Poland: Poland in the 21st century: …fell to the centre-right party Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość; PiS), with its founders, identical twins Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński, attaining the posts of president (2005) and prime minister (2006), respectively. In 2007 the PiS abandoned its coalition partners—the scandal-plagued Self-Defense Party and the League of Polish Families—and called…

C. Northcote Parkinson: …to meet income,” detailed in The Law and the Profits (1960).

conflict of laws: The nature of conflicts law: …(1980), commonly known as the Rome Convention, which applied in the member states of the European Union (EU) and whose interpretation lay within the scope of the European Court of Justice upon reference from national courts. The EU possesses lawmaking powers that enable it to establish uniform rules of substantive…

Rudolf von Jhering: …the 20th century was his Law As a Means to an End, 2 vol. (1877–83; originally in German), which maintained that the purpose of law was the protection of individual and societal interests by coordinating them and thus minimizing occasions for conflict. Where conflict was unavoidable, he assigned greater weight…

law code, a more or less systematic and comprehensive written statement of laws. Law codes were compiled by the most ancient peoples. The oldest extant evidence for a code is tablets from the ancient archives of the city of Ebla (now at Tell Mardikh, Syria), which date to about 2400 bc. The best

crime: Common law: In addition, the Law Commission, also a permanent body, was established in 1965 with the goal of continually reviewing the entire law, not just the criminal law. In 1981 the commission undertook a new attempt at codification of the criminal law, and a draft code was published in…

court, a person or body of persons having judicial authority to hear and resolve disputes in civil, criminal, ecclesiastical, or military cases. The word court, which originally meant simply an enclosed place, also denotes the chamber, hall, building, or other place where judicial proceedings are

Royal Courts of Justice, in London, complex of courtrooms, halls, and offices concerned primarily with civil (noncriminal) litigation. It lies in the Greater London borough of Westminster, on the boundary with the City of London. Within its confines are held sessions of the Court of Appeal, the

Wilkes Land: A local ice cap, the Law Dome, is partially attached to the ice sheet and has been heavily studied by Australian glaciologists.

Nürnberg Laws: ” The other, the Gesetz zum Schutze des Deutschen Blutes und der Deutschen Ehre (“Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour”), usually called simply the Blutschutzgesetz (“Blood Protection Law”), forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and “citizens of German or kindred blood.” These measures were…

John Arbuthnot: …1727 under the composite title Law is a Bottom-less Pit; or, The History of John Bull, and it established and popularized for the first time the character who was to become the permanent symbol of England in cartoon and literature. An edition by A.W. Bower and R.A. Erickson was published…

law merchant, during the Middle Ages, the body of customary rules and principles relating to merchants and mercantile transactions and adopted by traders themselves for the purpose of regulating their dealings. Initially, it was administered for the most part in special quasi-judicial courts, such

Brooks Adams: In 1895 he published his Law of Civilization and Decay, in which he expounded his theory of history. It held that the centre of trade had consistently followed a westward movement from the ancient crossroads in the East to Constantinople, Venice, Amsterdam, and finally to London, in accord with a…

conservation law, in physics, a principle that states that a certain physical property (i.e., a measurable quantity) does not change in the course of time within an isolated physical system. In classical physics, laws of this type govern energy, momentum, angular momentum, mass, and electric

law of cosines, Generalization of the Pythagorean theorem relating the lengths of the sides of any triangle. If a, b, and c are the lengths of the sides and C is the angle opposite side c, then c2 = a2 + b2 − 2ab cos

Pedro Almodóvar: Films: …La ley del deseo (1987; Law of Desire), deal with the intersection between violence and sexual desire. A dizzying farce called Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) won international acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film.

The law of diminishing returns says that, if you keep increasing one factor in the production of goods (such as your workforce) while keeping all other factors the same, you’ll reach a point beyond which additional increases will result in a progressive decline in output. In other words, there’s a

Sarah Polley: …star in John Greyson’s cryptic The Law of Enclosures (2000).

