Law is a body of rules that a state or country creates and enforces to govern its citizens. The term may also refer to the legal profession, which includes lawyers and legal assistants who help people navigate the law. It can also be used more broadly to describe any system of rules that regulates a given activity, such as traffic laws or zoning ordinances. The idea of law has been central to political and legal thought for centuries, with the philosopher Aristotle distinguishing “the rule of law” from the rule of any individual or entity. The 18th-century French political thinker Montesquieu elaborated this doctrine, and it has become an important tenet of Western liberal thought.
The principal purposes of law are establishing standards, maintaining order and resolving disputes and protecting liberties and rights. Different nations have various approaches to these goals, and some serve them better than others. For example, while an authoritarian government might keep the peace and maintain the status quo, it may oppress minorities or political opponents and thus fail to serve all of the principal functions of law.
In the United States, there are several major branches of law. Contract law regulates agreements to exchange goods, services or money; criminal law deals with crimes such as theft, murder, and homicide; family law regulates marriage, divorce and child custody; and civil rights law protects individuals from discrimination based on race, religion, sex and sexual orientation. In addition, property law defines a person’s rights and duties toward tangible property, including real estate (real property or land) and personal property such as computers and cars, whereas intellectual property and corporate law regulate ownership of patents, copyrights, trademarks and shares of stock.
Another area of law that can be considered is administrative law, which deals with the creation and enforcement of rules and policies by public agencies. This branch of law can be particularly complex, because agencies often need to balance competing interests and priorities when crafting regulations.
Some of the most controversial theories of law concern the extent to which it reflects morality. Philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham defined law as “commands, backed by the threat of sanctions, from a sovereign to whom men have a natural aversion of obedience.” Natural law theorists, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, contend that there are universal, moral laws that must be obeyed and which cannot be changed.
The rule of law is the concept that all members of a society, including the highest officials in the government, are subject to publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated laws. This requires measures that ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of the law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, participation in decision-making, legal certainty and non-arbitrariness. It also requires separation of powers, independent judiciaries, and transparency in the justice system.