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or Justitia is a personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system. Her blindfold symbolizes equality under the law through impartiality towards its subjects, the weighing scales represent the balance (metaphysics) of people's interests under the law, and her sword denotes the law's force of reason and the power of the sovereign to enforce the law.LawFrom Old English lagu "something laid down or fixed"; legal comes from Latin legalis, from translating "law" to other European languages "law", "statute" ( Law, Online Etymology Dictionary; Legal, Mirriam-Webster's Online Dictionary) is a system of social rules usually enforced through a set of structured institutions.Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90; see jurisprudence for extensive debate on what law is; H.L.A Hart argued law is a "system of rules" in his work The Concept of Law (Campbell, The Contribution of Legal Studies, 184); John Austin said law was "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction" (Bix, John Austin); Ronald Dworkin describes law as an "interpretive concept" to achieve justice (Dworkin, Law's Empire, 410); and Joseph Raz argues law is an "authority" to mediate people's interests (Raz, The Authority of Law, 3–36). Law affects everyday life and society in a variety of ways. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading swaptions on a derivative (finance). Property law defines rights and obligations related to buying, selling, or renting real property such as homes and buildings. Trust law applies to assets held for investment, such as pension funds. Tort law allows claims for compensation when someone or their property is harm principle. If the harm is criminalised in a penal code, criminal law offers means by which the state prosecutes and punishes the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for creating laws, protecting people's human rights, and election politics representatives. administrative law relates to the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. International law regulates affairs between sovereign nation-states in everything from trade to the natural environment to military action. "The rule of law", wrote the Ancient Greece philosopher Aristotle in 350 BCE, "is better than the rule of any individual."n.b. this translation reads, "it is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens" (Aristotle, Politics s:Politics (Aristotle)/Book 3#3:16).

Legal systems of the world around the world elaborate legal rights and responsibilities in different ways. Laws and legal systems reflect the society and culture out of which they arise. A basic distinction is made between Civil law (legal system) jurisdictions and systems using common law. Some countries base their law on religious law, while in others traditional customary law or Socialist law are strong influences. Scholars investigate the nature of law through many perspectives, including legal history and jurisprudence, or social sciences such as economic analysis of law and sociology of law. The study of law raises important questions about egalitarianism, fairness and justice, which are not always simple. "In its majestic equality", said the author Anatole France in 1894, "the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."The original French is: "la loi, dans un grand souci d'égalité, interdit aux riches comme aux pauvres de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain" (France, The Red Lilly, Chapter VII). The most important institutions for law are the judiciary, the legislature, the executive (government), its bureaucracy, the military and police, the lawyer and civil society.

Legal subjects Though all legal systems deal usually with the same or similar issues, different countries often categorise and name legal subjects in different ways. Quite common is the distinction between "public law" subjects, which relate closely to the state (including constitutional, administrative and criminal law), and "private law" subjects (including contract, tort, property).Although some scholars argue that "the boundaries between public and private law are becoming blurres," and that this distinction has become mere "folklore" (Bergkamp, Liability and Environment, 1–2). In civil law(legal system) systems, contract and tort fall under a general law of obligations and trusts law is dealt with under statutory regimes or Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition. International law, constitutional law and administrative law, criminal law, contract, tort, property law and trust law are regarded as the "traditional core subjects",e.g. in England these seven subjects, except with EU law instead of international law, are required knowledge for legal practice. Outside the European Union, students may focus on other regional organisations, such as North American Free Trade Agreement, South Asia Free Trade Agreement, South American Community of Nations, ASEAN or the African Union although there are many Law#Further disciplines which might be of greater practical importance. Each Juror should meet individually with both counsels and should cast his final thoughts guilty or not guilty or mistrial, the jury should not meet together for fear they could cause untruth or opinions to sustain a Judge's ultimate decision.

International law In a global economy, law is globalization too. International law can refer to three things: public international law, private international law or conflict of laws and the law of supranational organisations.







