LAVANDULA. The medical uses of the products of various species are given under this head in the NAT. HIST. Div.
LAW. In treating of the word law we will first explain its ety mology, and the etymology of the equivalent words in the principal languages of the civilised world ; we will next determine the strict and primary meaning of law, together with its various secondary mean ings ; we will afterwards state the most important species of law, in the strict sense of the word; and finally, we will make a few remarks on the origin and end of law.
1. Etymology of Law, and the equivalent words in other languages.— In the Greek language the most ancient word for law is /Minis (O4ts which contains the same root as Tienai), meaning " that which is ester f blished or laid down." The common Greek word for law, after the Honteric period, is ifaos, which first occurs in the' Works and Days' of Hesiod (v. 274-386, Gaisford), and contains the same root as idaco, to allot or distribute. The only word which the Greek language possessed to signify a legal right was &Kalov, or Smaiwpa. (See Hugo, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts,' p. 962, ed. xi.) Jurisprudence was never cultivated as a science by the Greeks before the loss of their independence. Many causes concurred to prevent the Greeks from adding jurisprudence to the numerous sub jects which they first subjected to a scientific treatment. The chief of these causes was perhaps the generally arbitrary character of the Greek tribunals, both in the democratic and oligarchical states. Tho Laeediomonians had no written laws (see Aristotle's account of the jurisdiction of the Ephors in Peat.; ii. 9 ; compare Mfiller's Dorian; b. iii., ch. 6, s. 2 ; eh. 11, s. 2 ; and see Justinian's Institutes,' lib. i., tit. 2, s. 10), and they were besides too great contemners of learning and science to cultivate law in a systematic manner. The Athenians possessed a considerable body of written laws, and, with their extra ordinary talent both for speculation and action, they would probably have contributed something towards reducing law to a science, if the large numbers of the judges (Sumo-red) in their courts had not led to a popular and rhetorical treatment of the questions which came before them, and, by diminishing the sense of personal responsibility, facili tated arbitrary decisions. (Xen., iv. 4, 4.) For the first scientific cultivation of law the world is indebted to the Romans. " How far our ancestors," says Cicero, " excelled other nations iu wisdom, will be easily perceived on comparing our laws with the works of their Lyeurgus, Draco, and Solon ' • for it is incredible how rude and almost ridiculous every system of law is, except that of Rome." (` De Orat.,' i. 44.) Apart from the general ability of the
Romans in the business of civil and military government, the systematic cultivation of law in Rome is perhaps owing chiefly to the fact that the Roman tribunals were composed of a single judgo, or magistrates. (Hugo, Ibid., p. 345.) The persons filling the offices of prator urbanns and preetor peregrinus (the magistrates who ultimately exercised the chief civil jurisdiction) were changed annually ; and it was found con venient that every new praetor should, on his accession to his office, publish an authentic statement of the rules which he intended to ebserve in administering justice. In process of time these rules, known by the name of the prutar's edict, were handed down, with little alteratsos, hum one :actor to another ; and they furnish • text for the commentaries of the Roman lawyers, many of whose expository wntings were drawn up in the form of treatises ad edictiess.
The scientific cultivation of law among the Romans naturally led to the formation of • technical legal vocabulary in their language. The Latin is accordingly very rich in legal terms, many or most of which hate been retained in the modern lenguage• of western Europe, cepa daily in those countries whose legal systems are founded on the Roman law. The only terms, however, with which we are at present concerned are thaws which denote the most general notions belonging o the subject of jurisprudence. Lee, which has the same etymological relation to logo that red has to repo, meant properly a measure proposed Ly a magistrate in the ceattia, or assembly of the people. A lee was not necessarily a rule, and might relate to a special case (Hugo, Ibid., but as most of the &pa proposed by the magistrates were , the word came to signify • written law. Jet denoted law generally, whether written or unwritten; it also denoted a legal right or faculty. Lex signified "es law ;" jet "law" generally. (Austin), Province of Jurisprudence,' p. 307.) The Romance languages have retained the word lex in the Latin acceptation ley Spanish, tai French). They have how ever lest the word jai (though they retain many of its derivatives), and have substituted for it words formed from the passive participle of dingo (diritto Italian, &Tech° Spanish, droit French), probably after the analogy of the German real.