Law is a set of rules that are created and areenforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,[1] with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate.[2][3][4] It has been variously described as ascience[5][6] and as the art of justice.[7][8][9] State-enforced laws can be made by alegislature, resulting instatutes; by the executive throughdecrees andregulations; or by judges' decisions, which formprecedent incommon law jurisdictions. Anautocrat may exercise those functions within their realm. The creation of laws themselves may be influenced by aconstitution, written or tacit, and therights encoded therein. The law shapespolitics,economics,history andsociety in various ways and also serves as a mediator of relations between people.
Legal systems vary betweenjurisdictions, with their differences analysed incomparative law. Incivil law jurisdictions, a legislature or other central bodycodifies and consolidates the law. In common law systems, judges may makebinding case law through precedent,[10] although on occasion this may be overturned by a higher court or the legislature.[11]Religious law is in use in some religious communities and states, and has historically influenced secular law.[12][13][14][15][16]
The wordlaw, attested inOld English aslagu, comes from theOld Norse wordlǫg. The singular formlag meant'something laid or fixed' while its plural meant'law'.[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 thegeneral 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?"
There have been several attempts to produce "a universally acceptable definition of law". In 1972,Baron Hampstead suggested that no such definition could be produced.[30] McCoubrey and White said that the question "what is law?" has no simple answer.[31]Glanville Williams said that the meaning of the word "law" depends on the context in which that word is used. He said that, for example, "early customary law" and "municipal law" were contexts where the word "law" had two different and irreconcilable meanings.[32]Thurman Arnold said that it is obvious that it is impossible to define the word "law" and that it is also equally obvious that the struggle to define that word should not ever be abandoned.[33] It is possible to take the view that there is no need to define the word "law" (e.g. "let's forget about generalities and get down tocases").[34]
One definition is that law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behaviour.[1] InThe Concept of Law,H. L. A. Hart argued that law is a "system of rules";[35]John Austin said law was "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction";[36]Ronald Dworkin describes law as an "interpretive concept" to achievejustice in his text titledLaw's Empire;[37] andJoseph Raz argues law is an "authority" to mediate people's interests.[38]Oliver Wendell Holmes defined law as "the prophecies of what the courts will do in fact, and nothing more pretentious."[39] In hisTreatise on Law,Thomas Aquinas argues that law is a rational ordering of things, which concern the common good, that is promulgated by whoever is charged with the care of the community.[40] This definition has bothpositivist andnaturalist elements.[41]
Definitions of law often raise the question of the extent to which law incorporates morality.[42]John Austin'sutilitarian answer was that law is "commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience".[36]Natural lawyers, on the other hand, such asJean-Jacques Rousseau, argue that law reflects essentially moral and unchangeable laws of nature. The concept of "natural law" emerged in ancientGreek philosophy concurrently and in connection with the notion of justice, and re-entered the mainstream ofWestern culture through the writings ofThomas Aquinas, notably hisTreatise on Law.
Hugo Grotius, the founder of a purely rationalistic system of natural law, argued that law arises from both a social impulse—as Aristotle had indicated—and reason.[43]Immanuel Kant believed a moral imperative requires laws "be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature".[44]Jeremy Bentham and his student Austin, followingDavid Hume, believed that this conflated the"is" and what "ought to be" problem. Bentham and Austin argued for law'spositivism; that real law is entirely separate from "morality".[45] Kant was also criticised byFriedrich Nietzsche, who rejected the principle of equality, and believed that law emanates from thewill to power, and cannot be labeled as "moral" or "immoral".[46][47][48]
In 1934, the Austrian philosopherHans Kelsen continued the positivist tradition in his book thePure Theory of Law.[49] Kelsen believed that although law is separate from morality, it is endowed with "normativity", meaning we ought to obey it. While laws are positive "is" statements (e.g. the fine for reversing on a highwayis €500); law tells us what we "should" do. Thus, each legal system can be hypothesised to have a'basic norm' (German:Grundnorm) instructing us to obey. Kelsen's major opponent,Carl Schmitt, rejected both positivism and the idea of therule of law because he did not accept the primacy of abstract normative principles over concrete political positions and decisions.[50] Therefore, Schmitt advocated a jurisprudence of the exception (state of emergency), which denied that legal norms could encompass all of the political experience.[51]
Later in the 20th century,H. L. A. Hart attacked Austin for his simplifications and Kelsen for his fiction inThe Concept of Law.[52] Hart argued law is a system of rules, divided into primary (rules of conduct) and secondary ones (rules addressed to officials to administer primary rules). Secondary rules are further divided into rules of adjudication (to resolve legal disputes), rules of change (allowing laws to be varied) and the rule of recognition (allowing laws to be identified as valid). Two of Hart's students continued the debate: In his bookLaw's Empire,Ronald Dworkin attacked Hart and the positivists for their refusal to treat law as a moral issue. Dworkin argues that law is an "interpretive concept"[37] that requires judges to find the best fitting and most just solution to a legal dispute, given their Anglo-American constitutional traditions.Joseph Raz, on the other hand, defended the positivist outlook and criticised Hart's "soft social thesis" approach inThe Authority of Law.[38] Raz argues that law is authority, identifiable purely through social sources and without reference to moral reasoning. In his view, any categorisation of rules beyond their role as authoritative instruments in mediation is best left tosociology, rather than jurisprudence.[53]
TheCode of Hammurabi is an early code of laws, from ancient Babylon.