Gerrard Winstanley: The Law of Freedom in a Platform (1652), his sketch of a communist society, was dedicated to Oliver Cromwell. Winstanley believed that the English Civil War had been fought against the king, landlords, lawyers, and all who bought and sold, these being enemies of the…

law of inertia, postulate in physics that, if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force. The law of inertia was first formulated by Galileo Galilei for horizontal

law of large numbers, in statistics, the theorem that, as the number of identically distributed, randomly generated variables increases, their sample mean (average) approaches their theoretical mean. The law of large numbers was first proved by the Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli in 1713. He

insurgency: Briggs in The Law of Nations (1952) described the traditional point of view as follows:

John Locke: Oxford: The resulting Essays on the Law of Nature (first published in 1954) constitutes an early statement of his philosophical views, many of which he retained more or less unchanged for the rest of his life. Of these probably the two most important were, first, his commitment to…

Michael Thomas Sadler: …Macaulay, who had criticized Sadler’s Law of Population (1830), a massive treatise attacking the pessimistic theories of the economist-demographer Thomas Robert Malthus.

Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st earl of Birkenhead: His greatest accomplishments were the Law of Property Act (1922) and subsequent real-property statutes (1925) that replaced a convoluted, largely medieval system of land law. Although enacted after he left office (October 24, 1922), the County Courts Act (1924) and the Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act (1925), which reformed…

law of reciprocal proportions, in chemistry, the statement that if the same weight of one element combines separately with two other elements, then the weights of those two elements that combine with each other are related to the weights that combine with the first element by a multiple or a simple

heredity: Discovery and rediscovery of Mendel’s laws: …first law of Mendel, the law of segregation of unit genes. Equal numbers of gametes, ovules, or pollen grains are formed that contain the genes R and r. Now, if the gametes unite at random, then the F2 generation should contain about 14 white-flowered and 34 purple-flowered plants. The white-flowered

law of sines, Principle of trigonometry stating that the lengths of the sides of any triangle are proportional to the sines of the opposite angles. That is, when a, b, and c are the sides and A, B, and C are the opposite

Law of the Sea, branch of international law concerned with public order at sea. Much of this law is codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed Dec. 10, 1982. The convention, described as a “constitution for the oceans,” represents an attempt to codify international law

Serbia: Economy of Serbia: …socialism, was codified in the Law on Associated Labour of 1976. Each Yugoslav worker belonged to a Basic Organization of Associated Labour (BOAL) that was based on the precise role played by the worker in the production process. The BOALs elected representatives to workers’ councils, which in turn created management…

Mongolia: Daily life and social customs: ” In the Law on Culture, adopted in April 1996, the legislature decided to revert to the earlier practice of keeping family trees and using clan names, and regulations for this were issued in January 1997. Clan names are now recorded on identity cards and other official documents…

law report, in common law, published record of a judicial decision that is cited by lawyers and judges for their use as precedent in subsequent cases. The report of a decision ordinarily contains the title of the case, a statement of the facts giving rise to the litigation, and its history in the

solicitor: …organization of solicitors was the Law Society, a voluntary group, incorporated by Parliament. The society’s Regulation Board, which had extensive authority in setting and enforcing standards for solicitors, was replaced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in 2007. See also Inns of Court.

Austria: Ausgleich of 1867: …May 1867 the diet approved Law XII, legalizing what became known as the Ausgleich (“Compromise”). This was a compromise between the Hungarian nation and the dynasty, not between Hungary and the rest of the empire, and it is symptomatic of the Hungarian attitude that led Hungarians to refer to Franz…

Bonar Law was the prime minister of Great Britain from October 23, 1922, to May 20, 1923, the first holder of that office to come from a British overseas possession. He was the leader of the Conservative Party during the periods 1911–21 and 1922–23. The son of a Presbyterian minister of Ulster

ark, (“holy ark”), in Jewish synagogues, an ornate cabinet that enshrines the sacred Torah scrolls used for public worship. Because it symbolizes the Holy of Holies of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, it is the holiest place in the synagogue and the focal point of prayer. The ark is reached by

