M72 LAW (US Army) and the LAW 80 (British Army)Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights (also known as LAW)League of American Bicyclists, formerly known as the League of American WheelmenLive Action Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion in North CarolinaLive Audio Wrestling, a professional wrestling call-in showLawyers Are WhimpsLandywood railway station, England; National Rail station code LAW.
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Law is a system of social rules usually enforced through a set of structured institutions. Law affects everyday life and society in a variety of ways. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading swaptions on a derivatives market. Property law defines rights and obligations related to buying, selling, or renting real property such as homes and buildings. Trust law applies to assets held for investment, such as pension funds. Tort law allows claims for compensation when someone or their property is harmed. If the harm is criminalised in a penal code, criminal law offers means by which the state prosecutes and punishes the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for creating laws, protecting people's human rights, and electing political representatives. administrative law relates to the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. International law regulates affairs between sovereign nation-states in everything from trade to the environment to military action. "The rule of law", wrote the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in 350 BCE, "is better than the rule of any individual."
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(v. t.)
Same as Lawe, v. t.
  

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

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

(n.)
Legal science; jurisprudence; the principles of equity; applied justice.
  

(n.)
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.
  

(n.)
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.
  

(n.)
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.
  

(n.)
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.
  

(n.)
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.
  

(n.)
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.
  

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

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

(n.)
An oath, as in the presence of a court.
  

(interj.)
An exclamation of mild surprise.
  

software law

<legal> Software may, under various circumstances and in various countries, be restricted by patent or copyright or both. Most commercial software is sold under some kind of software license.
A patent normally covers the design of something with a function such as a machine or process. Copyright restricts the right to make and distribute copies of something written or recorded, such as a song or a book of recipies. Software has both these aspects - it embodies functional design in the algorithms and data structures it uses and it could also be considered as a recording which can be copied and "performed" (run).
"Look and feel" lawsuits attempt to monopolize well-known command languages; some have succeeded. Copyrights on command languages enforce gratuitous incompatibility, close opportunities for competition, and stifle incremental improvements.
Software patents are even more dangerous; they make every design decision in the development of a program carry a risk of a lawsuit, with draconian pretrial seizure. It is difficult and expensive to find out whether the techniques you consider using are patented; it is impossible to find out whether they will be patented in the future.
The proper use of copyright is to prevent software piracy - unauthorised duplication of software. This is completely different from copying the idea behind the program in the same way that photocopying a book differs from writing another book on the same subject.
Usenet newsgroup: news:misc.legal.computing.
["The Software Developer's and Marketer's Legal Companion", Gene K. Landy, 1993, AW, 0-201-62276-9].
(1994-11-16)

Term for legislation that passed through Congress and was signed by the President or passed over his veto.