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| Lustitia ("Lady
Justice") is a symbolic personification of the
coercive power of a tribunal: a sword
representing state authority, scales
representing an objective standard and a
blindfold indicating that justice should be
impartial. |
Law
The law is a set of rules that people are made to follow
by the state. The courts and police enforce this system
of rules and punish people who break the laws, such as
by making them pay a fine or other penalty or sending
them to jail. In ancient societies, laws were written by
leaders, to set out rules on how people can live, work
and do business with each other. Today in most
countries, laws are written and voted on by groups of
elected politicians in a legislature, such as a
parliament or congress. To follow the laws of a society
is to do legal things. An activity is illegal if it
breaks a law or does not follow the laws.
A legal code is a written code of laws that are
enforced. This may deal with things like police, courts,
or punishments. A lawyer, jurist or attorney is a
professional who studies and argues the rules of law. In
the United States, there are two kinds of attorneys -
"transactional" attorneys who write contracts and
"litigators" who go to court. In the United Kingdom,
these professionals are called solicitors and barristers
respectively.
The Rule of Law is the law which says that government
can only legally use its power in a way the government
and the people agree on. It limits the powers a
government has, as agreed in a country's constitution.
The Rule of Law prevents dictatorship and protects the
rights of the people. When leaders enforce the legal
code honestly, even on themselves and their friends,
this is an example of the rule of law being followed.
"The rule of law", wrote the ancient Greek philosopher
Aristotle in 350 BC, "is better than the rule of any
individual."
Culture is usually a major source of the principles
behind many laws, as people tend to trust the ideas
based on family and social habits. In many countries
throughout history, religion and religious books like
the Vedas, Bible or the Koran have been a major source
of law. |
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Types of law |
- Contract law sets rules on
agreements to buy and sell items and services.
- Property law states the rights and
obligations that a person has when they buy, sell, or
rent homes and land (called real property or realty),
and objects (called personal property).
- Intellectual property (IP) law
involves the rights people have over things they create,
such as art, music, and literature. This is called
copyright. It also protects inventions that people make,
by a kind of law called patent. It also covers the
rights people have to the names of a company or a
distinctive mark or logo. This is called trademark.
- Trust law (business Law) sets out
the rules for money that is put into an investment, such
as pension funds that people save up for their
retirement. It involves many different types of law,
including administrative and property law.
- Tort law helps people to make claims
for compensation (repayment) when someone hurts them or
hurts their property.
- Criminal law is used by the
government to prevent people from breaking laws, and
punish people who do break them.
- Constitutional law deals with the
important rights of the government, and its relationship
with the people. It mainly involves the interpretation
of a constitution, including things like the Separation
of powers of the different branches of government.
- Administrative law is used by
ordinary citizens who want to challenge decisions made
by governments. It also involves things like
regulations, and the operation of the administrative
agencies.
- International law is used to set out
rules on how countries can act in areas such as trade,
the environment, or military action. The Geneva
Conventions on the conduct of war and the Roerich Pact
are examples of international law.
- Custom and tradition are practices
that are widely adopted and agreed upon in a society,
thought often not in a written form. Custom and
tradition can be enforced in courts and are sometimes
considered as part of the legal reasoning in matters
decided in courts. In some societies and cultures all
law is or was custom and tradition, though this is
increasingly rare although there are some parts of the
world where custom tradition are still binding or even
the predominant form of law, for example tribal lands or
failed states.
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Civil law and common law
Civil law is the legal system used in most countries
around the world today. Civil law is based on
legislation that is found in constitutions or statutes
passed by government. The secondary part of civil law is
the legal approaches that are part of custom. In civil
law governments, judges do not generally have much
power, and most of the laws and legal precedent are
created by Members of Parliament.
Common law is based on the decisions made by judges in
past court cases. It comes from England and it became
part of almost every country that once belonged to the
British Empire, except Malta, Scotland, the U.S. state
of Louisiana, and the Canadian province of Quebec. It is
also the predominant form of law in the United States,
where many laws called statutes are written by Congress,
but many more legal rules exist from the decisions of
the courts. Common law had its beginnings in the Middle
Ages, when King John was forced by his barons to sign a
document called the Magna Carta.
Religious law
Religious law is law based on religious beliefs or
books. Examples include the Jewish Halakha, Islamic
Sharia, and Christian Canon law.