Bernard Cardinal Law was an American prelate who was head (1984–2002) of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Boston before he resigned in disgrace after it was revealed that he had protected sexually abusive priests for years. Law’s father was a U.S. Army colonel and his mother a concert pianist. He

Bernard Cardinal Law was an American prelate who was head (1984–2002) of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Boston before he resigned in disgrace after it was revealed that he had protected sexually abusive priests for years. Law’s father was a U.S. Army colonel and his mother a concert pianist. He

Bonar Law was the prime minister of Great Britain from October 23, 1922, to May 20, 1923, the first holder of that office to come from a British overseas possession. He was the leader of the Conservative Party during the periods 1911–21 and 1922–23. The son of a Presbyterian minister of Ulster

court, a person or body of persons having judicial authority to hear and resolve disputes in civil, criminal, ecclesiastical, or military cases. The word court, which originally meant simply an enclosed place, also denotes the chamber, hall, building, or other place where judicial proceedings are

Manchester United: George Best, and Denis Law. In 1968 this team became the first English club to win the European Cup (now known as the Champions League) with a 4–1 victory over Benfica of Portugal in the final.

Benedict de Spinoza: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus: …emerges in his discussion of divine law and scripture. According to Spinoza, divine law is necessary and eternal; it cannot be changed by any human or divine action. Hence, miracles, which by definition are violations of divinely created laws of nature, are impossible. Alleged miracles must have a rational, scientific…

Edward Law, earl of Ellenborough was a British governor-general of India (1842–44), who also served four times as president of the Board of Control for India and was first lord of the British Admiralty. He was recalled from India for being out of control and later resigned another office under

John Law was a Scottish monetary reformer and originator of the “Mississippi scheme” for the development of French territories in America. Law studied mathematics, commerce, and political economy in London. After killing an adversary in a duel, he fled to Amsterdam, where he studied banking

Angelina Jolie: Film roles: …starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a sci-fi thriller set in 1930s New York City.

F.A. Hayek: Life and major works: …what would become the three-part Law, Legislation and Liberty (1973–79), a critique of efforts to redistribute incomes in the name of “social justice.” Later in the 1970s Hayek’s monograph The Denationalization of Money was published by the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, one of the many classical liberal think…

H.L.A. Hart: Later work: …1963, with the publication of Law, Liberty, and Morality. He wrote in the liberal tradition of English philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill in arguing that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults should not be legally proscribed. Invoking and defending Mill’s “harm principle,” which maintains that no activity can legitimately be…

philosophy of law, branch of philosophy that investigates the nature of law, especially in its relation to human values, attitudes, practices, and political communities. Traditionally, philosophy of law proceeds by articulating and defending propositions about law that are general and

Hans Kelsen: …of positivism known as the “pure theory” of law.

rule of law, the mechanism, process, institution, practice, or norm that supports the equality of all citizens before the law, secures a nonarbitrary form of government, and more generally prevents the arbitrary use of power. Arbitrariness is typical of various forms of despotism, absolutism,

compurgation, in early English law, method of settling issues of fact by appeal to a type of character witness. Compurgation was practiced until the 16th century in criminal matters and into the 19th century in civil matters. The essence of the procedure lay in oath making. The party responsible

religious symbolism and iconography: Concepts of symbolization: , the dharmachakra, or wheel of the law, of Buddhism). Other nonreligious types of symbols achieved increasing significance in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially those dealing with human beings’ relationship to and conceptualization of the material world. Rational, scientific-technical symbols have assumed an ever increasing importance…

William Law was an English author of influential works on Christian ethics and mysticism. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1705 and in 1711 was elected a fellow there and was ordained. Upon the accession of George I in 1714, however, he was dismissed from Cambridge as a nonjuror (refusing

Wa, peoples of the upland areas of eastern Myanmar (Burma) and southwestern Yunnan province of China. They speak a variety of Austroasiatic languages related to those spoken by upland-dwelling groups in northern Thailand and Laos. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Wa numbered approximately

Maroni River: …gold mining, is called the Lawa, or Aoua. Shallow-draft vessels can penetrate 60 miles (100 km) upstream from the river’s mouth; beyond that point there are many waterfalls and rapids. The river’s chief tributary is the Tapanahoni, in Suriname, from the southwest.

