Law is the system of rules a society or government develops to govern its people, businesses, and relationships. It includes enforceable social restrictions, such as those concerning property ownership, crime, and marriage. It also refers to the individuals or groups who enforce those laws, such as police officers, judges, and attorneys.
There are four principal purposes of the law: establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes, and protecting liberties and rights. The law should be clear, publicly accessible and stable, and enforced impartially. In addition, the law should protect against at least some types of official arbitrariness and corruption.
Legal systems differ, but they generally include a constitutional framework that defines the state’s boundaries and guarantees certain basic freedoms for citizens. The constitution also defines the limits of governmental power, which is exercised through legislation and regulation, and by courts, which interpret the constitution. The law may be created by a legislative body, which results in statutes, or by an executive, resulting in decrees and regulations, or it may be established through precedent, as in common law jurisdictions. In addition, private individuals create legally binding contracts, such as arbitration agreements, that adopt alternative ways of resolving disputes to standard court litigation.
The law also establishes the rules and procedures by which courts hear cases, and the standards for what constitutes acceptable evidence in those proceedings. It also determines which types of documents can be filed with a court and the procedure for reviewing those filings. In addition, the law determines what kinds of punishments a person can face for breaking the law, such as fines and imprisonment.
Other fields of the law include labour law, which regulates the tripartite industrial relationship between worker, employer and trade union; administrative law, which relates to the functioning of government agencies; and criminal procedure, which outlines the procedures that must be followed in a trial or appeal. Civil law covers disputes between individuals, and includes torts (including wrongful death and libel), contract law, family law, and property law.
The law is a broad field, and its exact definition is debated, as are the methods for creating, interpreting, and applying it. However, the article below provides a good overview of the law as it is commonly understood and used in everyday life. The language is somewhat technical, and the article comments on some recent changes to legislation. The topic could be used as the basis for an undergraduate or graduate course in law. For more in-depth treatment of the law, see articles on specific branches of the field:. For a discussion of the law in relation to political structures, see constitution; ideology; political party; and political system. For an exploration of the law’s relationship to censorship and other social restrictions, see censorship; crime and punishment; and human rights. See also the articles on the history of different legal systems: Chinese law; civil law; common law; and Egyptian law.