Law is
a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern
behaviour. Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single
legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and
regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common law
jurisdictions.
A
general distinction can be made between
(i) Criminal
law and (ii) Civil law.
Criminal law deals
with conduct that is considered harmful to social order and in which the guilty
party may be imprisoned or fined.
Civil law deals with the resolution of lawsuits
(disputes) between individuals or organizations. These resolutions seek to
provide a legal remedy (often monetary damages) to the winning litigant.
Brief
Discussion on Different laws:-
Contract law
regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives
markets.
Property law
regulates the transfer and title of personal property and real property.
Trust law applies to assets held
for investment and financial security.
Tort law allows claims for
compensation if a person's property is harmed.
Constitutional law
provides a framework for the creation of law, the protection of human rights
and the election of political representatives.
Administrative law
governs what executive branch agencies may and may not do, procedures that they
must follow to do it, and judicial review when a member of the public is harmed
by an agency action.
International law
governs affairs between sovereign states in activities ranging from trade to
military action. To implement and enforce the law and provide services to the
public by public servants, a government's bureaucracy, military, and police are
vital. While all these organs of the state are creatures created and bound by
law, an independent legal profession and a vibrant civil society inform and
support their progress. International law can refer to three things: public
international law, private international law or conflict of laws and the law of
supranational organisations.
Public international law
concerns relationships between sovereign nations. The sources for public
international law development are custom, practice and treaties between
sovereign nations, such as the Geneva Conventions. Public international law can
be formed by international organisations, such as the United Nations (which was
established after the failure of the League of Nations to prevent World War II)
the International Labour Organisation, the World Trade Organisation, or the
International Monetary Fund.
Labour law is the
study of a tripartite industrial relationship between worker, employer and
trade union. This involves collective bargaining regulation, and the right to
strike. Individual employment law refers to workplace rights, such as job
security, health and safety or a minimum wage.
Human rights, civil
rights and human rights law are important fields to guarantee everyone basic freedoms
and entitlements. These are laid down in codes such as the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights (which
founded the European Court of Human Rights) and the U.S. Bill of Rights. The Treaty
of Lisbon makes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union legally
binding in all member states except Poland and the United Kingdom.[184]
Civil procedure and criminal procedure concern the rules
that courts must follow as a trial and appeals proceed. Both concern a
citizen's right to a fair trial or hearing.
Evidence law
involves which materials are admissible in courts for a case to be built.
Immigration law and
nationality law concern the rights of foreigners to live and work in a
nation-state that is not their own and to acquire or lose citizenship. Both
also involve the right of asylum and the problem of stateless individuals.
Social security law refers
to the rights people have to social insurance, such as jobseekers' allowances
or housing benefits.
Family law covers
marriage and divorce proceedings, the rights of children and rights to property
and money in the event of separation.
Transactional law refers
to the practice of law concerning business and money.
Company law sprang
from the law of trusts, on the principle of separating ownership of property
and control.[185] The law of the modern company began with the Joint Stock
Companies Act 1856, passed in the United Kingdom, which provided investors with
a simple registration procedure to gain limited liability under the separate
legal personality of the corporation.
Commercial law covers
complex contract and property law. The law of agency, insurance law, bills of
exchange, insolvency and bankruptcy law and sales law are all important, and
trace back to the medieval Lex Mercatoria. The UK Sale of Goods Act 1979 and
the US Uniform Commercial Code are examples of codified common law commercial
principles.
Admiralty law and
the Law of the Sea lay a basic
framework for free trade and commerce across the world's oceans and seas, where
outside of a country's zone of control. Shipping companies operate through
ordinary principles of commercial law, generalised for a global market.
Admiralty law also encompasses specialised issues such as salvage, maritime
liens, and injuries to passengers.
Intellectual property law aims
at safeguarding creators and other producers of intellectual goods and
services. These are legal rights (copyrights, trademarks, patents, and related
rights) which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, literary and
artistic fields.[186]
Restitution deals
with the recovery of someone else's gain, rather than compensation for one's
own loss.
Unjust enrichment When
someone has been unjustly enriched (or there is an "absence of basis"
for a transaction) at another's expense, this event generates the right to
restitution to reverse that gain.
Space law is a relatively new
field dealing with aspects of international law regarding human activities in
Earth orbit and outer space. While at first addressing space relations of
countries via treaties, increasingly it is addressing areas such as space
commercialisation, property, liability, and other issues.
Tax law involves regulations
that concern value added tax, corporate tax, and income tax.
Banking law and
financial regulation set minimum standards on the amounts of capital banks must
hold, and rules about best practice for investment. This is to insure against
the risk of economic crises, such as the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Regulation deals
with the provision of public services and utilities. Water law is one example.
Especially since privatisation became popular and took management of services
away from public law, private companies doing the jobs previously controlled by
government have been bound by varying degrees of social responsibility. Energy,
gas, telecomms and water are regulated industries in most OECD countries.
Competition law, known
in the U.S. as antitrust law, is an evolving field that traces as far back as
Roman decrees against price fixing and the English restraint of trade doctrine.
Modern competition law derives from the U.S. anti-cartel and anti-monopoly
statutes (the Sherman Act and Clayton Act) of the turn of the 20th century. It
is used to control businesses who attempt to use their economic influence to
distort market prices at the expense of consumer welfare.
Consumer law could
include anything from regulations on unfair contractual terms and clauses to
directives on airline baggage insurance.
Environmental law is
increasingly important, especially in light of the Kyoto Protocol and the
potential danger of climate change. Environmental protection also serves to
penalise polluters within domestic legal systems.
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