The history of law links closely to the development ofcivilization.Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BC, was based on the concept ofMa'at and characterised by tradition,rhetorical speech, social equality and impartiality.[54][55][56] By the 22nd century BC, the ancientSumerian rulerUr-Nammu had formulated the firstlaw code, which consisted ofcasuistic statements ("if … then ..."). Around 1760 BC,King Hammurabi further developedBabylonian law, by codifying and inscribing it in stone. Hammurabi placed several copies of his law code throughout the kingdom of Babylon asstelae, for the entire public to see; this became known as theCodex Hammurabi. The most intact copy of these stelae was discovered in the 19th century by BritishAssyriologists, and has since been fullytransliterated and translated into various languages, including English, Italian, German, and French.[57]
TheOld Testament dates back to 1280 BC and takes the form of moral imperatives as recommendations for a good society. The smallGreek city-state, ancientAthens, from about the 8th century BC was the first society to be based on broad inclusion of its citizenry, excluding women andenslaved people. However, Athens had no legal science or single word for "law",[58] relying instead on the three-way distinction between divine law (thémis), human decree (nomos) and custom (díkē).[59] YetAncient Greek law contained majorconstitutional innovations in the development ofdemocracy.[60]
Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, but its detailed rules were developed by professional jurists and were highly sophisticated.[61][62] Over the centuries between the rise and decline of theRoman Empire, law was adapted to cope with the changing social situations and underwent major codification underTheodosius II andJustinian I.[a] Although codes were replaced bycustom andcase law during theEarly Middle Ages, Roman law was rediscovered around the 11th century when medieval legal scholars began to research Roman codes and adapt their concepts to thecanon law, giving birth to thejus commune. Latinlegal maxims (calledbrocards) were compiled for guidance. In medieval England, royal courts developed a body ofprecedent which later became thecommon law. A Europe-wideLaw Merchant was formed so that merchants could trade with common standards of practice rather than with the many splintered facets of local laws. The Law Merchant, a precursor to modern commercial law, emphasised the freedom to contract and alienability of property.[63] Asnationalism grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Law Merchant was incorporated into countries' local law under new civil codes. TheNapoleonic andGerman Codes became the most influential. In contrast to English common law, which consists of enormous tomes of case law, codes in small books are easy to export and easy for judges to apply. However, today there are signs that civil and common law are converging.[64] EU law is codified in treaties, but develops throughde facto precedent laid down by theEuropean Court of Justice.[65]
TheConstitution of India, ceremonially rendered as an illustrated and calligraphed manuscript.
AncientIndia andChina represent distinct traditions of law, and have historically had independent schools of legal theory and practice. TheArthashastra, probably compiled around 100 AD (although it contains older material), and theManusmriti (c. 100–300 AD) were foundational treatises in India, and comprise texts considered authoritative legal guidance.[66] Manu's central philosophy was tolerance andpluralism, and was cited across Southeast Asia.[67] During theMuslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent,sharia was established by the Muslim sultanates and empires, most notablyMughal Empire'sFatawa-e-Alamgiri, compiled by emperorAurangzeb and various scholars of Islam.[68][69] In India, theHindu legal tradition, along with Islamic law, were both supplanted by common law when Indiabecame part of theBritish Empire.[70] Malaysia, Brunei,Singapore andHong Kong also adopted the common law system. The Eastern Asia legal tradition reflects a unique blend of secular and religious influences.[71] Japan was the first country to begin modernising its legal system along Western lines, by importing parts of theFrench, but mostly the German Civil Code.[72] This partly reflected Germany's status as a rising power in the late 19th century.
Similarly,traditional Chinese law gave way to westernisation towards the final years of theQing Dynasty in the form of six private law codes based mainly on the Japanese model of German law.[73] TodayTaiwanese law retains the closest affinity to the codifications from that period, because of the split betweenChiang Kai-shek's nationalists, who fled there, andMao Zedong's communists who won control of the mainland in 1949. The current legal infrastructure in the People's Republic of China was heavily influenced bySovietSocialist law, which essentially prioritisesadministrative law at the expense of private law rights.[74] Due to rapid industrialisation, today China is undergoing a process of reform, at least in terms of economic, if not social and political, rights. A new contract code in 1999 represented a move away from administrative domination.[75] Furthermore, after negotiations lasting fifteen years, in 2001 China joined theWorld Trade Organization.[76]
In general, legal systems can be split between civil law and common law systems.[77] Modern scholars argue that the significance of this distinction has progressively declined. The numerouslegal transplants, typical of modern law, result in the sharing of many features traditionally considered typical of either common law or civil law.[64][78] The third type of legal system is religious law, based onscriptures. The specific system that a country is ruled by is often determined by its history, connections with other countries, or its adherence to international standards. Thesources that jurisdictions adopt as authoritatively binding are the defining features of any legal system.
Colour-coded map of the legal systems around the world, showing civil, common law, religious, customary and mixed legal systems.[79][additional citation(s) needed] Common law systems are shaded pink, and civil law systems are shaded blue/turquoise.
Civil law is the legal system used in most countries around the world today. In civil law the sources recognised as authoritative are, primarily,legislation—especiallycodifications in constitutions orstatutes passed by government—andcustom.[b] Codifications date back millennia, with one early example being theBabylonianCodex Hammurabi. Modern civil law systems essentially derive from legal codes issued byByzantine EmperorJustinian I in the 6th century, which were rediscovered by 11th century Italy.[80] Roman law in the days of theRoman Republic and Empire was heavily procedural, and lacked a professional legal class.[81] Instead a laymagistrate,iudex, was chosen to adjudicate. Decisions were not published in any systematic way, so any case law that developed was disguised and almost unrecognised.[82] Each case was to be decided afresh from the laws of the State, which mirrors the (theoretical) unimportance of judges' decisions for future cases in civil law systems today. From 529 to 534 AD theByzantine EmperorJustinian I codified and consolidated Roman law up until that point, so that what remained was one-twentieth of the mass of legal texts from before.[83] This became known as theCorpus Juris Civilis. As one legal historian wrote, "Justinian consciously looked back to the golden age of Roman law and aimed to restore it to the peak it had reached three centuries before."[84] The Justinian Code remained in force in the East until the fall of theByzantine Empire. Western Europe, meanwhile, relied on a mix of theTheodosian Code and Germanic customary law until the Justinian Code was rediscovered in the 11th century, which scholars at theUniversity of Bologna used to interpret their own laws.[85] Civil law codifications based closely on Roman law, alongside some influences fromreligious laws such ascanon law, continued to spread throughout Europe until theEnlightenment. Then, in the 19th century, both France, with theCode Civil, and Germany, with theBürgerliches Gesetzbuch, modernised their legal codes. Both these codes heavily influenced not only the law systems of the countries in continental Europe but also theJapanese andKorean legal traditions.[86][87] A centraldoctrine incontinental European legal thinking, originating inGermanjurisprudence, is the cocpet of aRechtsstaat, meaning that everyone is subjected to the law, especially governments.[88] Today, countries that have civil law systems range from Russia and Turkey to most ofCentral andLatin America.[89]
Incommon law legal systems, decisions by courts are explicitly acknowledged as "law" on equal footing with legislativestatutes and executiveregulations. The "doctrine of precedent", orstare decisis (Latin for "to stand by decisions") means that decisions by higher courts bind lower courts to assure that similar cases reach similar results. Incontrast, incivil law systems, legislative statutes are typically more detailed, and judicial decisions are shorter and less detailed because the adjudicator is only writing to decide the single case, rather than to set out reasoning that will guide future courts.
