Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Law \Law\ (l[add]), n. [OE. lawe, laghe, AS. lagu, from the root
   of E. lie: akin to OS. lag, Icel. l["o]g, Sw. lag, Dan. lov;
   cf. L. lex, E. legal. A law is that which is laid, set, or
   fixed; like statute, fr. L. statuere to make to stand. See
   {Lie} to be prostrate.]
   1. 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.

   Note: A law may be universal or particular, written or
         unwritten, published or secret. From the nature of the
         highest laws a degree of permanency or stability is
         always implied; but the power which makes a law, or a
         superior power, may annul or change it.

               These are the statutes and judgments and law,
               which the Lord made.               --Lev. xxvi.
                                                  46.

               The law of thy God, and the law of the King.
                                                  --Ezra vii.
                                                  26.

               As if they would confine the Interminable . . .
               Who made our laws to bind us, not himself.
                                                  --Milton.

               His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
                                                  --Cowper.

   2. 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.

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

            What things soever the law saith, it saith to them
            who are under the law . . . But now the
            righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
            being witnessed by the law and the prophets. --Rom.
                                                  iii. 19, 21.

   4. In human government:
      (a) An organic rule, as a constitution or charter,
          establishing and defining the conditions of the
          existence of a state or other organized community.
      (b) Any edict, decree, order, ordinance, statute,
          resolution, judicial, decision, usage, etc., or
          recognized, and enforced, by the controlling
          authority.

   5. 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.

   6. 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.

   7. 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.

   8. 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.

   9. Legal science; jurisprudence; the principles of equity;
      applied justice.

            Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law
            itself is nothing else but reason.    --Coke.

            Law is beneficence acting by rule.    --Burke.

            And sovereign Law, that state's collected will O'er
            thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning
            good, repressing ill.                 --Sir W.
                                                  Jones.

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

             When every case in law is right.     --Shak.

             He found law dear and left it cheap. --Brougham.

   11. An oath, as in the presence of a court. [Obs.] See {Wager
       of law}, under {Wager}.

   {Avogadro's law} (Chem.), a fundamental conception, according
      to which, under similar conditions of temperature and
      pressure, all gases and vapors contain in the same volume
      the same number of ultimate molecules; -- so named after
      Avogadro, an Italian scientist. Sometimes called
      {Amp[`e]re's law}.

   {Bode's law} (Astron.), an approximative empirical expression
      of the distances of the planets from the sun, as follows:
      -- Mer. Ven. Earth. Mars. Aste. Jup. Sat. Uran. Nep. 4 4 4
      4 4 4 4 4 4 0 3 6 12 24 48 96 192 384 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
      --- --- 4 7 10 16 28 52 100 196 388 5.9 7.3 10 15.2 27.4
      52 95.4 192 300 where each distance (line third) is the
      sum of 4 and a multiple of 3 by the series 0, 1, 2, 4, 8,
      etc., the true distances being given in the lower line.

   {Boyle's law} (Physics), an expression of the fact, that when
      an elastic fluid is subjected to compression, and kept at
      a constant temperature, the product of the pressure and
      volume is a constant quantity, i. e., the volume is
      inversely proportioned to the pressure; -- known also as
      {Mariotte's law}, and the {law of Boyle and Mariotte}.

   {Brehon laws}. See under {Brehon}.

   {Canon law}, the body of ecclesiastical law adopted in the
      Christian Church, certain portions of which (for example,
      the law of marriage as existing before the Council of
      Tent) were brought to America by the English colonists as
      part of the common law of the land. --Wharton.

   {Civil law}, a term used by writers to designate Roman law,
      with modifications thereof which have been made in the
      different countries into which that law has been
      introduced. The civil law, instead of the common law,
      prevails in the State of Louisiana. --Wharton.

   {Commercial law}. See {Law merchant} (below).

   {Common law}. See under {Common}.

   {Criminal law}, that branch of jurisprudence which relates to
      crimes.

   {Ecclesiastical law}. See under {Ecclesiastical}.

   {Grimm's law} (Philol.), a statement (propounded by the
      German philologist Jacob Grimm) of certain regular changes
      which the primitive Indo-European mute consonants,
      so-called (most plainly seen in Sanskrit and, with some
      changes, in Greek and Latin), have undergone in the
      Teutonic languages. Examples: Skr. bh[=a]tr, L. frater, E.
      brother, G. bruder; L. tres, E. three, G. drei, Skr. go,
      E. cow, G. kuh; Skr. dh[=a] to put, Gr. ti-qe`-nai, E. do,
      OHG, tuon, G. thun.

   {Kepler's laws} (Astron.), three important laws or
      expressions of the order of the planetary motions,
      discovered by John Kepler. They are these: (1) The orbit
      of a planet with respect to the sun is an ellipse, the sun
      being in one of the foci. (2) The areas swept over by a
      vector drawn from the sun to a planet are proportioned to
      the times of describing them. (3) The squares of the times
      of revolution of two planets are in the ratio of the cubes
      of their mean distances.

   {Law binding}, a plain style of leather binding, used for law
      books; -- called also {law calf}.

   {Law book}, a book containing, or treating of, laws.

   {Law calf}. See {Law binding} (above).

   {Law day}.
       (a) Formerly, a day of holding court, esp. a court-leet.
       (b) The day named in a mortgage for the payment of the
           money to secure which it was given. [U. S.]

   {Law French}, the dialect of Norman, which was used in
      judicial proceedings and law books in England from the
      days of William the Conqueror to the thirty-sixth year of
      Edward III.

   {Law language}, the language used in legal writings and
      forms.

   {Law Latin}. See under {Latin}.

   {Law lords}, peers in the British Parliament who have held
      high judicial office, or have been noted in the legal
      profession.

