The phrase "applying a law" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing the implementation or enforcement of legal statutes or regulations in a specific context.
Example: "The court is responsible for applying the law fairly and justly in all cases."
Alternatives: "enforcing a law" or "implementing a law".
Mr. Zaccar, the jury foreman, said the jurors felt pressured to decide the case by applying a law that they thought did not fit the crime.
Instead, she presented the outcome almost grudgingly, as a technocratic inevitability, a liberal outcome compelled by the conservative method of dutifully applying a law — in this case, Congress's substantial-burden test — that she didn't particularly like.
President Morsi had already declared a monthlong state of emergency here and in the other canal towns of Suez and Ismailia, applying a law that virtually eliminates due process protections against abuse by the police.
The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the ruling of a lower court that had sided with the conservatives in applying a law on how to divide church property when congregations fracture.
By not applying a law-changing decision retroactively, a court respects the settled expectations that have built up around the old law.
Government officials have warned that Spain's judiciary will forcefully apply a law that forbids any citizen to glorify terrorism.
He was particularly disturbed that prosecutors applied a law intended for mobsters to the highly technical world of Wall Street finance.
Kirchner insists all she is trying to do is apply a law that has the laudable goal of decentralizing media power.
"What broader values," he asked, "are served by continuing to apply a law that no one will defend on the merits?" Some trial judges say their job is to apply the law and not broader values.
This bizarre framing of the harm – that the government won't get to apply the law right away – positions the counterbalancing interest in this case as simply the government's desire or right to apply a law.
"As you apply a law enforcement model to these cases, people always cooperate," said Anthony S. Barkow, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in terrorism cases and now works in private practice.
