LAVER

(Lat. lavo, to wash; because washed by the waters of the ocean.) A species of ulva which is eaten as a delicacy. LAW, in Latin Lex; derived from the verb lego, I collect or select. Law, collective and particular. — We employ the term " law" to denote a body of rules, or all the rules applicable to a given subject; e. g., the Roman Law, the Law of Nature. We employ the term "a law" to denote an individual rule. The idea of law, in its strictest sense, comprehends the notion of two parties; a superior imposing it, and an inferior obeying it. Laws, improperly or metaphorically so called. — In common language it is usual to apply the word " law" to designate principles or properties which can only be thus named by analogy. Whenever certain causes invariably or generally produce like effects, this consequence of effect upon cause is popularly termed "a law." Thus we speak of the law of nature with reference to inanimate or irrational subjects;of the law nf gravitation, by which bodier, tire mutually attracted to each other; of the laws of motion; of the laws which regulate certain proce es in animal and vegetable economy, . In this sense, laws have been defined to mean " the nece ary relations resulting from the nature of things." The analogy is nobly expounded in a well-known pa age of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, at the end of the first book. Law defined. — Law, in its stricter sense, as applied to the >• /Unitary actions of man, comprises the notion of a command i ued by a superior imposing an obligation on a subject. I,aws, Divine and Human. — Laws are divided, according to the superior who imposes them, into divine and human: the law of God, and the law of man. Divine Law. — The Author of our being has declared his will to mankind at various times, through the instrumentality of inspired prophets and teachers. There are also certain rules of right and wrong commonly received, which are generally supposed to have their origin in the nature of man, and to subsist independently of God's revealed will. Thus the term " divine" law signifies, 1. Revealed law; 2. Natural 1aw. Revealed Law. — God, as the Lawgiver of the Jewish nation, dictated to Moses a code of laws for that people, comprising both a confirmation of such laws as are commonly considered natural by specific sanctions, and also various minute ceremonial and social observances. Thus the Jewish law is commonly said to consist of, 1. The moral law; 2. The ceremonial law;:t. The civil or political law. Law of Christianity. — The second branch of revealed law is that which is declared to us in the New Testament. Law of Nature. — The law of nature, however extensive in its philosophical meaning, is much more confined in that sense in which alone it is within the province of jurisprudence. Regarding it as merely applicable to the relative duties of men in a community, it is sufficient for practical purposes to observe, with Grotius, that its first principle is the sociability of man; and, consequently, that the conservation of society in its actual state, whether from the motive of mutual distrust, as Hobbes maintained, or from innate lienevolence, as his adversaries contended, is the duty which it imposes on every one. Let us suppose, therefore, that in a community such as oar own there could occur at once a sus|>cnsion of all civil l>ositive law, and that, at the same time, the sanctions of God's revealed law could be withdrawn. Men would thus be restored to a state of natural liberty. The natural law is that code of duties which would then take the place of all other legislation. Every act tending to injure our neighbour in ]ierson and property, every act in any way tending to disturb or impair the frame of society, would then be prohibited 616 III. During the greater part of that period a constant struggle was carried on between the ecclesiastical lawyers, supported in many cases by tho crown, and the popular party in favour of the old customary right, which was defended by the temporal nobility. Tho final victory of the common law, and its establishment as the rule of the land, except in particular cases, ■nay be dated from the reign of Edward I. 2. The jurisdiction of the lord-chancellor of England is a subject considered elsewhere. (Sec Chancery.) It is sufficient here to observe that, as most of the chancellors under the Plantngenet kings were ecclesiastics, and as the matters intrusted to their decision were such as the rules of the common law did not apply to, they generally searched for precedents in that of Rome, which has hence been largely imported into one great branch of modern English law, namely, Equity. 3. Iu some particular matters, the rules of the civil law have always been allowed, by custom, to prevail in England. These are, such as were taken cognizance of by the courts of honour and chivalry, now fallen into disuse; in the High Court of Admiralty (see Admiralty); and in the courts of the two Universities, which originally were ecclesiastical bodies. 4. The chief influence of the civil law in England has been through the canon law, which was founded upon it. Law, Canon. — The rules which were framed by the Christian Church for its own spiritual polity may be supposed to have had their origin in the very earliest periods of Christianity itself; but all the authority and force which they po e ed could arise only from the mutual consent of the faithful to be bound by them, until the establishment of Christianity as a state religion entirely altered the character of its spiritual constitution. The temporal jurisdiction, which was then too liberally conceded to the bishops, together with the legal force given by several emperors, Just in i an in particular,to the canons of councils, gradually called into existence a new and independent body of legislation. When the Western Empire had been overthrown, the authority of the popes as temporal governors was by degrees confirmed in the city of Rome and the adjacent country. At the same time, the power of the ecclesiastical body was increased and extended in other countries; and the reverence attached to their authority gave to the spiritual censures with which they visited particular offences a greater force than to the sanctions of the national law. Thus, besides matters of church government, which were at first the particular subject of the pontifical law, i' comprehended within its purview numerous and importanf branches of the civil law of persons and property. About the year 1150, the various