Excellent question, George McIlvaine . I consider in the next decade we could see Einstein's theories of relativity as laws of physics. From my point of view it is very possible.

Thank you for your comment Debrayan Bravo Hidalgo. I think science is more than a little late acting on this question. Newton's Laws of Motion have actually been subsumed by Einstein's special and general theories, and yet Newton's findings are called laws and Einstein's confirmed findings are still called theories after over a hundred years.

Relativity (and quantum physics, too) is an unblemished example of a successful scientific theory that has never been falsified with data. There is so much contemporary questioning of good science by misinformation and disinformation -- the scientific community could enhance public perception of science and truth by elevating relativity to a law of physics.

The laws of physics are all part of a theory, and are generally accepted until an experiment shows that they are not perfectly exact. The Newton's Laws of Motion is a good example, as Lavoisier's mass conservation law. The first principle of thermodynamics also moved fro energy conservation to energy-mass conservation law. I was also taught at the University that even the second principle will remain a law until an experiment will proove that it is not perfectly exact.

The movement of stars and the expansion of the universe need the hypotheses of black matter and black energy to be explained by general relativity. There could be another (better?) model that will be compatible with our observations without adding artifical mass or energy. We may also one day see these dark things, and the confidence in general relativity will then be reinforced.

My conclusion is that scientists can declare some algorithms in their models as "laws" when they are generally accepted, but they could be ready to change these when necessary! The real laws are those of nature, but we don't know them perfectly!

Thank you for your thoughts and conclusion Claude-Alain Roulet . My naive idea about elevating Einstein’s theory of general relativity to Einstein’s Law of General Relativity is bringing up more fundamental questions. Is there an order or a sequence between the ideas of model, theory, and law? Are theories and laws discovered or created? If laws are discovered and theories are created, does this change how we think about them?

Interesting thoughts, George McIlvaine! Juridic laws are obviously created by mankind. The laws (or theorems, or equations) of physics can also be considered as created by mankind, looking for understanding the nature. This creation process includes the elaboration of models, experiments and theories, i.e an exploration that sometimes leads to a discovery.

However, the laws of nature, those ruling the universe, just exist and are not created (or for religious people, they are created by God).

Therefore, we may decide to call "Laws" those running the universe, and "Theories" the ensemble of models we are using to understand and hopefully approximate these laws.

Einstein's theories are rather broad and contain much philosophy. It would be specific equations developed by Albert Einstein that would become laws; not the whole theory as a group of equations.

For example, the circular deflection angle of light passing near massive objects should become a physics law. Also, the equation for calculating the precession of the perigee of objects in orbit around massive objects should become a physics law. Both of these equations were first developed as approximations by Albert Einstein, and then simplified to exact equations by Karl Schwarzschild. These equations have been thoroughly vetted and their accuracy is undisputed.

Extensions of Albert Einstein's work into larger scale astrophysics have not seen the same degree of success. As such, other areas of Albert Einstein's theories are still a work in progress.

General Relativity is not a single concept, and therefore it cannot be considered a single law.

Dear, David Wise Thomson

I share your opinion