Constitutional and administrative law , whose principles still have constitutional value

Constitutional and administrative law govern the affairs of the state. Constitutional law concerns both the relationships between the executive (government), legislature and judiciary and the human rights or civil liberties of individuals against the state. Most jurisdictions, like the Law of the United States and Law of France, have a single codified constitution, with a Bill of Rights. A few, like the Law of the United Kingdom, have no such document; in those jurisdictions the constitution is composed of statute, case law and constitutional conventions. A case named Entick v. CarringtonEntick v. Carrington (1765) 19 Howell's State Trials 1030 illustrates a constitutional principle deriving from the common law. Mr Entick's house was searched and ransacked by Sheriff Carrington. When Mr Entick complained in court, Sheriff Carrington argued that a warrant from a Government minister, the George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, was valid authority. However, there was no written statutory provision or court authority. The leading judge, Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, stated that,

"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole… If no excuse can be found or produced, the silence of the books is an authority against the defendant, and the plaintiff must have judgment."

The fundamental constitutional principle, inspired by Two Treatises of Government,Locke, The Second Treatise, s:Two Treatises of Government/The Second Treatise of Government: An Essay Concerning the True Origin, Extent, and End of Civil Government#2:9 is that the individual can do anything but that which is forbidden by law, and the state may do nothing but that which is authorised by law. Administrative law is the chief method for people to hold state bodies to account. People can apply for judicial review of actions or decisions by local councils, public services or government ministries, to ensure that they comply with the law. The first specialist administrative court was the Conseil d'État set up in 1799, as Napoleon I of France assumed power in France.Auby, Administrative Law in France, 75

Criminal law , for witchcraft in Salem witch trials

Criminal law is the body of law that defines criminal offences and the penalties for convicted offenders. Apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law of criminal procedure. In every jurisdiction, a crime is committed where three elements are fulfilled. First, the accused must commit the criminal act, or actus reus (guilty act).Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660 (1962). Second, there must exist a Victimology#Victim_of_a_crime, who suffered a legally recognised harm. In the case of victimless crimes, the legal system regards the accused, or society at large, as the victim of the criminal act. Third, there must exist Causation (law), which is a logical connection, supported by evidence, that establishes the link between the criminal act and the harm suffered. If it cannot be proven that the act caused the harm, a conviction cannot be sustained. For most, but not all crimes, the criminal must also have the requisite intention (criminal) to do a criminal act, or mens rea (guilty mind). A mens rea, however, is not a required element for strict liability crimes,Powell v. Texas, 392 U.S. 514 (1968). such as statutory rape, which require only that the accused engaged in a criminal act; the legal system does not take into account the mental state of the accused when determining culpability for the offense.

Examples of different kinds of crime include murder, assault, fraud or theft. In exceptional circumstances, defences can exist to some crimes, such as killing in self-defense (theory), or pleading insanity defense. Another example is in the 19th century English case of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens,Regina v. Dudley and Stephens ( 14 QBD 273 DC) which tested a defence of "necessity". The Mignotte, sailing from Southampton to Sydney, sank. Three crew members and a cabin boy were stranded on a raft. They were starving and the cabin boy close to death. Driven to extreme hunger, the crew killed and cannibalism the cabin boy. The crew survived and were rescued, but put on trial for murder. They argued it was necessary to kill the cabin boy to preserve their own lives. John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge, expressing immense disapproval, ruled, "to preserve one's life is generally speaking a duty, but it may be the plainest and the highest duty to sacrifice it." The men were sentenced to hanging, but public opinion, especially among seafarers, was outraged and overwhelmingly supportive of the crew's right to preserve their own lives. In the end, the Royal prerogative commuted their sentences to six months.