edicts then in force of the several popes, together with the canons of councils, and the authoritative declarations of fathers and doctors of the church, were collected together by the monk Gratian, and reduced into a volume called the Decretum, and considered as the earliest authority in canon law. In the next century, Pope Gregory IX. puhlished five books of Decretals, collected from the Decretal Epistles of the Pope; to which Boniface VIII. added a sixth book, about the end of the same century. To these were added, at subsequent periods, the Clementine Constitutions, a seventh Book of Decretals, and a Book of Institutes. The whole of these authorities were collated and published by Gregory XIII. in 1580, under the title of Corpus Juris Canonic i. In matters of evidence, and as far as practicable in the forms of proceeding, the compilers of the canon law founded their system upon that of Rome, with which they were best acquainted. In all such matters of civil jurisdiction as their legislation embraced, they likewise a umed it as the basis of their structure. By the practice of all ecclesiastical courts, the civil law is allowed to come in aid of, and to supply the canon law, in all such cases as are there omitted. The subjects of the canon law were, 1. The hierarchy and government of the church; 2. All things relating to pious uses; 3. The wills of defuncts, the guardianship of orphans, and matters of marriage and divorce. But it was by no means permanently received, in most European countries, to its full extent. Its jurisdiction only subsisted by the toleration of princes, and therefore varied, according as the superstition or piety of these sovereigns, or their jealousy of ecclesiastical usurpation, alternately predominated. But, upon the whole, its authority became so deeply rooted, that even in VIII. His daughter Elizabeth did not add much to the e ential and valuable parts of our statute book; but under her government the acts which restrained 650 VIII. His restoration was distinguished by the abolition of feudal tenures and incidents, and the reduction of all the modes by which estates of inheritance might be held (with few exceptions) to two only— freehold and copyhold. The Statute of P'rauds, a nece ary protection perhaps to unwary transactors of busine , but a source of endle litigation; the statute which regulates the distribution of the effects of intestates; and, finally, the celebrated Habeas Corpus Act, which gave, or rather confirmed, to every person imprisoned by any authority short of the expre and definite course of justice, the means of releasing himself— are all productions of this reign. The eighteenth century, while it gave rise to new views and widely extended discu ions on jurisprudence, did nut in England produce much substantial alteration by statutory enactment. It was rather a period of preparation for change, in the political as well as the legal world, than of actual reform. But it was distinguished by the learning and acutene of several judges who occupied the seats ol justice during many years, and introduced, by the slow exertion of their own authority, a new spirit into institutions of which the forms were preserved. Recent years have introduced some material changes, of ] which the effect has not yet been fully tried. Lord Ellen borough and Lord Eldon had pursued the work of maintaining and embellishing the old institutions; succei judges have at last a umed in some degree the character of reformers. Sir Robert Peel's criminal statutes conferred - a great benefit on the country, by removing many of the technical difficulties incident to this branch of 1 iv they did not materially affect its spirit, which, in the articla of capital punishments, has been gradually moderated by a succe ion of enactments, from the beginning of the teiav of George III. until that of our present sovereign. Many ol the artificial distinctions, grounded on obsolete reasons, * which subsisted between the practice of the different com- < mon law courts have been removed. The system of pleading (see that article) has been very materially chan i.Mil. And in consequence of the general feeling in favour of local courts of justice to administer redre in trifling disputes between parties at a distance from London, some extension has been given to the authority of the sheriff's court, and some local tribunals have been constituted. Lastly, the ancient usage of imprisonment on mesne proce has been | abolished, and much additional power given in lieu of it to the Insolvent Court over the property of debtors. The term Common Law is ordinarily employed in two different senses. In its legal signification it expre es the old unwritten law, established by precedent, and custom; comprising, it has been said, " all recognised doctrines and customs, however introduced, which are neither to be found in the statute book, nor depend on the adjudication of courts of equity." For this floating ma of legal principles our ordinary sources are precedents, or decisions of common law judges, as contained in published reports. Where these fail us, reference may sometimes be had to more un- I certain guides, the dicta of legal writers, or the general | principle and tendency of our laws, for authority in deciding a particular dispute. In its popular sense, common law is opposed to equity and ecclesiastical law; and thus comprises the whole of that law, both criminal and civil, which is administered in courts having trial by jury, and all the other subjects which are within the purview of the common law courts of Westminster Hall, and of the various local jurisdictions of the country (except so far as some of them exercise equitable authority). It has been defined "the whole of that codf, whether founded on statute, usage, or precedent, which is now administered in the common law courts of Westminster Hall;" and this definition will comprehend the law administered in the various local courts in question, as these are bound to act on the decisions of the superior courts. Its peculiar characteristic is, that questions of fact of arising a jury.out of its proceedings are submitted to the decision It is, perhaps, not very easy to a ign either the history or the theoretical principles of the separation of equitv from common law. The former was undoubtedly in the first instance a jurisdiction of a remedial character, intended to moderate, according to the conscience of the judge, the rig-' our of legal judgments; but this is a peculiarity which can LAW. [s. 660]