Until the 1700s, Sharia law was the main legal system
throughout the Muslim world. In some Muslim countries
such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, the whole legal systems
still base their law on Sharia law. Islamic law is often
criticised because it often has harsh penalties for
crimes. A serious criticism is the judgement of the
European Court that "sharia is incompatible with the
fundamental principles of democracy".
The Turkish Refah Party's sharia-based "plurality of
legal systems, grounded on religion" was ruled to
contravene the European Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Court decided
Refah's plan would "do away with the State's role as the
guarantor of individual rights and freedoms" and
"infringe the principle of non-discrimination between
individuals as regards their enjoyment of public
freedoms, which is one of the fundamental principles of
democracy".
History of law
The history of law is closely connected to the
development of human civilizations . Ancient Egyptian
law developed in 3000 BC. In 1760 BC King Hammurabi,
took ancient Babylonian law and organized it, and then
had it chiseled in stone for the public to see in the
marketplace. These laws became known as the Code of
Hammurabi.
The Torah from the Old Testament is an old body of law.
It was written around 1280 BC. It has moral rules such
as the Ten Commandments, which tell people what things
are not permitted.
Legislature
In democracies, the people in a country usually choose
people called politicians to represent them in a
legislature. Examples of legislatures include the Houses
of Parliament in London, the Congress in Washington,
D.C., the Bundestag in Berlin, the Duma in Moscow and
the Assemblée nationale in Paris. Most legislatures have
two chambers or houses, a 'lower house' and an 'upper
house'. To pass legislation, a majority of Members of
Parliament must vote for a bill in each house. The
legislature is the branch of government that writes
laws, and votes on whether they will be approved.
Judiciary
The judiciary is a group of judges who resolve people's
disputes and determine whether people who are charged
with crimes are guilty. In some jurisdictions the judge
does not find guilt or innocence but instead directs a
jury, how to interpret facts from a legal perspective,
but the jury determines the facts based on evidence
presented to them and finds the guilt or innocences of
the charged person. Most countries of common law and
civil law systems have a system of appeals courts, up to
a supreme authority such as the Supreme Court or the
High Court. The highest courts usually have the power to
remove laws that are unconstitutional (which go against
the constitution).
Executive (government) and
Head of State
The executive is the governing center of political
authority. In most democratic countries, the executive
is elected from people who are in the legislature. This
group of elected people is called the cabinet. In
France, the US and Russia, the executive branch has a
President which exists separately from the legislature.
The executive suggests new laws and deals with other
countries. As well, the executive usually controls the
military, the police, and the bureaucracy. The executive
selects ministers, or secretaries of state to control
departments such as the health department or the
department of justice.
In many jurisdictions the Head of State does not take
part in the day to day governance of the jurisdiction
and takes a largely ceremonial role. This is the case in
many Commonwealth nations where the Head of State,
usually a Governor almost exclusively acts "on the
advice" of the head of the Executive (e.g. the Prime
Minister, First Minister or Premier). The primary legal
role of the Head of State in these jurisdictions is to
act as a check or balance against the Executive, as the
Head of State has the rarely exercised power to dissolve
the legislature, call elections and dismiss ministers. |
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Other parts of the legal
system
The police enforce the criminal laws by arresting people
suspected of breaking the law. Bureaucrats are the
government workers and government organizations that do
work for the government. Bureaucrats work within a
system of rules, and they make their decisions in
writing.
Lawyers are people who have learned about laws. Lawyers
give people advice about their legal rights and duties
and represent people in court. To become a lawyer, a
person has to complete a two- or three-year university
program at a law school and pass an entrance
examination. Lawyers work in law firms, for the
government, for companies, or by themselves.
Civil society is the people and groups that are not part
of government that try to protect people against human
rights abuses and try to protect freedom of speech and
other individual rights. Organizations that are part of
civil society include political parties, debating clubs,
trade unions, human rights organizations, newspapers and
charities.
"Corporations are among the organizations that use the
legal system to further their goals. Like the others,
they use means such as campaign donations and
advertising to persuade people that they are right.
Corporations also engage in commerce and make new things
such as automobiles, vaporisers/e-cigarettes, and
Unmanned_aerial_vehicles (i.e. "drones") that the old
laws are not well equipped to deal with. |
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 Kiddle: Law
Wikipedia: Law |
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