Law

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

Further discussion

According to St. Thomas Aquinas. the law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by him who has the care of the community.

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Most laws and legal systems—at least in the Western world—are quite similar in their essential themes, arising from similar values and similar social, economic, and political conditions, and they typically differ less in their substantive content than in their jargon and procedures. Communication between legal systems is the focus of legal translation and legal lexicography, which deals with the principles of producing a law dictionary.

Related Topics:
Jargon - Legal translation - Legal lexicography - Law dictionary

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One of the fundamental similarities across different legal systems is that, to be of general approval and observation, a law has to appear to be public, effective, and legitimate, in the sense that it has to be available to the knowledge of the citizen in common places or means, it needs to contain instruments to grant its application, and it has to be issued under given formal procedures from a recognized authority.

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In the context of most legal systems, laws are enacted through the processes of constitutional charter, constitutional amendment, legislation, executive order, rulemaking, and adjudication. Within common law jurisdictions, rulings by judges are an important additional source of legal rules; within civil law jurisdictions, rulings do not constitute de jure for the future, but in practice, jurisprudence is often quite equivalent to common law precedent.

Related Topics:
Constitutional charter - Constitutional amendment - Legislation - Executive order - Rulemaking - Adjudication - Common law - Civil law - De jure - Jurisprudence

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However, de facto laws also come into existence through custom and also tradition. (See generally Consuetudinary law; Anarchist law.)

Related Topics:
Consuetudinary law - Anarchist law

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Law has an anthropological dimension. In order to have a culture of law, people must dwell in a society where a government exists whose authority is hard to evade and generally recognised as legitimate. People take their grievances before the government and its agents, who arbitrate disputes and enforce penalties.

Related Topics:
Anthropological - Culture

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This behaviour is contrasted with the culture of honor, where respect for persons and groups stems from fear of the disproportionate revenge they may exact if their person, property, or prerogatives are not respected. Cultures of law must be maintained. They can be eroded by declining respect for the law, achieved either by weak government unable to wield its authority, or by burdensome restrictions that attempt to forbid behaviour prevalent in the culture or in some subculture of the society. When a culture of law declines, there is a possibility that an undesirable culture of honor will arise in its place.

Related Topics:
Honor - Subculture

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A particular society or community adopts a specific set of laws to regulate the behavior of its own members, to order life in its political territory, to grant or acknowledge the rights and privileges of its citizens and other people who may come under the jurisdiction of its courts, and to resolve disputes.

Related Topics:
Society - Territory - Right - Courts

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There are several distinct laws and legal traditions, and each jurisdiction has its own set of laws and its own legal system. Individually codified laws are known as statutes, and the collective body of laws relating to one subject or emanating from one source are usually identified by specific reference. (E.g., Roman law, Common law, and Criminal law.) Moreover, the several different levels of government each produce their own laws, though the extent to which law is centralized varies. Thus, at any one place there can be conflicting laws in force at the local, regional, state, national, or international levels.

Related Topics:
Jurisdiction - Statute - Roman law - Common law - Criminal law - Government

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(See conflict of laws, Preemption of State and Local Laws.)

Related Topics:
Conflict of laws - Preemption of State and Local Laws

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