Law is the body of rules a society develops to deal with such things as crime, business agreements and social relationships. It is a societal construct that is enforced through the power of government and its agents. The term law may also refer to the profession of legal work or the people who practise it.
The scope of laws varies across societies and cultures. In general, they serve four main purposes: establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberties and property. Laws are created by governments and enforced through the power of the state, but they also play a role in many other social structures, such as churches and charities.
Some people think that the law reflects a moral framework that is inherent in human nature and unchanging over time. This concept of natural law emerged in ancient Greece and has re-entered Western thought through the works of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Aquinas. It is the basis of some religious faiths’ jurisprudence, including Jewish Halakha and Islamic Sharia.
Many different types of law exist worldwide, and a wide variety of systems have been developed to accommodate various societies’ social and cultural values. Civil law systems, based on Roman and Germanic concepts, are found in continental Europe and most countries that were colonized by European nations, while common law is found throughout the world. Some countries have mixed civil-law and common law traditions, with the British Empire being one such example.
Branches of law include contract, family, criminal, intellectual property and land. Contract law outlines the rules for negotiating the exchange of goods or services, and it includes everything from the purchase of a car to an employment contract. Criminal law regulates the punishment of wrongdoing, while family law governs marital relationships. Land law concerns ownership and possession of real estate (or’real property’), while intellectual property is the field that deals with movable assets like computers, cars and jewellery.
Financial regulations include banking and stock market law, which set the minimum capital banks must hold and impose guidelines for the investment of funds. Other areas include competition, regulating businesses that use their economic power to artificially distort prices, and environmental laws. Public utility laws, governing water, energy and other publicly-owned resources, are another area of regulation. In this case, the laws aim to ensure companies who manage public services are bound by a level of social responsibility similar to that of the government. Some governments have a clear separation between the management of public and private sectors. Other governments allow the former to influence the latter. This often leads to a politicized and partisan view of the law. In this situation, the law can be distorted and used as a tool of oppression.