Law is the system of rules that regulates and controls conduct through the enforcement of penalties by a controlling authority. It may refer to all the rules of a nation, or just one set of rules relating to specific types of activities such as murder or property ownership. It is also a term for the profession of lawyers and judges who advise people about the law and represent them in court.
The term is also used to describe the field of study that studies systems of laws and how they work. The social sciences that make up the discipline of law include sociology and anthropology. The study of the law is often referred to as legal studies or the law of nations.
The most common use of the word “law” is to refer to a set of regulations made by a government that citizens must obey or face punishment. This includes criminal law, which punishes those who break the laws by imposing fines or even imprisonment. Most countries have laws that forbid the act of stealing, for example. These laws are enforced by a police force or some other kind of public authority.
Other kinds of laws concern private or civil matters, such as tort law that allows compensation for those whose property has been harmed by another person, whether by an automobile accident or defamation of character. Then there is the law of contract, a collection of agreements and promises that govern business transactions and relations between individuals or companies.
Laws may be created by statute or judicial decisions. Some nations, such as the United States, have a constitutional law that dictates the relationship between the executive branch, legislative branch and judiciary. Others, such as China, have no such document.
Judges interpret the law by evaluating previous judicial decisions and applying them to the circumstances of the present case. This process is called precedent or stare decisis. It is important to keep detailed records of past cases, because the decisions in them can be used to predict how a future case will be decided.
Many kinds of laws are framed by particular types of legislation or courts, such as environmental law framed by the Kyoto Protocol and aviation law framed by national civil aviation acts, which must be aligned with the recommendations or mandatory standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization or ICAO. Other kinds of laws are shaped by the cultural or religious values of a particular society, such as censorship law and family or divorce law.
The legal system varies greatly from country to country. Some have a single codified constitution that outlines the rights and duties of all branches of government, while others, such as the United Kingdom, have no such document. Many have a mixed constitutional and common law system, with the latter relying on statute and case law and enshrining certain principles in a bill of rights. Still others have a legal system that combines the best of all the different approaches.