Lawamon was an early Middle English poet, author of the romance-chronicle the Brut (c. 1200), one of the most notable English poems of the 12th century. It is the first work in English to treat of the “matter of Britain”—i.e., the legends surrounding Arthur and the knights of the Round Table—and

Hindu Kush: Physiography: …region, then continues to the Lawarai Pass (12,100 feet [3,688 metres]) and beyond to the Kābul River. If this chain is considered part of the Hindu Kush, then the outlying mountains of the Swat Kohistan region of Pakistan to the south also form part of the complex.

Barkley L. Hendricks: Early career: …his most famous early works, Lawdy Mama (1969), features a woman in an Afro hairstyle and reminds many who see it of Black activist Angela Davis. But true to Hendricks’s commitment to paint the people in his life, the inspiration and model for this work was actually his cousin.

Lloyd Price: …recording of his composition “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” (with Fats Domino on piano) topped the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1952 and was later a hit for Elvis Presley. “Personality” (1959) remains one of the most delightful of all New Orleans rhythm-and-blues hits, and his cover of the traditional ballad “Stagolee,” which…

Henry Lawes was an English composer noted for his continuo songs. Henry Lawes became a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1626 and a royal musician for lutes and voices in 1631. In 1634 he may have written the music for Thomas Carew’s masque Coelum Britannicum, and he did write music for John

Lewis Edward Lawes was a U.S. penologist whose introduction of novel penal administrative policies helped to emphasize a rehabilitative role for prisons. Assuming the office of warden of Sing Sing State Prison (now Ossining Correctional Facility), Ossining, N.Y., in 1920, Lawes instituted such

Sir John Bennet Lawes, 1st Baronet was an English agronomist who founded the artificial fertilizer industry and Rothamsted Experimental Station, the oldest agricultural research station in the world. Lawes inherited his father’s estate, Rothamsted, in 1822. In 1842, after long experimentation with

William Lawes was an English composer, prominent during the early Baroque period, noted for his highly original instrumental music. The brother of the composer Henry Lawes, he entered the household of the earl of Hertford about 1612 and in 1635 became a musician to Charles I. Lawes fought with the

Rose Kennedy: …for her marriage to actor Peter Lawford.

Herman Wouk: …Hole in Texas (2004) and The Lawgiver (2012). The memoir Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-old Author was published in 2015.

Ray Lawler is an actor, producer, and playwright whose Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is credited with changing the direction of modern Australian drama. Lawler left school at 13 and worked in a variety of jobs before joining the National Theatre Company in Melbourne as an actor, writer, and

Ray Lawler is an actor, producer, and playwright whose Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is credited with changing the direction of modern Australian drama. Lawler left school at 13 and worked in a variety of jobs before joining the National Theatre Company in Melbourne as an actor, writer, and

Jessica Chastain: Chastain’s credits in 2012 included Lawless, about Depression-era bootleggers in rural Virginia, and Kathryn Bigelow’s thriller Zero Dark Thirty, in which the actress played a CIA analyst who helps find Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 attacks; for her work in the latter, she garnered another Oscar nod.