Criminal law offences are viewed as offences against not just individual victims, but the community as well. 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. (for Rex or Queen regnant) v. …" Also, lay jury are often used to determine the guilt of defendants on points of fact: juries cannot change legal rules. Some developed countries still have capital punishment and corporal punishment for criminal activity, but the normal punishment for a crime will be prison, fines, state supervision (such as probation), or community service. Modern criminal law has been affected considerably by the social sciences, especially with respect to sentence (law), legal research, legislation, and rehabilitation (penology). On the international field, 104 countries have signed the enabling treaty for the International Criminal Court, which was established to try people for crime against humanity. The States Parties to the Rome Statute, International Criminal Court

Contracts the Co. because it could not fulfill the terms it advertised

The concept of a "contract" is based on the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be kept).Wenberg, Pacta Sunt Servanda, 775 Contracts can be simple everyday buying and selling or complex multi-party agreements. They can be made orally (e.g. buying a newspaper) or in writing (e.g. signing a contract of employment). Sometimes statute of frauds, such as writing the contract down or having it witnessed, are required for the contract to take effect (e.g. when buying a house).e.g. In England, s.52 Law of Property Act 1925

In common law jurisdictions, there are three key elements to the creation of a contract. These are offer and acceptance, consideration and an intention to create legal relations. For example, in Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company QB 256 a medical firm advertised that its new wonder drug, the smokeball, would cure people's influenza, and if it did not, buyers would get pound sterling100.Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company Case citation. See a full law report from Justis. Many people sued for their £100 when the drug did not work. Fearing , Carbolic argued the advert was not to be taken as a serious, legally binding offer. It was an invitation to treat, mere puff, a gimmick. But the court of appeal held that to a reasonable man Carbolic had made a serious offer. People had given good consideration for it by going to the "distinct inconvenience" of using a faulty product. "Read the advertisement how you will, and twist it about as you will", said Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley, "here is a distinct promise expressed in language which is perfectly unmistakable".

"Consideration" means all parties to a contract must exchange something of value to be able to enforce it. Some common law systems, like Law of Australia, are moving away from consideration as a requirement for a contract. The concept of estoppel or culpa in contrahendo can be used to create obligations during pre-contractual negotiations.Austotel v. Franklins (1989) 16 NSWLR 582 In Civil law (legal system) jurisdictions, consideration is not a requirement for a contract at all.e.g. In Germany, § 311 Abs. II Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch In Law of France, an ordinary contract is said to form simply on the basis of a "meeting of the minds" or a "concurrence of wills". Law of 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) § 105 Abs. II Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch 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.Smith, The Structure of Unjust Enrichment Law, 1037

Tort law " two were involved in the longest running case in UK history for publishing a pamphlet criticising McDonald's restaurants

Torts, sometimes called delicts, are civil wrongs. To have acted tortiously, one must have breached a duty to another person, or infringed some pre-existing legal right. A simple Bolton v. Stone might be accidentally hitting someone with a cricket ball.Bolton v. Stone A.C. 850 Under negligence law, the most common form of tort, the injured party can make a claim against the party responsible for the injury. The principles of negligence are illustrated by Donoghue v. Stevenson.Donoghue v. Stevenson (Case citation#England and Wales). See the original text of the case in UK Law Online. Mrs Donoghue ordered an opaque bottle of beer in a café in Paisley. Having consumed half of it, she poured the remainder into a tumbler. The decomposing remains of a dead snail floated out. She fell ill and sued the manufacturer for carelessly allowing the drink to be contaminated. The House of Lords decided that the manufacturer was liable for Mrs Donoghue's illness. James Atkin, Baron 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 the lawyer'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."Donoghue v. Stevenson A.C. 532, 580