Common law originated from England and has been inherited by almost every country once tied to theBritish Empire (except Malta,Scotland, the U.S. state ofLouisiana, and the Canadian province ofQuebec). In medieval England during theNorman Conquest, the law varied shire-to-shire based on disparate tribal customs. The concept of a "common law" developed during the reign ofHenry II during the late 12th century, when Henry appointed judges who had the authority to create an institutionalised and unified system of law common to the country. The next major step in the evolution of the common law came whenKing John was forced by his barons to sign a document limiting his authority to pass laws. This "great charter" orMagna Carta of 1215 also required that the King's entourage of judges hold their courts and judgments at "a certain place" rather than dispensing autocratic justice in unpredictable places about the country.[90] A concentrated and elite group of judges acquired a dominant role in law-making under this system, and compared to its European counterparts the English judiciary became highly centralised. In 1297, for instance, while the highest court in France had fifty-one judges, theEnglish Court of Common Pleas had five.[91] This powerful and tight-knit judiciary gave rise to a systematised process of developing common law.[92]
As time went on, many felt that the common law was overly systematised and inflexible, and increasing numbers of citizens petitioned the King to override the common law. On the King's behalf, theLord Chancellor started giving judgments to do what was equitable in a case. From the time ofSir Thomas More, the firstlawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body ofequity grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its ownCourt of Chancery. At first, equity was often criticised as erratic.[93] Over time, courts of equity developed solidprinciples, especially underLord Eldon.[94] In the 19th century in England, and in1937 in the U.S., the two systems weremerged.
In developing the common law,academic writings have always played an important part, both to collect overarching principles from dispersed case law and to argue for change.William Blackstone, from around 1760, was the first scholar to collect, describe, and teach the common law.[95] But merely in describing, scholars who sought explanations and underlying structures slowly changed the way the law actually worked.[96]
Religious law is explicitly based on religious precepts. Examples include the JewishHalakha and IslamicSharia—both of which translate as the "path to follow". Christiancanon law also survives in some church communities. Often the implication of religion for law is unalterability because the word of God cannot be amended or legislated against by judges or governments.[97] Nonetheless, most religious jurisdictions rely on further human elaboration to provide for thorough and detailed legal systems. For instance, theQuran has some law, and it acts as a source of further law through interpretation,Qiyas (reasoning by analogy),Ijma (consensus) andprecedent.[98] This is mainly contained in a body of law and jurisprudence known asSharia andFiqh respectively. Another example is theTorah orOld Testament, in thePentateuch or Five Books of Moses. This contains the basic code of Jewish law, which some Israeli communities choose to use. TheHalakha is a code of Jewish law that summarizes some of the Talmud's interpretations.
Roman Catholic canon law is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements:courts,lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code, principles of legal interpretation, and coercive penalties, though it lacks civilly-binding force in most secular jurisdictions.[106]
Until the 18th century, Sharia law was practiced throughout theMuslim world in a non-codified form, with theOttoman Empire'sMecelle code in the 19th century being a first attempt atcodifying elements of Sharia law. Since the mid-1940s, efforts have been made, in country after country, to bring Sharia law more into line with modern conditions and conceptions.[107][108] In modern times, the legal systems of many Muslim countries draw upon both civil and common law traditions as well as Islamic law and custom. The constitutions of certain Muslim states, such as Egypt and Afghanistan, recognise Islam as the religion of the state, obliging legislature to adhere to Sharia.[109]Saudi Arabia recognises the Quran as its constitution, and is governed on the basis of Islamic law.[110] Iran has also witnessed a reiteration of Islamic law intoits legal system after 1979.[111] During the last few decades, one of the fundamental features of the movement ofIslamic resurgence has been the call to restore the Sharia, which has generated a vast amount of literature and affectedworld politics.[112]
Socialist law is the legal systems incommunist states such as the formerSoviet Union and the People's Republic of China.[113] Academic opinion is divided on whether it is a separate system from civil law, given major deviations based onMarxist–Leninist ideology, such as subordinating the judiciary to the executive ruling party.[113][114][115]
Legal methods
There are distinguished methods of legal reasoning (applying the law) and methods of interpreting (construing) the law. The former arelegal syllogism, which holds sway in civil law legal systems,analogy, which is present in common law legal systems, especially in the US, and argumentative theories that occur in both systems. The latter are different rules (directives) of legal interpretation such as directives of linguistic interpretation, teleological interpretation or systemic interpretation as well as more specific rules, for instance,golden rule ormischief rule. There are also many other arguments and cannons of interpretation which altogether makestatutory interpretation possible.
Law professor and formerUnited States Attorney GeneralEdward H. Levi noted that the "basic pattern of legal reasoning is reasoning by example"—that is, reasoning by comparing outcomes in cases resolving similar legal questions.[116] In a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding procedural efforts taken by a debt collection company to avoid errors, JusticeSotomayor cautioned that "legal reasoning is not a mechanical or strictly linear process".[117]
Jurimetrics is the formal application of quantitative methods, especiallyprobability andstatistics, to legal questions. The use of statistical methods in court cases and law review articles has grown massively in importance in the last few decades.[118][119]
Legal institutions
It is a real unity of them all in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with every man, in such manner as if every man should say to every man: I authorise and give up my right of governing myself to this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition; that thou givest up, thy right to him, and authorise all his actions in like manner.
