George Malcolm Laws (January 4, 1919 – August 1, 1994) was a scholar of traditional British and American folk song.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the English Department Faculty there in 1942.
He gives his name to a system of coding ballads; one letter of the alphabet, followed by 2 numbers.
The system is limited to 26 x 99 = 2576 distinct labels, and so tends to bring together similar songs.
The letters J to Q are for "American Ballads from British Broadsides".