Law is a set of rules that a society establishes to regulate behavior and enforce rights. Laws can be created by social or governmental institutions, resulting in statutes and regulations, or they may be made by individual citizens through contracts or other legal agreements, creating common law. In modern societies, laws are often enforced by government agencies and courts. Law shapes politics, economics, history and society in many ways. It is important for a democracy to have a well-defined and transparent system of law, which promotes trust and cooperation among the people of a nation.
A number of different views about the nature and definition of law have been articulated. Some writers have promoted the idea that law is a set of commands, backed by the threat of sanctions, that are issued by a sovereign over the subjects of a country. This view is sometimes called “legal positivism.” Jeremy Bentham and John Austin were early proponents of this school of thought. Others, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke, advanced the concept of natural law, which asserts that human beings have innate moral tendencies that are reflected in laws of nature that are unchanging over time.
Other writers have criticized legal positivism for being too narrow in its conception of the nature and meaning of law. For example, some critics have pointed out that at least some laws seem to reflect a moral stance, such as prohibitions against insider trading and due process (fundamental fairness and decency in the conduct of government action).
In addition to enforcing standards and resolving disputes, law serves other purposes. One of the most important is to protect liberties and rights, which can only be ensured if there are clear and transparent laws that are applied equally to all people regardless of social class or wealth.
The development of law as a field of study has been influenced by changes in the society in which it operates and developments in technology. The growing power of government and the complexity of social problems have created challenges that legal scholars have had to deal with. For example, the expansion of military, policing and bureaucratic power over the daily lives of ordinary citizens poses special problems of accountability that writers such as Montesquieu or Locke could not have imagined.
Today, the practice of law is an extremely broad and diverse one. Some areas include family law, focusing on issues such as divorce and custody of children; criminal law, which deals with homicide, theft, burglary and other crimes; and administrative law, which covers the operations of government agencies. Other areas of law include immigration, which covers the rights of foreigners to live and work in a country; constitutional law, which is concerned with the structure of government and its relationships with individuals; contract law, which concerns business and money; and biolaw, which explores the intersection of law and the life sciences.