Max Weber and others reshaped thinking on the extension of state. Modern military, policing and bureaucratic power over ordinary citizens' daily lives pose special problems for accountability that earlier writers such as Locke or Montesquieu could not have foreseen. The custom and practice of the legal profession is an important part of people's access tojustice, whilst civil society is a term used to refer to the social institutions, communities and partnerships that form law's political basis.
A judiciary is a number of judges mediating disputes to determine outcome. Most countries have systems of appeal courts, with anapex court as the ultimate judicial authority. In the United States, this authority is theSupreme Court;[123] in Australia, theHigh Court; in India,the Supreme Court of India; in the UK, theSupreme Court;[124] in Germany, theBundesverfassungsgericht; and in France, theCour de Cassation.[125][126] For most European countries the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg can overrule national law, when EU law is relevant. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg allows citizens of theCouncil of Europe member states to bring cases relating to human rights issues before it.[127]
A judiciary is theoretically bound by the constitution, just as all other government bodies are. In most countries judges may onlyinterpret the constitution and all other laws. But in common law countries, where matters are not constitutional, the judiciary may also create law under thedoctrine of precedent. The UK, Finland and New Zealand assert the ideal ofparliamentary sovereignty, whereby the unelected judiciary may not overturn law passed by a democratic legislature.[129]
Incommunist states, such as China, the courts are often regarded as parts of the executive, or subservient to the legislature; governmental institutions and actors exert thus various forms of influence on the judiciary.[d] In Muslim countries, courts often examine whether state laws adhere to the Sharia: theSupreme Constitutional Court of Egypt may invalidate such laws,[130] and in Iran theGuardian Council ensures the compatibility of the legislation with the "criteria of Islam".[130][131]
Prominent examples of legislatures are theHouses of Parliament in London, theCongress in Washington, D.C., theBundestag in Berlin, theDuma in Moscow, theParlamento Italiano in Rome and theAssemblée nationale in Paris. By the principle of representative government people vote for politicians to carry outtheir wishes. Although countries like Israel, Greece, Sweden and China areunicameral, most countries arebicameral, meaning they have two separately appointed legislative houses.[132]
In the 'lower house' politicians are elected to represent smallerconstituencies. The 'upper house' is usually elected to represent states in afederal system (as in Australia, Germany or the United States) or different voting configuration in a unitary system (as in France). In the UK the upper house is appointed by the government as ahouse of review. One criticism of bicameral systems with two elected chambers is that the upper and lower houses may simply mirror one another. The traditional justification of bicameralism is that an upper chamber acts as a house of review. This can minimise arbitrariness and injustice in governmental action.[132]
To pass legislation, a majority of the members of a legislature mustvote for abill (proposed law) in each house. Normally there will be several readings and amendments proposed by the different political factions. If a country has an entrenched constitution, a special majority for changes to the constitution may be required, making changes to the law more difficult. A government usually leads the process, which can be formed from Members of Parliament (e.g. the UK or Germany). However, in a presidential system, the government is usually formed by an executive and his or her appointed cabinet officials (e.g. the United States or Brazil).[e]
TheG20 meetings are composed of representatives of each country's executive branch.
The executive in a legal system serves as the centre of politicalauthority of theState. In aparliamentary system, as with Britain, Italy, Germany, India, and Japan, the executive is known as the cabinet, and composed of members of the legislature. The executive is led by thehead of government, whose office holds power under theconfidence of the legislature. Because popular elections appoint political parties to govern, the leader of a party can change in between elections.[133]
Although the role of the executive varies from country to country, usually it will propose the majority of legislation, and propose government agenda. In presidential systems, the executive often has the power to veto legislation. Most executives in both systems are responsible forforeign relations, the military and police, and the bureaucracy.Ministers or other officials head a country's public offices, such as aforeign ministry ordefence ministry. The election of a different executive is therefore capable of revolutionising an entire country's approach to government.
While military organisations have existed as long as government itself, the idea of a standing police force is a relatively modern concept. For example,Medieval England's system of travellingcriminal courts, orassizes, usedshow trials and public executions to instill communities with fear to maintain control.[135] The first modern police were probably those in 17th-century Paris, in the court ofLouis XIV,[136] although the Paris Prefecture of Police claim they were the world's first uniformed policemen.[137]
Max Weber famously argued that the state is that which controls themonopoly on the legitimate use of force.[138][139] The military and police carry out enforcement at the request of the government or the courts. The termfailed state refers to states that cannot implement or enforce policies; their police and military no longer control security and order and society moves into anarchy, the absence of government.[f]
The etymology ofbureaucracy derives from the French word foroffice (bureau) and theAncient Greek for wordpower (kratos).[140][better source needed] Like the military and police, a legal system's government servants and bodies that make up its bureaucracy carry out the directives of the executive. One of the earliest references to the concept was made byBaron de Grimm, a German author who lived in France. In 1765, he wrote:
The real spirit of the laws in France is that bureaucracy of which the late Monsieur de Gournay used to complain so greatly; here the offices, clerks, secretaries, inspectors andintendants are not appointed to benefit the public interest, indeed the public interest appears to have been established so that offices might exist.[141]
Cynicism over "officialdom" is still common, and the workings of public servants is typically contrasted toprivate enterprise motivated byprofit.[142] In fact private companies, especially large ones, also have bureaucracies.[143] Negative perceptions of "red tape" aside, public services such as schooling, health care, policing or public transport are considered a crucial state function making public bureaucratic action the locus of government power.[143]
