Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

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...

Faraday's law

(Encyclopedia)Faraday's law, physical law stating that the number of moles of substance produced at an electrode during electrolysis is directly proportional to the number of moles of electrons transferred at that ...

Roman law

(Encyclopedia)Roman law, the legal system of Rome from the supposed founding of the city in 753 b.c. to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in a.d. 1453; it was later adopted as the basis of modern civil law. Most aut...

poor law

(Encyclopedia)poor law, in English history, legislation relating to public assistance for the poor. Early measures to relieve pauperism were usually designed to suppress vagrancy and begging. In 1601, England passe...

parliamentary law

(Encyclopedia)parliamentary law, rules under which deliberative bodies conduct their proceedings. In English-speaking countries these are based on the practice of the British Parliament, chiefly in the House of Com...

Pascal's law

(Encyclopedia)Pascal's law päskälzˈ [key] [for Blaise Pascal], states that pressure applied to a confined fluid at any point is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid in all directions and acts upon every...

Salian Law

(Encyclopedia)Salian Law: see Germanic laws.

Beer's law

(Encyclopedia)Beer's law [for August Beer], physical law stating that the quantity of light absorbed by a substance dissolved in a nonabsorbing solvent is directly proportional to the concentration of the substance...

Browse by Subject