According to IUPACCompendium of Chemical Terminology the rate law or rate equation for a chemical reaction is an equation which links the reaction rate with concentrations or pressures of reactants and constant parameters (normally rate coefficients and partial reaction orders). To determine the rate equation for a particular system one combines the reaction rate with a mass balance for the system . For a generic reaction A + B → C the simple rate equation (as opposed to the much more common complicated rate equations) is of the form:
See more at Wikipedia.org...
A rate law or rate equation relates reaction rate with the concentrations of reactants, catalysts, and inhibitors. For example, the rate law for the one-step reaction A + B C is d[C]/dt = k[A][B].