Writing in the early 20th century, Max Weber believed that a definitive feature of a developed state had come to be its bureaucratic support.[144] Weber wrote that the typical characteristics of modern bureaucracy are that officials define its mission, the scope of work is bound by rules, and management is composed of career experts who manage top down, communicating through writing and binding public servants' discretion with rules.[145]
A corollary of the rule of law is the existence of a legal profession sufficiently autonomous to invoke the authority of the independent judiciary; the right to assistance of abarrister in a court proceeding emanates from this corollary—in England the function of barrister or advocate is distinguished from legal counselor.[146] As the European Court of Human Rights has stated, the law should be adequately accessible to everyone and people should be able to foresee how the law affects them.[147]
Many Muslim countries have developed similar rules about legal education and the legal profession, but some still allow lawyers with training in traditional Islamic law to practice law before personal status law courts.[150] In China and other developing countries there are not sufficient professionally trained people to staff the existing judicial systems, and, accordingly, formal standards are more relaxed.[151]
Once accredited, a lawyer will often work in alaw firm, in achambers as a sole practitioner, in a government post or in a private corporation as an internalcounsel. In addition a lawyer may become alegal researcher who provides on-demand legal research through a library, a commercial service or freelance work. Many people trained in law put their skills to use outside the legal field entirely.[152]
Significant to the practice of law in the common law tradition is the legal research to determine the current state of the law. This usually entails exploringcase-law reports,legal periodicals and legislation. Law practice also involves drafting documents such as courtpleadings, persuasivebriefs, contracts, orwills and trusts. Negotiation anddispute resolution skills (includingADR techniques) are also important to legal practice, depending on the field.[152]
Hegel believed thatcivil society and thestate were polar opposites, within the scheme of his dialectic theory of history. The modern dipole state–civil society was reproduced in the theories ofAlexis de Tocqueville andKarl Marx.[157][158] In post-modern theory, civil society is necessarily a source of law, by being the basis from which people form opinions and lobby for what they believe law should be. As Australian barrister and authorGeoffrey Robertson QC wrote of international law, "one of its primary modern sources is found in the responses of ordinary men and women, and of the non-governmental organizations which many of them support, to the human rights abuses they see on the television screen in their living rooms."[159]
Freedom of speech,freedom of association and many otherindividual rights allow people to gather, discuss, criticise and hold to account their governments, from which the basis of adeliberative democracy is formed. The more people are involved with, concerned by and capable of changing how political power is exercised over their lives, the more acceptable andlegitimate the law becomes to the people. The most familiar institutions of civil society include economic markets, profit-oriented firms, families, trade unions, hospitals, universities, schools, charities,debating clubs, non-governmental organisations, neighbourhoods, churches, and religious associations. There is no clear legal definition of the civil society, and of the institutions it includes. Most of the institutions and bodies who try to give a list of institutions (such as theEuropean Economic and Social Committee) exclude the political parties.[160][161][162]
All legal systems deal with the same basic issues, but jurisdictions categorise and identify their legal topics in different ways. A common distinction is that between "public law" (a term related closely to thestate, and including constitutional, administrative and criminal law), and "private law" (which covers contract,tort and property).[g] Incivil law systems, contract and tort fall under a generallaw of obligations, while trusts law is dealt with under statutory regimes orinternational conventions. International, constitutional and administrative law, criminal law, contract, tort, property law andtrusts are regarded as the "traditional core subjects",[h] although there are manyfurther disciplines.
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. Thesources for public international law development arecustom, practice and treaties between sovereign nations, such as theGeneva Conventions. Public international law can be formed byinternational organisations, such as the United Nations (which was established after the failure of theLeague of Nations to prevent World War II),[i] theInternational Labour Organisation, theWorld Trade Organisation (WTO), or theInternational Monetary Fund. Public international law has a special status as law because there is no international police force, and courts (e.g. theInternational Court of Justice as the primary UN judicial organ) lack the capacity to penalise disobedience. The prevailing manner of enforcing international law is still essentially "self help"; that is the reaction by states to alleged breaches of international obligations by other states.[164][1][165] However, a few bodies, such as the WTO, have effective systems of binding arbitration and dispute resolution backed up by trade sanctions.[166]
Conflict of laws, or private international law incivil law countries, concerns whichjurisdiction a legal dispute between private parties should be heard in and which jurisdiction's law should be applied. Today, businesses are increasingly capable of shiftingcapital andlabour supply chains across borders, as well as trading with overseas businesses, making the question of which country has jurisdiction even more pressing. Increasing numbers of businesses opt for commercial arbitration under theNew York Convention 1958.[167]
European Union law is the first and so far the only example of asupranational law, i.e. an internationally accepted legal system, other than theUnited Nations and theWorld Trade Organization. Given the trend of increasing global economic integration, many regional agreements—especially theAfrican Union—seek to follow a similar model.[168][169] In the EU, sovereign nations have gathered their authority in a system of courts and theEuropean Parliament. These institutions are allowed the ability to enforce legal norms both against or for member states and citizens in a manner which is not possible through public international law.[170] As theEuropean Court of Justice noted in its 1963Van Gend en Loos decision, European Union law constitutes "a new legal order of international law" for the mutual social and economic benefit of the member states.[171][172][173]
Constitutional and administrative law govern the affairs of the state. Constitutional law concerns both the relationships between the executive, legislature and judiciary and the human rights orcivil liberties of individuals against the state. Most jurisdictions, like theUnited States andFrance, have a single codified constitution with abill of rights. A few, like theUnited Kingdom, have no such document. A "constitution" is simply those laws which constitute thebody politic, fromstatute,case law andconvention.
