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forgery, in criminal law

(Encyclopedia)forgery, in criminal law, willful fabrication or alteration of a written document with the intent to injure the interests of another in a fraudulent manner. The crime may be committed even though the ...

Institute of International Law

(Encyclopedia)Institute of International Law, Fr., Institut de Droit International, private international organization, est. 1873 in Ghent, Belgium, dedicated to the study, development, and implementation of intern...

diminishing returns, law of

(Encyclopedia)diminishing returns, law of, in economics, law stating that if one factor of production is increased while the others remain constant, the overall returns will relatively decrease after a certain poin...

due process of law

(Encyclopedia)due process of law: see Fourteenth Amendment. ...

sea, law of the

(Encyclopedia)sea, law of the, international agreement regulating the use and exploitation of the world's oceans. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) calls for limited, and strictly controlled, mining of...

Newton's law of gravitation

(Encyclopedia)Newton's law of gravitation: see gravitation. ...

protectorate, in international law

(Encyclopedia)protectorate, in international law, a relationship in which one state surrenders part of its sovereignty to another. The subordinate state is called a protectorate. The term covers a great variety of ...

air, law of the

(Encyclopedia)air, law of the, in the broadest sense, all law connected with the use of the air, including radio and satellite transmissions; more commonly, it refers to laws concerning civil aviation. The developm...

torsion balance

(Encyclopedia)torsion balance, instrument used to measure small forces. It is based on the principle that a wire or thread resists twisting with a force that is proportional to the stress. The torsion balance consi...

Weber, Wilhelm Eduard

(Encyclopedia)Weber, Wilhelm Eduard vĭlˈhĕlm āˈdo͞oärt vāˈbər [key], 1804–91, German physicist. He was professor (1831–37, 1849–91) at the Univ. of Göttingen, where he worked with C. F. Gauss on te...