Law is the body of rules that a country or community develops to deal with crimes, business agreements, and social relationships. It can also refer to the profession of people who work in this system of justice.
The word is derived from the Old Norse
In the broadest sense, a law is any strong rule that must be obeyed. It can be as simple as the rule of having a nourishing breakfast every morning, or as complex as a moral code that guides human behavior. In its most common sense, a law is a system of justice that lays out punishments for breaking certain types of rules and protects citizens’ rights.
A law may cover any number of things, from contract law to family law to tax laws and property laws. Laws may be based on custom, a written document, or even a set of personal beliefs.
For most of history, a nation’s law has been driven by felt necessities, prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, and even the prejudices of judges and their fellow citizens. This cannot be dealt with in a logic course, or as if it were just a series of axioms and corollaries.
Moreover, the law evolves over time. A judge’s decisions are not necessarily final, and can be modified by subsequent judicial decisions or by new facts presented in future cases. This is known as stare decisis, or the principle of precedent. Judicial opinions usually provide lengthy reasoning and policies to guide future cases.
In addition, the law can include rules regulating any activity that might touch on something else. For example, tort law provides compensation when a person or their property is damaged by someone else’s actions. Similarly, criminal law punishes offences against the state, such as murder or theft. These fields of law are not necessarily separate from each other, and often overlap in practice. For example, a car accident may involve both tort and motor vehicle laws.