The fundamental constitutional principle, inspired byJohn Locke, holds thatthe individual can do anything except that which is forbidden by law, and the state may do nothing except that which is authorised by law.[174][175] Administrative law is the chief method for people to hold state bodies to account. People (wheresoever allowed) may potentially have prerogative to legally challenge (or sue) an agency, local council, public service, or government ministry forjudicial review of the offendingedict (law, ordinance, policy order). Such challenge vets the ability of actionable authority under the law, and that the government entity observed required procedure. The first specialist administrative court was theConseil d'État set up in 1799, asNapoleon assumed power in France.[176]
Criminal law, also known as penal law, pertains to crimes and punishment.[177] It thus regulates the definition of and penalties for offences found to have a sufficiently deleterious social impact but, in itself, makes no moral judgment on an offender nor imposes restrictions on society that physically prevent people from committing a crime in the first place.[178][179] Investigating, apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law ofcriminal procedure.[180] Theparadigm case of a crime lies in the proof,beyond reasonable doubt, that a person is guilty of two things. First, the accused must commit an act which is deemed by society to be criminal, oractus reus (guilty act).[181] Second, the accused must have the requisitemalicious intent to do a criminal act, ormens rea (guilty mind). However, for so called "strict liability" crimes, anactus reus is enough.[182] Criminal systems of the civil law tradition distinguish between intention in the broad sense (dolus directus anddolus eventualis), and negligence. Negligence does not carry criminal responsibility unless a particular crime provides for its punishment.[183][184]
Adolf Eichmann (standing in glass booth at left) being sentenced to death at the conclusion ofhis 1961 trial, an example of a criminal law proceeding
Examples of crimes include murder, assault, fraud and theft. In exceptional circumstances defences can apply to specific acts, such as killing inself defence, or pleadinginsanity. Another example is in the 19th-century English case ofR v Dudley and Stephens, which tested whether a defence of "necessity" could justify murder and cannibalism to survive a shipwreck.[185]
Criminal law offences are viewed as offences against not just individual victims, but the community as well.[178][179] The state, usually with the help of police, takes the lead in prosecution, which is why in common law countries cases are cited as "The People v ..." or "R (forRex orRegina) v ...". Also, layjuries are often used to determine the guilt of defendants on points of fact: juries cannot change legal rules. Some developed countries still condone capital punishment for criminal activity, but the normal punishment for a crime will beimprisonment,fines, state supervision (such as probation), orcommunity service. Modern criminal law has been affected considerably by the social sciences, especially with respect tosentencing, legal research, legislation, andrehabilitation.[186] On the international field, 111 countries aremembers of theInternational Criminal Court, which was established to try people forcrimes against humanity.[187]
Consideration indicates the fact that all parties to a contract have exchanged something of value. Some common law systems, including Australia, are moving away from the idea of consideration as a requirement. The idea ofestoppel orculpa in contrahendo, can be used to create obligations during pre-contractual negotiations.[189]
Civil law jurisdictions treat contracts differently in a number of respects, with a more interventionist role for the state in both the formation and enforcement of contracts.[190] Compared to common law jurisdictions, civil law systems incorporate more mandatory terms into contracts, allow greater latitude for courts to interpret and revise contract terms and impose a strongerduty of good faith, but are also more likely to enforcepenalty clauses andspecific performance of contracts.[190] They also do not require consideration for a contract to be binding.[191] In France, an ordinary contract is said to form simply on the basis of a "meeting of the minds" or a "concurrence of wills".Germany has a special approach to contracts, which ties into property law. Their 'abstraction principle' (Abstraktionsprinzip) means that the personal obligation of contract forms separately from the title of property being conferred. When contracts are invalidated for some reason (e.g. a car buyer is so drunk that he lacks legal capacity to contract)[192] the contractual obligation to pay can be invalidated separately from the proprietary title of the car.Unjust enrichment law, rather than contract law, is then used to restore title to the rightful owner.[193]
Certaincivil wrongs are grouped together astorts under common law systems anddelicts under civil law systems.[194] To have acted tortiously, one must have breached a duty to another person, or infringed some pre-existing legal right. A simple example might be unintentionally hitting someone with a ball.[195] Under the law ofnegligence, the most common form of tort, the injured party could potentially claim compensation for their injuries from the party responsible. The principles of negligence are illustrated byDonoghue v Stevenson.[j] A friend of Donoghue ordered an opaque bottle ofginger beer (intended for the consumption of Donoghue) in a café inPaisley. Having consumed half of it, Donoghue poured the remainder into a tumbler. The decomposing remains of a snail floated out. She claimed to have suffered from shock, fell ill with gastroenteritis and sued the manufacturer for carelessly allowing the drink to be contaminated. TheHouse of Lords decided that the manufacturer was liable for Mrs Donoghue's illness.Lord Atkin took a distinctly moral approach and said:
The liability for negligence [...] is no doubt based upon a general public sentiment of moral wrongdoing for which the offender must pay. [...] The rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law, you must not injure your neighbour; and thelawyer's question, Who is my neighbour? receives a restricted reply. You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour.[196]
This became the basis for the four principles of negligence, namely that:
Stevenson owed Donoghue aduty of care to provide safe drinks;
Another example of tort might be a neighbour making excessively loud noises with machinery on his property.[197] Under anuisance claim the noise could be stopped. Torts can also involve intentional acts such asassault,battery ortrespass. A better known tort isdefamation, which occurs, for example, when a newspaper makes unsupportable allegations that damage a politician's reputation.[198] More infamous are economic torts, which form the basis oflabour law in some countries by making trade unions liable for strikes,[199] when statute does not provide immunity.[k]
Property law governs ownership and possession.Real property, sometimes called 'real estate', refers to ownership of land and things attached to it.[201]Personal property, refers to everything else; movable objects, such as computers, cars, jewelry or intangible rights, such asstocks and shares. A rightin rem is a right to a specific piece of property, contrasting to a rightin personam which allows compensation for a loss, but not a particular thing back. Land law forms the basis for most kinds of property law, and is the most complex. It concernsmortgages,rental agreements,licences,covenants,easements and the statutory systems for land registration. Regulations on the use of personal property fall under intellectual property,company law,trusts andcommercial law.
A representative example of property law is the 1722 suit ofArmory v Delamirie, applyingEnglish law.[202] A child was deprived of possession of the gemstones that had been set in piece of jewellery, by the businessperson entrusted to appraise the piece. The court articulated that, according to the view of property in common law jurisdictions, the person who can show thebest claim to a piece of property, against any contesting party, is the owner.[203] By contrast, the classic civil law approach to property, propounded byFriedrich Carl von Savigny, is that it is a right good against the world. Obligations, like contracts and torts, are conceptualised as rights good between individuals.[204] The idea of property raises many further philosophical and political issues. Locke argued that our "lives, liberties and estates" are our property because we own our bodies andmix our labour with our surroundings.[205]
In historicalEnglish law, the common law did not permit dividing theownership from thecontrol of one piece of property—but the law of equity did recognize this through an arrangement known as a trust. Trustees control property whereas the beneficial, or equitable, ownership of trust property is held by people known as beneficiaries. Trustees owe duties to their beneficiaries to take good care of the entrusted property.[206] Another example of a trustee's duty might be to invest property wisely or sell it.[207] This is especially the case for pension funds, the most important form of trust, where investors are trustees for people's savings until retirement. But trusts can also be set up forcharitable purposes.
Some international norms for the structure and regulation of trusts are set out in theHague Trust Convention of 1985.
