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civil law

(Encyclopedia)civil law, as used in this article, a modern legal system based upon Roman law, as distinguished from common law. Civil law is based on written legal codes, a hallmark of the Roman legal system, in wh...

international law

(Encyclopedia)international law, body of rules considered legally binding in the relations between national states, also known as the law of nations. It is sometimes called public international law in contrast to p...

Hubble's law

(Encyclopedia)Hubble's law, in astronomy, statement that the distances between galaxies (see galaxy) or clusters of galaxies are continuously increasing and that therefore the universe is expanding. Hubble's law ...

Henry's law

(Encyclopedia)Henry's law, chemical law stating that the amount of a gas that dissolves in a liquid is proportional to the partial pressure of the gas over the liquid, provided no chemical reaction takes place betw...

Gresham's law

(Encyclopedia)Gresham's law: see under Gresham, Sir Thomas. ...

Grimm's law

(Encyclopedia)Grimm's law, principle of relationships in Indo-European languages, first formulated by Jakob Grimm in 1822 and a continuing subject of interest and investigation to 20th-century linguists. It shows t...

Joule's law

(Encyclopedia)Joule's law: see thermoelectricity. ...

Megan's law

(Encyclopedia)Megan's law, in the United States, a state or federal statute that requires the notification of public organizations and private citizens when a convicted sex offender has been released from prison an...

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