Understanding the Basics of Law
Law is a system of rules that governs the behavior of people in a society and enforces those rules through punishments. It is the product of human will, and it serves several purposes: establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes, and protecting liberties and rights.
The nature of laws varies from place to place, as do the ways in which they are made and enforced. For example, some countries, such as the United States, use a common law system in which judges decide cases based on precedent (i.e., the decisions of previous courts in similar situations). Other countries, such as Japan, use a civil law system in which a code specifies how judges must decide cases.
Each legal system requires different types of knowledge to understand and apply. For instance, one must know the principles of constitutional law in order to make judgments about the Constitution of a particular country. It is also useful to know the history of a legal system, and to be aware of its philosophical roots.
The main purpose of law is to ensure that people do what the majority believes is right, and punish those who do not. This may be achieved by limiting freedom, making it dangerous to disobey the law, or imposing financial penalties for breaking the law. Laws are also used to protect private property and prevent monopolies.
Laws can be derived from the constitution, statutes, or common law, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. A constitution sets out the fundamental principles of a nation, while statutes and common law allow judges to interpret those principles in a given situation. Some of the disadvantages of these systems include the time it takes to develop laws and the difficulty of changing them.
Another way in which laws can be created is through religious or moral precepts. For example, Jewish halakha and Islamic Sharia provide detailed legal systems that are partly based on religious precepts. In some cases, such as the Christian canon law, these are partly augmented through further human elaboration.
Other types of laws exist to cover such diverse topics as taxation, labour law, criminal procedure, evidence law and international law. Labour law focuses on the tripartite relationship between worker, employer and trade union, with rules covering everything from health and safety to minimum wages. Criminal law explains the process of a case from arrest to conviction, and evidence law defines which materials are admissible in court. International law is used to set out rules on how countries can act in areas such as trade, the environment or military action. It is often influenced by political and military power, as can be seen in the many revolts against existing government-legal authority.