Admiralty law and thesea law 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 assalvage,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, andrelated rights) which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, literary and artistic fields.[210]
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 asspace commercialisation, property, liability, and other issues.
Banking law andfinancial 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 theWall Street crash of 1929.
Regulation deals with the provision ofpublic services and utilities.Water law is one example. Especially sinceprivatisation 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 andwater are regulated industries in mostOECD countries.
Competition law, known in the United States asantitrust law, is an evolving field that traces as far back asRoman decrees againstprice fixing and the Englishrestraint of trade doctrine. Modern competition law derives from the U.S. anti-cartel and anti-monopoly statutes (theSherman Act andClayton 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 ofconsumer welfare.
Consumer law could include anything from regulations on unfaircontractual terms and clauses to directives on airline baggage insurance.
Environmental law is increasingly important, especially in light of theKyoto Protocol and the potential danger ofclimate change. Environmental protection also serves to penalisepolluters within domestic legal systems.
Aviation law deals with all regulations and technical standards applicable to the safe operation of aircraft, and is an essential part both of pilots' training and pilot's operations. It is framed by national civil aviation acts (or laws), themselves mostly aligned with the recommendations or mandatory standards of theInternational Civil Aviation Organisation or ICAO.
In the 18th century,Adam Smith presented a philosophical foundation for explaining the relationship between law and economics.[l] The discipline arose partly out of a critique of trade unions and U.S.antitrust law.[citation needed]
The most prominent economic analyst of law[citation needed] isRonald Coase, whose first major article,The Nature of the Firm (1937), argued that the reason for the existence of firms (companies, partnerships, etc.) is the existence oftransaction costs.[211]Rational individuals trade through bilateral contracts on open markets until the costs of transactions mean that using corporations to produce things is more cost-effective. His second major article,The Problem of Social Cost (1960), argued that if we lived in a world without transaction costs, people wouldbargain with one another to create the same allocation of resources, regardless of the way a court might rule in property disputes. He contended that law ought to be pre-emptive, and be guided by the mostefficient solution.[212]
The sociology of law examines the interaction of law with society and overlaps with jurisprudence, philosophy of law, social theory and more specialised subjects such ascriminology.[214][215] It is a transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary study focused on the theorisation and empirical study of legal practices and experiences as social phenomena. The institutions ofsocial construction,social norms, dispute processing andlegal culture are key areas for inquiry in this knowledge field. In the United States, the field is usually called law and society studies; in Europe, it is more often referred to as socio-legal studies. At first, jurists and legal philosophers were suspicious of sociology of law. Kelsen attacked one of its founders,Eugen Ehrlich, who sought to make clear the differences and connections between positive law, which lawyers learn and apply, and other forms of 'law' or social norms that regulate everyday life, generally preventing conflicts from reaching lawyers and courts.[216] Contemporary research in the sociology of law is concerned with the way that law develops outside discrete state jurisdictions, being produced through social interaction in social arenas, and acquiring a diversity of sources of authority in national and transnational communal networks.[217]
Max Weber, who began his career as a lawyer, and is regarded as one of the founders of sociology and sociology of law
Around 1900,Max Weber defined his "scientific" approach to law, identifying the "legal rational form" as a type of domination, not attributable to personal authority but to the authority of abstract norms.[218] Formal legal rationality was his term for the key characteristic of the kind of coherent and calculable law that was a precondition for modern political developments and the modern bureaucratic state. Weber saw this law as having developed in parallel with the growth of capitalism.[214][215] Another sociologist,Émile Durkheim, wrote in his classic workThe Division of Labour in Society that as society becomes more complex, the body of civil law concerned primarily with restitution and compensation grows at the expense of criminal laws and penal sanctions.[219][220] Other notable early legal sociologists includedHugo Sinzheimer,Theodor Geiger,Georges Gurvitch andLeon Petrażycki in Europe, andWilliam Graham Sumner in the U.S.[221][222]
^As a legal system, Roman law has affected the development of law worldwide. It also forms the basis for the law codes of most countries of continental Europe and has played an important role in the creation of the idea of a common European culture (Stein,Roman Law in European History, 2, 104–107).
^Civil law jurisdictions recognise custom as "the other source of law"; hence, scholars tend to divide the civil law into the broad categories of "written law" (ius scriptum) or legislation, and "unwritten law" (ius non-scriptum) or custom. Yet they tend to dismiss custom as being of slight importance compared to legislation (Georgiadis,General Principles of Civil Law, 19; Washofsky,Taking Precedent Seriously, 7).
^«In one of his elaborate orations in the United States Senate Mr. Charles Sumner spoke of "the generous presumption of the common law in favor of the innocence of an accused person;" yet it must be admitted that such a presumption cannot be found in Anglo-Saxon law, where sometimes the presumption seems to have been the other way. And in a very recent case in the Supreme Court of the United States, the case of Coffin, 156 U. S. 432, it is pointed out that this presumption was fully established in the Roman law, and was preserved in the canon law.»[105]
^E.g., the court president is a political appointee (Jensen–Heller,Introduction, 11–12). About the notion of "judicial independence" in China, see Findlay,Judiciary in the PRC, 282–284
^About "cabinet accountability" in both presidential and parliamentary systems, see Shugart–Haggard,Presidential Systems, 67 etc.
^In these cases sovereignty is eroded, and often warlords acquire excessive powers (Fukuyama,State-Building, 166–167).
^Although many scholars argue that "the boundaries between public and private law are becoming blurred", and that this distinction has become mere "folklore" (Bergkamp,Liability and Environment, 1–2).
^E.g. in England these seven subjects, with EU law substituted for international law, make up a "qualifying law degree". For criticism, seePeter Birks' poignant comments attached to a previous version of theNotice to Law SchoolsArchived 20 June 2009 at theWayback Machine.
^Winston Churchill (The Hinge of Fate, 719) comments on the League of Nations' failure: "It was wrong to say that the League failed. It was rather the member states who had failed the League."[163]
^According to Malloy, Smith established "a classical liberal philosophy that made individuals the key referential sign while acknowledging that we live not alone but in community with others".(Law and Economics, 114)
^Núñez Vaquero, Álvaro (10 June 2013)."Five Models of Legal Science".Revus. Journal for Constitutional Theory and Philosophy of Law / Revija za ustavno teorijo in filozofijo prava (19):53–81.doi:10.4000/revus.2449.ISSN1581-7652.Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved31 December 2019.
