Also known as: laws · statute · legislation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
3 senses
A regime that orders human activities and relations through systematic application of the force of politically organized society or through social pressure backed by force in such a society. This body of rules, standards, and principles supplies the authoritative grounds for judicial and administrative action in a given jurisdiction.
A regime that orders human activities and relations through systematic application of the force of politically organized society or through social pressure backed by force in such a society. This body of rules, standards, and principles supplies the authoritative grounds for judicial and administrative action in a given jurisdiction.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A statute enacted by a legislative body. This form of law supplies a specific rule that courts must apply when the statute governs the controversy at hand.
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The legal profession as a whole. Members of this profession advise clients, represent parties in proceedings, and interpret the rules that govern conduct.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A statute enacted by a legislative body. This form of law supplies a specific rule that courts must apply when the statute governs the controversy at hand.
The legal profession as a whole. Members of this profession advise clients, represent parties in proceedings, and interpret the rules that govern conduct.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Linden Logistics signed a contract to buy a warehouse from Lakeshore Industries. Before closing, a fire destroyed the building. Under the governing law the risk of loss had already passed to the buyer at contract formation, so Linden Logistics remained obligated to pay the full purchase price even though the improvements no longer existed.
Luke Latham sued Lola Langley for $50,000 in damages arising from a contract dispute. Because the amount in controversy exceeded twenty dollars and the claim was one at common law, the governing law preserved Latham's right to a jury trial and protected the jury's factual findings from re-examination except according to common-law rules.
Lily Lopez, a lawyer, formed an entity offering financial planning services. Because the governing law required reasonable measures to ensure clients understood that the services were not legal services and that no client-lawyer relationship existed, the absence of such disclosures exposed Lopez to professional-discipline risk.
Lumen Capital took a mortgage on real property located in State X. When a dispute arose over the nature of the interest created, the governing law directed the forum court to apply the law that the courts of the situs would apply, so the characterization of the mortgage followed State X rules.
The entry isolates three core senses drawn from standard legal usage. The first treats law as a regime ordering conduct through force or social pressure. The second isolates a statute as a discrete enactment. The third denotes the legal profession. These senses are genuinely distinct and are not collapsed into one another.
Supporting sources
Leonard Lowe filed a motion without any signature. The court applied the governing law requiring every written motion to bear the signature of at least one attorney of record or the unrepresented party and struck the paper because the omission was not promptly corrected after notice.
The second sense in the entry, which defines law as a statute enacted by a legislative body.
Supporting sources
Judge Laura Lewis continued her part-time nursing practice while presiding over a malpractice case. The governing law required that judicial duties take precedence over all extrajudicial activities, so the repeated continuances caused by her clinical schedule violated that obligation.
Yes. One recognized sense of the term denotes the legal profession as a collective body whose members interpret and apply the rules that govern conduct.
Supporting sources
…the appointment is made when the last act required from the President is performed; the signature is that last act. The statute converting the Department of Foreign Affairs into the Department of State enacts that the Secretary shall affix the seal to civil commissions after they shall have been signed by the…