Tag: law

Law is a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior. Law is a system that regulates and ensures that individuals or a community adhere to the will of the state. State-enforced laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or established by judges through precedent, normally in common law jurisdictions.Private individuals can create legally binding contracts, including arbitration agreements that may elect to accept alternative arbitration to the normal court process.The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people.

A general distinction can be made between civil law jurisdictions, in which a legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates their laws, and common law systems, where judge-made precedent is accepted as binding law. Historically, religious laws played a significant role even in settling of secular matters, and is still used in some religious communities.

Criminal law deals with conduct that is considered harmful to social order and in which the guilty party may be imprisoned or fined.