What Is Law?
Law is a system of rules that governs the behavior of people in society. It can be applied to any number of areas, such as: banking; insurance; transport and telecommunications; or social affairs like family or medical jurisprudence. People who study law are called lawyers or jurists. They may specialise in a particular area of the law, such as criminal or environmental law.
The law is often used as a tool for social control and, because of this, it can be coercive. It also can be a means of satisfying people’s needs and wants. Law is a complex subject. It combines a lot of different factors, such as politics, philosophy and economics.
There are many different definitions of the law. The most basic is that it is a set of rules made by an authority that people must obey. People who break the laws are punished, for example by fines or imprisonment. A law could be something as simple as a rule against stealing or a rule against murder. But the law can also be a set of political principles that define a group, such as a nation-state or an ethnic community.
Some philosophers have defined the law in more complex ways. Utilitarian philosopher John Austin said that law is “commands, backed by the threat of sanctions, from a sovereign to whom people have a habit of obedience”. Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that there are moral laws innate to human nature and that these are what make a good government.
Other theorists have debated whether the law should include morality in its definition. For example, some have argued that the law should be used to protect human rights and prevent oppression and that a lawyer’s duty is to uphold moral values.
The law is a crucial aspect of a well-run society. It shapes politics, economics and history in a variety of ways and helps to mediate relations between people.
Laws can be made by a group legislature, resulting in statutes; by the executive, resulting in decrees or regulations; or by judges through precedent, which is the case in common law jurisdictions. In addition, private individuals can create legal contracts and arbitration agreements that are legally binding.
There are many other fields of law besides those mentioned above. Immigration law, for instance, concerns the rights of people who want to move into a country and work there, or to change their citizenship. Family law covers issues such as divorce and the custody of children. And commercial or transactional law involves business and money, such as property and contract laws. Biolaw, which is an emerging field, focuses on the intersection of law and the biosciences.