Law is a system of rules that society or a government develops in order to deal with issues like crime, business agreements and social relationships. It is enforced by courts and police. People are generally given freedom within the laws to do as they wish, but there are also consequences for breaking the law such as fines or imprisonment.
There are many different types of laws, some are more general like criminal or business, and some are more specific, such as medical jurisprudence and property law. In the latter, the law determines a person’s rights and obligations toward tangible objects such as land and buildings (real property) or possessions like books, clothes, furniture, cars and shares of stock (personal property).
In most modern countries, laws are made by a group legislature, such as a parliament or congress, elected (chosen) by the governed peoples. These laws form a constitution, which sets out the overall framework of the law, and then judges make further laws to fill in the details. This system is referred to as the common law, and there are two main forms of law: civil and common law.
During the middle ages, there was an emphasis on legal precedent. This was based on the idea that a judge’s judgment should be based on similar cases decided previously, and this formed the basis of much legal practice. The Magna Carta was a fundamental document of this period that recognized the concept of due process, i.e. that the fate of a person should not be left in the hands of one individual, and it was the forerunner of modern constitutional governments.
The law can be divided into many categories, such as civil, commercial, criminal and international. Civil and commercial laws relate to business and everyday life, for example contract law regulates agreements between people, criminal law deals with crimes such as murder or robbery, and property law defines the rights and responsibilities of a person toward their tangible assets, such as land and buildings, as well as their personal belongings.
The laws can also be based on the customs and traditions of a people, which are referred to as common law or civil law. This distinction is sometimes disputed, with some countries having a mix of both civil and common law. This is often the case where a country has been influenced by various legal transplants. The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in a variety of ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people. It is therefore a vital and influential part of human civilization. Max Weber and others reshaped thinking about the extension of state power, which is increasingly carried out by non-governmental organisations such as military, policing and bureaucratic institutions. This expansion poses special challenges to democratic accountability that earlier writers such as Locke and Montesquieu did not anticipate.