Law is a legal system of rules developed and enforced by governmental or civic bodies to legally regulate conduct, with its exact definition sometimes a matter of prolonged debate. It may be defined as the systematic recognition of rights and duties by individuals and groups, as well as by the government, to ensure that individuals and groups comply with the rules laid down. It is also commonly known as the art and science of civil law. The discipline of law is divided into two main areas: ethical law and criminal law. Within each there are three main fields of study: civil law, pro Bono law, and litigation.
Civil law is the body of law dealing with disputes between private parties; for example, a citizen and a landlord. The laws that deal primarily with the relation between a person and his rights are referred to as civil law. Civil law is derived from the theories of natural justice, common law, and statutory law. In United States, most laws are derived from the natural law principle. Civil law incorporates all those laws that have been derived from the federal, state, and local governments, as well as from the opinions and judgments of courts across the country.
Natural justice; as the name implies, is the ability of a person to be dealt with fairly according to the requirement of the circumstances. The concept of natural justice was developed in the course of the French enlightenment, and is the foundation of many laws across the country. Common law, on the other hand, is a body of law that governs how the courts treat a number of legally unrelated matters, including: estate, property, trusts, and wills. Estate law is the body of law that authorizes different-sized estates and provides rules governing what heirs can do with their inherit properties. Property law is the area in which wills are created, revocable trusts are established and so on.
One of the more important areas of the law is criminal law; Criminal law deals with the punishments for various crimes, including felonies and misdemeanors. Although there are criminal laws in most every country, there are two different types of criminal law: civil law and criminal law. Civil law is the area in which things like drunk driving, murder, rape, shoplifting, and so forth are concerned.
Whereas civil laws tend to be less complicated than criminal law, criminal laws are many and cover a number of different things. People who break the law face stiff penalties, sometimes including prison time. Because there are so many laws, the United States government has a very complex system regulating the enforcement of the laws. Federal, state, and local governments all have many laws that they enforce, making the country an intricate legal body.
There are two different types of the legal system in the United States: common law and Hammurabi;
- In terms of numbers, the Hammurabi court system constitutes about half the number of courts in the entire nation. Common law courts tend to follow the precedents set by previous decisions from other courts, with minor modifications.
- Civil law courts tend to decide cases on their own, following the precedent set by lower courts and the Supreme Court. Both types of courts have their own legal rules and procedures, but most of the time, the same law applies to both types.
- Some important differences between the two systems are that a person who is guilty of something that does not constitute a crime can still be sued by someone who was wronged by the individual.
