Law

:This article is about law in society. For other possible meanings, see law (disambiguation).

Areas of law, a sampling

This list is not comprehensive.

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• Administrative law refers to the body of law which regulates bureaucratic managerial procedures and is administered by the executive branch of a government; rather than the judicial or legislative branches (if they are different in that particular jurisdiction). This body of law regulates international trade, manufacturing, pollution, taxation, and the like. This is sometimes seen as a subcategory of civil law and sometimes called public law as it deals with regulation and public institutions.
• Canon law comprises the laws of the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic churches.
• Case law (precedental law) regulates, via precedents, how laws are to be understood. Case law, also called common law or judge-made law, is derived from the body of rulings made by a country's courts. In the United States, the primary source of case law relating to federal and constitutional questions is the Supreme Court of the United States. The states, each with its own final State Supreme Court, generate case law that is only binding precedent in that state, and which may be influential in other states. In countries that were once part of the British Empire the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the House of Lords are primary sources of case law, though not necessarily binding precedent, as each country has its own court of last resort.
• Civil law, not to be confused with the civil legal system, has several meanings:
• Secular law is the legal system of a non-theocratic government, such as that which developed in England, especially during the reign of Henry II
• Private law regulates relationships between persons and organizations including contracts and responsible behaviour such as through liability through negligence. This body of law enforces statutes or the common law by allowing a party, whose rights have been violated, to collect damages from a defendant. Where monetary damages are deemed insufficient, civil court may offer other remedies in equity; such as forbidding someone to do an act (eg; an injunction) or formally changing someone's legal status (eg; divorce). This body of law includes the law of torts in common law systems, or in civilian systems, the Law of Obligations.
• Commercial law, often considered to be part of civil law, covers business and commerce relations including sales and business entities.
• Common law is derived from Anglo-Saxon customary law, also referred to as judge-made law, as it developed over the course of many centuries in the English courts. Judges' decisions are heavily influenced, and sometimes actually bound, by precedents set by the judges in previous decisions on related matters.
• Criminal law (penal law) is the body of laws which regulate governmental sanctions (such as imprisonment and/or fines) as retaliation for crimes against the social order.
• Halakha (Jewish law) is the body of rabbinic law, custom and tradition which governs many Jewish communities.
• International law governs the relations between states, or between citizens of different states, or international organizations. Its two primary sources are customary law and treaties.
• Natural law is the law which is immanent in Nature.
• Procedural law are rules and regulations found in a legal system that regulate access to legal institutions such as the courts, including the filing of private lawsuits and regulating the treatment of defendants and convicts by the public criminal justice system. Within this field are laws regulating arrests and evidence, injunctions and pleadings. Procedural law defines the procedure by which law is to be enforced. See criminal procedure and civil procedure.
• Space law regulates events occurring outside Earth's atmosphere. This field is in its infancy.