Law

Law is a system of rules created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,^[2] with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate.^[3][4][5] It has been variously described as a science^[6][7] and the art of justice.^[8][9][10] State-enforced laws can be made by a group legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes; by the executive through decrees and regulations; or established by judges through precedent, usually in common law jurisdictions. Private individuals may create legally binding contracts, including arbitration agreements that adopt alternative ways of resolving disputes to standard court litigation. The creation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, and the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people.

Legal systems vary between countries, with their differences analysed in comparative law. In civil law jurisdictions, a legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates the law. In common law systems, judges make binding case law through precedent,^[11] although on occasion this may be overturned by a higher court or the legislature.^[12] Historically, religious law influenced secular matters,^[13] and is still used in some religious communities.^[14][15] Sharia law based on Islamic principles is used as the primary legal system in several countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia.^[16][17]

Law's scope can be divided into two domains. Public law concerns government and society, including constitutional law, administrative law, and criminal law. Private law deals with legal disputes between individuals and/or organisations in areas such as contracts, property, torts/delicts and commercial law.^[18] This distinction is stronger in civil law countries, particularly those with a separate system of administrative courts;^[19][20] by contrast, the public-private law divide is less pronounced in common law jurisdictions.^[21][22]

Law provides a source of scholarly inquiry into legal history,^[23] philosophy,^[24] economic analysis^[25] and sociology.^[26] Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness, and justice.^[27][28]

But what, after all, is a law? [...] When I say that the object of laws is always general, I mean that law considers subjects en masse and actions in the abstract, and never a particular person or action. [...] On this view, we at once see that it can no longer be asked whose business it is to make laws, since they are acts of the general will; nor whether the prince is above the law, since he is a member of the State; nor whether the law can be unjust, since no one is unjust to himself; nor how we can be both free and subject to the laws, since they are but registers of our wills.

The philosophy of law is commonly known as jurisprudence. Normative jurisprudence asks "what should law be?", while analytic jurisprudence asks "what is law?"