   {Law merchant}, or {Commercial law}, a system of rules by
      which trade and commerce are regulated; -- deduced from
      the custom of merchants, and regulated by judicial
      decisions, as also by enactments of legislatures.

Common \Com"mon\, a. [Compar. {Commoner}; superl. {Commonest}.]
   [OE. commun, comon, OF. comun, F. commun, fr. L. communis;
   com- + munis ready to be of service; cf. Skr. mi to make
   fast, set up, build, Goth. gamains common, G. gemein, and E.
   mean low, common. Cf. {Immunity}, {Commune}, n. & v.]
   1. Belonging or relating equally, or similarly, to more than
      one; as, you and I have a common interest in the property.

            Though life and sense be common to men and brutes.
                                                  --Sir M. Hale.

   2. Belonging to or shared by, affecting or serving, all the
      members of a class, considered together; general; public;
      as, properties common to all plants; the common schools;
      the Book of Common Prayer.

            Such actions as the common good requireth. --Hooker.

            The common enemy of man.              --Shak.

   3. Often met with; usual; frequent; customary.

            Grief more than common grief.         --Shak.

   4. Not distinguished or exceptional; inconspicuous; ordinary;
      plebeian; -- often in a depreciatory sense.

            The honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life.
                                                  --W. Irving.

            This fact was infamous And ill beseeming any common
            man, Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.
                                                  --Shak.

            Above the vulgar flight of common souls. --A.
                                                  Murphy.

   5. Profane; polluted. [Obs.]

            What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
                                                  --Acts x. 15.

   6. Given to habits of lewdness; prostitute.

            A dame who herself was common.        --L'Estrange.

   {Common bar} (Law) Same as {Blank bar}, under {Blank}.

   {Common barrator} (Law), one who makes a business of
      instigating litigation.

   {Common Bench}, a name sometimes given to the English Court
      of Common Pleas.

   {Common brawler} (Law), one addicted to public brawling and
      quarreling. See {Brawler}.

   {Common carrier} (Law), one who undertakes the office of
      carrying (goods or persons) for hire. Such a carrier is
      bound to carry in all cases when he has accommodation, and
      when his fixed price is tendered, and he is liable for all
      losses and injuries to the goods, except those which
      happen in consequence of the act of God, or of the enemies
      of the country, or of the owner of the property himself.
      

   {Common chord} (Mus.), a chord consisting of the fundamental
      tone, with its third and fifth.

   {Common council}, the representative (legislative) body, or
      the lower branch of the representative body, of a city or
      other municipal corporation.

   {Common crier}, the crier of a town or city.

   {Common divisor} (Math.), a number or quantity that divides
      two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder; a
      common measure.

   {Common gender} (Gram.), the gender comprising words that may
      be of either the masculine or the feminine gender.

   {Common law}, a system of jurisprudence developing under the
      guidance of the courts so as to apply a consistent and
      reasonable rule to each litigated case. It may be
      superseded by statute, but unless superseded it controls.
      --Wharton.

   Note: It is by others defined as the unwritten law
         (especially of England), the law that receives its
         binding force from immemorial usage and universal
         reception, as ascertained and expressed in the
         judgments of the courts. This term is often used in
         contradistinction from {statute law}. Many use it to
         designate a law common to the whole country. It is also
         used to designate the whole body of English (or other)
         law, as distinguished from its subdivisions, local,
         civil, admiralty, equity, etc. See {Law}.

   {Common lawyer}, one versed in common law.

   {Common lewdness} (Law), the habitual performance of lewd
      acts in public.

   {Common multiple} (Arith.) See under {Multiple}.

   {Common noun} (Gram.), the name of any one of a class of
      objects, as distinguished from a proper noun (the name of
      a particular person or thing).

   {Common nuisance} (Law), that which is deleterious to the
      health or comfort or sense of decency of the community at
      large.

   {Common pleas}, one of the three superior courts of common
      law at Westminster, presided over by a chief justice and
      four puisne judges. Its jurisdiction is confined to civil
      matters. Courts bearing this title exist in several of the
      United States, having, however, in some cases, both civil
      and criminal jurisdiction extending over the whole State.
      In other States the jurisdiction of the common pleas is
      limited to a county, and it is sometimes called a {county
      court}. Its powers are generally defined by statute.

   {Common prayer}, the liturgy of the Church of England, or of
      the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States,
      which all its clergy are enjoined to use. It is contained
      in the Book of Common Prayer.

   {Common school}, a school maintained at the public expense,
      and open to all.

   {Common scold} (Law), a woman addicted to scolding
      indiscriminately, in public.

   {Common seal}, a seal adopted and used by a corporation.

   {Common sense}.
      (a) A supposed sense which was held to be the common bond
          of all the others. [Obs.] --Trench.
      (b) Sound judgment. See under {Sense}.

   {Common time} (Mus.), that variety of time in which the
      measure consists of two or of four equal portions.

   {In common}, equally with another, or with others; owned,
      shared, or used, in community with others; affecting or
      affected equally.

   {Out of the common}, uncommon; extraordinary.

   {Tenant in common}, one holding real or personal property in
      common with others, having distinct but undivided
      interests. See {Joint tenant}, under {Joint}.

   {To make common cause with}, to join or ally one's self with.

   Syn: General; public; popular; national; universal; frequent;
        ordinary; customary; usual; familiar; habitual; vulgar;
        mean; trite; stale; threadbare; commonplace. See
        {Mutual}, {Ordinary}, {General}.

Source : WordNet®

common law
     n 1: (civil law) a law established by following earlier judicial
          decisions [syn: {case law}, {precedent}]
     2: a system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents
        rather than statutory laws; "common law originated in the
        unwritten laws of England and was later applied in the
        United States" [syn: {case law}, {precedent}]