This became the basis for the four principles of negligence; (1) Mr Stevenson owed Mrs Donoghue a duty of care to provide safe drinks (2) he Breach of duty in English law his duty of care (3) the harm would not have occurred causation (law) his breach and (4) his act was the proximate cause, or not too remoteness a consequence, of her harm. Another example of tort might be a neighbour making excessively loud noises with machinery on his property.Sturges v. Bridgman (1879) 11 Ch D 852 Under a nuisance claim the noise could be stopped. Torts can also involve intentional acts, such as assault (tort), battery (tort) or trespass. A better known tort is slander and libel, which occurs, for example, when a newspaper makes unsupportable allegations that damage a politician's reputation.e.g. concerning a British politician and the Iraq War, George Galloway v. Telegraph Group Ltd EWHC 2786 More infamous are economic torts, which form the basis of labour law in some countries by making trade unions liable for strikes,Taff Vale Railway Co. v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants AC 426 when statute does not provide immunity.In the UK, Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; c.f. in the U.S., National Labor Relations Act

Property law , one of the world's first ever speculations and crashes, led to strict regulation on share trading

Property law governs everything that people call 'theirs'. Real property, sometimes called 'real estate' refers to ownership of land and things attached to it. Personal property, refers to everything else; movable objects, such as computers and sandwiches, or intangible rights, such as share (finance). A right 'in rem' is a right to a specific piece of property. If an individual loses his computer and another finds it and it changes hands, a right in rem gives the individual the ability to take the computer from whoever has it. A right 'in personam' however is a right against one specific individual for something equivalent to the property in question. If an individual loses his computer and it passes hands, the right in personam allows the individual to claim the price of the computer from the thief (but not the actual computer, as this might now belong to someone else.) The classic civil law approach to property, propounded by Friedrich Carl von Savigny, is that it is a right good against the world. This contrasts to an obligation, like a contract or tort, which is a right good between individuals.Savigny. Das Recht des Besitzes, 25 Preferred in common law jurisdictions is an idea closer to an obligation; that the person who can show the best claim to a piece of property, against any contesting party, is the owner.P. Matthews, The Man of Property, 251–274 The idea of property raises important philosophical and political issues. John Locke famously argued that our "lives, liberties and estates" are our property because we own our bodies and Labour theory of property with our surroundings.Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government, Chapter 9, section 123. The idea of privately owned property has been contentious in the view of a number of thinkers. French philosopher Pierre Proudhon once famously wrote, "property is theft".Proudhon, What is Property?, Chapter I (Method Pursued in this Book – The Idea of a Revolution)

Land law forms the basis for most kinds of property law, and is the most complex. It concerns mortgages, leasehold estate, license, covenants, easements and the statutory systems for registration of land. Regulations on the use of personal property fall under intellectual property, company (law), trust law and commercial law.

Trusts and equity , London, early 19th century

Equity is a body of rules that developed in England separately from the "common law". The common law was administered by judges, whilst the Lord Chancellor, as the King's keeper of conscience, could overrule the judge made law if he thought it equitable to do so.McGhee, Snell's Equity, 7 This meant equity came to operate more through Maxims of equity than rigid rules. For instance, whereas neither the common law nor civil law systems allow people to split the ownership from the control of one piece of property, equity allows 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 trust.c.f. Bristol and West Building Society v. Mothew Ch 1 In the early case of Keech v. SandfordKeech v. Sandford (1726) Sel Cas. Ch.61 a child had inherited the lease on a Romford Market in Romford, London. Mr Sandford was entrusted to look after this property until the child matured. But before then, the lease expired. The landlord had (apparently) told Mr Sandford that he did not want the child to have the renewed lease. Yet the landlord was happy (apparently) to give Mr Sandford the opportunity of the lease instead. Mr Sandford took it. When the child (now Mr Keech) grew up, he sued Mr Sandford for the profit that he had been making by getting the market's lease. Mr Sandford was meant to be trusted, but he put himself in a position of conflict of interest. The Lord Chancellor, Earl of Lovelace, agreed and ordered Mr Sandford should disgorge his profits. He wrote,

