Did you know, what law is?

“LET’S KNOW ABOUT LAW”

Law is a set of enforced rules under which a society is governed. Law is a basic social institution, one of the most necessary. No society could exist if all the people did just as they pleased, without regard of the rights of others. Nor could a society exist if its members did not recognize their certain obligations toward one another. The law thus establishes the rules that define a persons’s rights and obligations. The law also sets penalties for those who violate it and states how the government should enforce the rules and penalties.

In most societies, various government bodies, especially police agencies and courts, see to it that people obey the laws. Because people can get a penalty for disobeying the law, most of them agree that laws should be just. Justice is a moral standard that applies to all human conduct. The laws enforced by governments usually have a strong moral element, and so justice has generally been one of the laws’s guiding principles. But governments can, and sometimes do, enforce laws that many people believe to be unjust. If this belief becomes widespread, people may lose respect for and may even disobey them. But in democratic societies, the law itself provides ways to amend or abolish unjust laws.

Law can be divided into two main branches: private and public. Private law deals with the rights and obligations people have in their relations with one another, while public law concerns rights and obligations people have as members of society and as citizens. Both private law and public law can be subdivided into several branches. However, they are closely related, and in many cases, overlap.

Adapted from The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 12