^Mason, Anthony (1996)."The Judge as Law-maker"(PDF).James Cook University Mayo Lecture.Archived(PDF) from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved31 December 2019.
^Berman, Harold J. (1983). "Religious Foundations of Law in the West: An Historical Perspective".Journal of Law and Religion.1 (1). Cambridge University Press:3–43.doi:10.2307/1051071.JSTOR1051071.S2CID146933872.
^Fox, Jonathan; Sandler, Shmuel (1 April 2005). "Separation of Religion and State in the Twenty-First Century: Comparing the Middle East and Western Democracies".Comparative Politics.37 (3): 317.doi:10.2307/20072892.JSTOR20072892.
^Otto, Jan Michiel, ed. (2010).Sharia incorporated: a comparative overview of the legal systems of twelve Muslim countries in past and present. Leiden University Press.ISBN9789087280574.
^Bor, Fredric L. (1974). "The nexus between philosophy and law".Journal of Legal Education.26 (4):539–543.ISSN0022-2208.JSTOR42896964.
^Rubin, Paul H."Law and Economics".The Library of Economics and Liberty. Liberty Fund, Inc.Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved31 December 2019.
^Banakar, Reza (2003).Merging law and sociology : beyond the dichotomies in socio-legal research. Berlin/Wisconsin: Galda and Wilch Publishing.ISBN1-931255-13-X.
^Williams, Glanville. International Law and the Controversy Concerning the Meaning of the Word "Law". Revised version published in Laslett (Editor),Philosophy, Politics and Society (1956) p. 134 et seq. The original was published in (1945) 22BYBIL 146.
^Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "The Path of Law" (1897) 10Harvard Law Review 457 at 461.
^Aquinas, St Thomas.Summa Theologica. 1a2ae, 90.4. Translated by J G Dawson. Ed d'Entreves. (Basil Blackwell). Latin: "nihil est aliud qau edam rationis ordinatio ad bonum commune, ab eo qi curam communitatis habet, promulgata".
^McCoubrey, Hilaire and White, Nigel D.Textbook on Jurisprudence. Second Edition. Blackstone Press Limited. 1996.ISBN1-85431-582-X. p. 73.
^Taylor, T. W. (January 1896). "The Conception of Morality in Jurisprudence".The Philosophical Review.5 (1):36–50.doi:10.2307/2176104.JSTOR2176104.
^Marmor, Andrei (1934)."The Pure Theory of Law".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved9 February 2007.
^Bielefeldt,Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism, 25–26
^Clarke, M. A.; Hooley, R. J. A.; Munday, R. J. C.; Sealy, L. S.; Tettenborn, A. M.; Turner, P. G. (2017).Commercial Law. Oxford University Press. p. 14.ISBN9780199692088.Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved10 December 2020.
^McAuliffe, Karen (21 February 2013). "Precedent at the Court of Justice of the European Union: The Linguistic Aspect". In Michael Freeman; Fiona Smith (eds.).Law and Language: Current Legal Issues, Volume 15. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780199673667. Archived fromthe original on 1 January 2020. Retrieved1 January 2020.
^For discussion of the composition and dating of these sources, see Olivelle,Manu's Code of Law, 18–25.
^Pollock (ed)Table Talk ofJohn Selden (1927) 43; "Equity is a roguish thing. For law we have a measure... equity is according to the conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is longer or narrower, so is equity. 'Tis all one as if they should make the standard for the measure a Chancellor's foot."
^Ferrari, Silvio (2012). "Chapter 4: Canon Law as a Religious Legal System". In Huxley, Andrew (ed.).Religion, Law and Tradition: Comparative Studies in Religious Law. Routledge. p. 51.ISBN978-1-136-13250-6.Divine law... is eternal and cannot be changed by any human authority.
^Boudinhon, Auguste (1910)."Canon Law".The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Archived fromthe original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved9 August 2013.
^Wiesner-Hanks, Merry (2011).Gender in History: Global Perspectives. Wiley Blackwell. p. 37.
^Raymond Wacks,Law: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Ed. (Oxford University Press, 2015) pg. 13.
^Peters, Edward."Home Page". CanonLaw.info.Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved24 September 2019.
^Friedman, Lawrence M.,American Law: An Introduction (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1984), pg. 70.
^William Wirt Howe,Studies in the Civil Law, and its Relation to the Law of England and America (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1896), pg. 51.
^A. Brundag, James (2010).he Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession: Canonists, Civilians, and Courts. University of Chicago Press. p. 116.ISBN978-0226077598.
^Quigley, J. (1989). "Socialist Law and the Civil Law Tradition".The American Journal of Comparative Law.37 (4):781–808.doi:10.2307/840224.JSTOR840224.
^Olson,The New Parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe, 7
^See, e.g.Tuberville v Savage (1669), 1 Mod. Rep. 3, 86 Eng. Rep. 684, where a knight said in a threatening tone to a layperson, "If it were not assize time, I would not take such language from you."
^(Pelczynski,The State and Civil Society, 1–13; Warren,Civil Society, 5–9)
^Zaleski, Pawel (2008). "Tocqueville on Civilian Society. A Romantic Vision of the Dichotomic Structure of Social Reality".Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte.50.
^"History of the UN".About the United Nations/History. Archived fromthe original on 18 February 2010. Retrieved1 September 2008.
^D'Amato, Anthony (11 November 2010)."Is International Law Really 'Law'?".Northwestern University Law Review.79.Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved3 January 2020.
^AboutR v Dudley and Stephens [1884]14 QBD 273 DCArchived 28 February 2005 at theWayback Machine, see Simpson,Cannibalism and the Common Law, 212–217, 229–237
^Ehrlich,Fundamental Principles, Hertogh,Living Law, Rottleuthner,La Sociologie du Droit en Allemagne, 109, Rottleuthner,Rechtstheoritische Probleme der Sociologie des Rechts, 521
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