"I very well see, if a trustee, on the refusal to renew, might have a lease to himself few trust-estates would be renewed… This may seem very hard, that the trustee is the only person of all mankind who might not have the lease; but it is very proper that the rule should be strictly pursued and not at all relaxed."Keech v. Sandford (1726) Sel Cas. Ch.61

Of course, Lord King LC was worried that trustees might exploit opportunities to use trust property for themselves instead of looking after it. Business speculators using trusts had just recently caused a South Sea Bubble. Strict duties for trustees made their way into company law and were applied to directors and chief executive officers. Another example of a trustee's duty might be to invest property wisely or sell it.Nestle v. National Westminster Bank plc 1 WLR 1260 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 for charitable trust, famous examples being the British Museum or the Rockefeller Foundation.

Further disciplines Law spreads far beyond the core subjects into virtually every area of life. Three categories are presented for convenience, though the subjects intertwine and flow into one another.

Law and society while on strike

Law and commerce trading floor

Law and regulation trading floor after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, before tougher banking regulation was introduced



Legal systems In general, legal systems around the world can be split between civil law jurisdictions, on the one hand, and systems using common law and equity, on the other. The term civil law, referring to a legal system, should not be confused with civil law (common law) as a group of legal subjects, as distinguished from criminal law or public law. A third type of legal system — still accepted by some countries in part, or even in whole — is religious law, based on scriptures and interpretations thereof. The specific system that a country follows is often determined by its history, its connection with countries abroad, and its adherence to international standards. The sources of law that jurisdictions recognise as authoritatively binding are the defining features of legal systems. Yet classification of different systems is a matter of form rather than substance, since similar rules often prevail.

Civil law 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 – especially codifications in constitutions or statutes passed by government – and, secondarily, custom.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). Codifications date back millennia, with one early example being the ancient Babylonian law Code of Hammurabi, but modern civil law systems essentially derive from the legal practice of the Roman Empire, whose texts were rediscovered in Middle Ages Europe. Roman law in the days of the Roman Republic and Empire was heavily procedural, and there was no professional legal class.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 18 Instead a lay person, iudex, was chosen to adjudicate. Precedents were not reported, so any case law that developed was disguised and almost unrecognised.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 21 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. During the 6th century AD in the Byzantine Empire, the Emperor Justinian I codified and consolidated the laws that had existed in Rome, so that what remained was one-twentieth of the mass of legal texts from before.Stein, Roman Law in European History, 32 This became known as the Corpus 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."Stein, Roman Law in European History, 35 Western Europe, meanwhile, slowly slipped into the Dark Ages, and it was not until the 11th century that scholars in the University of Bologna rediscovered the texts and used them to interpret their own laws.Stein, Roman Law in European History, 43 Civil law codifications based closely on Roman law continued to spread throughout Europe until the Age of Enlightenment; then, in the 19th century, both France, with the Code Civil, and Germany, with the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, modernised their legal codes. Both these codes influenced heavily not only the law systems of the countries in continental Europe (e.g. Law of Greece), but also the Law of Japan and South Korea legal traditions.Hatzis, The Short-Lived Influence of the Napoleonic Civil Code in Greece, 253–263* Demirgüç-Kunt -Levine, Financial Structures and Economic Growth, 204 Today countries that have civil law systems range from Law of Russia and Law of the People's Republic of China to most of Central America and Law of South America. The World Factbook — Field Listing – Legal system, CIA

