Law is the system of rules that a country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members. It is the basis of civil society and it has four main functions: establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberties and rights. Each country’s legal system reflects its culture, history, and the political power that exists to make and enforce laws.
Many different types of laws exist, such as those that deal with business, property, criminal activities and international law. The study of law is the study of these systems and how they work, as well as the professions that have been established to advise people on their legal options or represent them in court.
A basic definition of law is a set of rules backed by force that are enforced by a controlling authority. However, the word is often used more broadly to describe any strong rule that someone imposes on themselves or others. For example, a parent may lay down the law about their children’s behavior, or a manager might be firm on company policies. In addition, the term law is sometimes used to refer to any strong personal preference or inclination that someone might follow, especially when it conflicts with more accepted mores.
The study of law also includes the study of how a country’s legal system works, as well as how the laws themselves are created and applied. For example, a legal code is a comprehensive collection of statutes that regulates specific areas of life such as employment or criminal activity. In common law legal systems, judicial decisions are considered “law” on equal footing with legislative statutes and executive regulations. This concept, known as the “doctrine of precedent” or stare decisis, means that past decisions are binding on future courts and ensure that similar cases reach similar results. Civil law, on the other hand, provides more detailed legal codes that are evaluated by adjudicators to determine the outcome of each case.
The philosophies of law are also an important part of the discipline, with theories ranging from utilitarian ones like John Austin’s to those based on morality, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s. The theory of natural law, which argues that there are universal principles of right and wrong, has been popularized by scholars such as Thomas Aquinas. In addition, a number of other philosophical schools have developed alternative ideas of the nature and role of law. See the articles for more information on these various viewpoints.