Raoul Walsh: Last films: The Lawless Breed (1953) had Rock Hudson in an early starring role as legendary gunman John Wesley Hardin, but Sea Devils (1953), filmed in England, used Hudson less well as a Channel Islands smuggler in about 1800 who gets mixed up with a spy (Yvonne…

Lucy Lawless is a New Zealand-born actress who became famous for her portrayal of the title character in the popular television show Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001). As a youth, Lawless performed in school productions, and in college she studied opera singing. However, she later dropped her

yacht: Transatlantic racing and global circumnavigation: …won by the American sailor Si Lawlor. A series of single-handed races, sponsored by the London Observer, began in 1960 and was held quadrennially thereafter. It was in these races that Francis Chichester (later Sir Francis Chichester) attracted attention. Interest in sailing around the world was greatly stimulated by his…

lawn, fine-textured turf (q.v.) of grass that is kept

bowls, outdoor game in which a ball (known as a bowl) is rolled toward a smaller stationary ball, called a jack. The object is to roll one’s bowls so that they come to rest nearer to the jack than those of an opponent; this is sometimes achieved by knocking aside an opponent’s bowl or the jack. A

Sam Rockwell: …in such independent films as Lawn Dogs (1997) and Safe Men (1998), and he appeared in a small part in a minor Woody Allen movie (Celebrity, 1998). Rockwell then landed a supporting role as a vile murderer in the mainstream movie The Green Mile (1999).

pyralid moth: …of these species are called snout moths because their larvae are characterized by elongated snoutlike mouthparts. The larval stage of the European corn borer (Pyrausta nubilalis; also called Ostrinia nubilalis) is the most important insect pest of maize throughout the world. It also infests other plants, including hemp, potatoes, and…

tennis, game in which two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) use tautly strung rackets to hit a ball of specified size, weight, and bounce over a net on a rectangular court. Points are awarded to a player or team whenever the opponent fails to correctly return the ball within

Dichondra, any of several species of low, creeping plants of the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae) that are used in warm climates as grass substitutes. The plants are from 2 12 to 8 cm (1 to 3 inches) high and spread by runners. D. carolinensis, native to southeastern North America, is so

Logan, city, seat (1826) of Logan county, southwestern West Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Guyandotte River, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Charleston, near the Kentucky border. Laid out in 1824 and known as Lawnsville, it was chartered in 1852 and renamed Aracoma for the eldest daughter of

Charles Lanier Lawrance was an American aeronautical engineer who designed the first successful air-cooled aircraft engine, used on many historic early flights. After attending Yale University Lawrance joined a new automobile firm that was later ruined by the financial panic of 1907. He then went

Lawrence, city, seat (1855) of Douglas county, eastern Kansas, U.S. It lies on the Kansas River. It was founded in 1854 by antislavery radicals who had come to Kansas under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company to outvote proslavery settlers and thus make Kansas a “free” state. The

Lawrence, city, Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Merrimack River, 26 miles (42 km) north of Boston. The site at Bodwell’s Falls (the source of abundant waterpower) was promoted for industry in 1845 by the Essex Company, formed by a group of Boston financiers that

Lawrence, county, western Pennsylvania, U.S., bordered to the west by Ohio. It consists of a hilly region on the Allegheny Plateau that is drained by the Shenango, Mahoning, and Beaver rivers. McConnell’s Mill State Park is located along Slippery Rock Creek. New Castle, the county seat, was

Laurentius was an antipope in 498 and from 501 to about 505/507, whose disputed papal election gave his name to the Laurentian schism, a split in the Roman Catholic Church. Late in the 5th century, the Roman church’s relations with the Eastern church in Constantinople became badly strained. Pope

Steven Chu: …Berkeley as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an institution with a long history of research in atomic and nuclear physics that is now part of the system of national laboratories supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. There he encouraged research into renewable energy, particularly the use of…

Steven Chu: …Berkeley as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an institution with a long history of research in atomic and nuclear physics that is now part of the system of national laboratories supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. There he encouraged research into renewable energy, particularly the use of…

Wisconsin: Education: Lawrence University (Appleton; 1847), and Beloit (Beloit; 1846), Carroll (Waukesha; 1846), Ripon (Ripon; 1851), and St. Norbert (De Pere; 1898) colleges. Frank Lloyd Wright’s school of architecture at his Taliesin family farm near Spring Green still attracts students and experienced architects.

Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, a comprehensive stage theory of moral development based on Jean Piaget’s theory of moral judgment for children (1932) and developed by Lawrence Kohlberg in 1958. Cognitive in nature, Kohlberg’s theory focuses on the thinking process that occurs when

Lawrence Lemieux grew up sailing on the lakes of western Canada. He grew to be so adept that, in his teens and twenties, he won many competitions throughout North America. Skilled and self-assured, the 33-year-old Lemieux easily earned a place on Canada’s 1988 Olympic team, racing in the Finn class

laser: High-energy lasers: …the 1960s physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California calculated that intense laser pulses could produce those conditions by heating and compressing tiny pellets containing mixtures of hydrogen isotopes. They suggested using these “microimplosions” both to generate energy for civilian use and to simulate the implosion of a…

laser: High-energy lasers: …the 1960s physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California calculated that intense laser pulses could produce those conditions by heating and compressing tiny pellets containing mixtures of hydrogen isotopes. They suggested using these “microimplosions” both to generate energy for civilian use and to simulate the implosion of a…

Richard Aldington: Lawrence of Arabia (1955), one of his last books, was an uncompromising attack on T.E. Lawrence. Late in life Aldington became a best-seller in the U.S.S.R., where he celebrated his 70th birthday. A Passionate Pilgrim: Letters to Alan Bird from Richard Aldington, 1949–1962 was published…

T.E. Lawrence was a British archaeological scholar, military strategist, and author best known for his legendary war activities in the Middle East during World War I and for his account of those activities in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926). (Read T.E. Lawrence’s Britannica entry on guerrilla

Lawrence of Arabia, British historical film, released in 1962, that became one of the most celebrated epics in the history of cinema. The movie, which presents a portrait of the complicated soldier and author T.E. Lawrence, won seven Academy Awards, including those for best picture and best

St. Lawrence of Brindisi ; canonized 1881; feast day July 21) was a doctor of the church and one of the leading polemicists of the Counter-Reformation in Germany. He joined the Capuchin Friars Minor, a strict offshoot of the Franciscans, at Verona, Italy, in 1575, taking the name Lorenzo

St. Lawrence of Canterbury ; feast day February 3) was the second archbishop of Canterbury. He was a missionary who played a large part in establishing the Anglo-Saxon church. In 597 Pope Gregory I the Great assigned Lawrence, who was then probably a Benedictine friar, to the first Anglo-Saxon

John Laird Mair Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence was a British viceroy and governor-general of India whose institution in the Punjab of extensive economic, social, and political reforms earned him in Britain the sobriquet “Savior of the Punjab.” In 1830 Lawrence traveled to Calcutta (now Kolkata) with

laser: High-energy lasers: …the 1960s physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California calculated that intense laser pulses could produce those conditions by heating and compressing tiny pellets containing mixtures of hydrogen isotopes. They suggested using these “microimplosions” both to generate energy for civilian use and to simulate the implosion of a…

Steven Chu: …Berkeley as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an institution with a long history of research in atomic and nuclear physics that is now part of the system of national laboratories supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. There he encouraged research into renewable energy, particularly the use of…

University of Kansas, public, coeducational institution of higher learning with a main campus in Lawrence, Kan., U.S. Its Medical Center campus is in Kansas City, and there is also a medical campus in Wichita. The university includes the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and 12 schools offering

Wisconsin: Education: Lawrence University (Appleton; 1847), and Beloit (Beloit; 1846), Carroll (Waukesha; 1846), Ripon (Ripon; 1851), and St. Norbert (De Pere; 1898) colleges. Frank Lloyd Wright’s school of architecture at his Taliesin family farm near Spring Green still attracts students and experienced architects.