Common law and equity Common law and equity are systems of law whose special distinction is the doctrine of precedent, or stare decisis (Latin for "to stand by decisions"). Alongside this "judge-made law", common law systems always have governments who pass new laws and statutes. But these are not put into a codified form. Common law comes from England and was inherited by almost every country that once belonged to the British Empire, with the exceptions of Malta, Law of Scotland, the U.S. state of Louisiana law and the Canadian province of Quebec law. Common law had its beginnings in the Middle Ages, when the English monarchy had been weakened by the enormous cost of fighting for control over large parts of France. John of England had been forced by his barons to sign a document limiting his authority to pass laws. This "great charter" or Magna 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. Magna Carta, Fordham University 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, the English Court of Common Pleas had five.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 4 This powerful and tight-knit judiciary gave rise to a rigid and inflexible system of common law.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 3 As a result, as time went on, increasing numbers of citizens petitioned the King to override the common law, and on the King's behalf the Lord Chancellor gave judgment to do what was equitable in a case. From the time of Thomas More, the first lawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body of Equity (law) grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its own Court of Chancery. At first, equity was often criticised as erratic, that it "varies like the Chancellor's foot". But over time it developed solid Maxims of equity, especially under John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon.Gee v. Pritchard (1818) 2 Swans. 402, 414 In the 19th century the two systems were fused into one another. In developing the common law and equity, academic authors have always played an important part. William Blackstone, from around 1760, was the first scholar to describe and teach it.Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book the First – Chapter the First But merely in describing, scholars who sought explanations and underlying structures slowly changed the way the law actually worked.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 17

Religious law Religious law refers to the notion that the word of God is law. Examples include the Judaism Halakha and Islamic Sharia, both of which mean the "path to follow". Christianity canon law also survives in some church communities. The implication of religion for law is unalterability, because the word of God cannot be amended or legislated against by judges or governments. However religion never provides a thorough and detailed legal system. For instance, the Quran has some law, and it acts merely as a source of further law through interpretation.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 159 This is mainly contained in a body of jurisprudence known as the fiqh. Another example is the Torah or Old Testament, in the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. This contains the basic code of Jewish law, which some Israeli communities choose to use. The Halakha is a code of Jewish law which summarises some of the Talmud's interpretations. Nevertheless, Law of Israel allows litigants to use religious laws only if they choose. Canon law is only in use by members of the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion.

Until the 18th century elements of Sharia law were found in legal systems throughout the Muslim world, for instance under the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code. But since the mid-1940s efforts have been made, in country after country, to bring the law more into line with modern conditions and conceptions.Anderson, Law Reform in the Middle East, 43* Giannoulatos, Islam, 274–275 In modern times, Sharia is merely an optional supplement to the civil or common law of most countries, though Saudi Arabia and Iran's whole legal systems source their law in Sharia. During the last few decades, one of the fundamental features of the movement of Islamic resurgence has been the call to restore the Sharia, which has generated a vast amount of literature and affected world politics.Hallaq, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law, 1

Jurisdictions Though the legal traditions described have resulted in a number of common traits across jurisdictions, each sovereign entity can have unique aspects. The lists below link to articles on individual jurisdictions, organised by geography.

Legal theory History of law is revealed the Code of Hammurabi by the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.The history of law is closely connected to the development of civilizations. Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BCE, had a civil code that was probably broken into twelve books. It was based on the concept of Ma'at, characterised by tradition, rhetorical speech, social equality and impartiality.* VerSteeg, Law in ancient Egypt Around 1760 BCE under Hammurabi, ancient Babylonian law was codified and put in stone for the public to see in the marketplace; this became known as the Code of Hammurabi. However like Egyptian law, which is pieced together by historians from records of litigation, few sources remain and much has been lost over time. The influence of these earlier laws on later civilisations was small.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 86
The Old Testament is probably the oldest body of law still relevant for modern legal systems, dating back to 1280 BCE. It takes the form moral imperatives, as recommendations for a good society. History of Athens, the small Ancient Greece city-state, was the first society based on broad inclusion of the citizenry, excluding women and the slave class from about 8th century BCE. Athens had no legal science, and Ancient Greek has no word for "law" as an abstract concept.Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, 5–6 Yet Ancient Greek law contained major Constitution of the Athenians innovations in the development of Athenian democracy.Ober, The Nature of Athenian Democracy, 121

Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek teachings.Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, 39 It forms the bridge to the modern legal world, over the centuries between the rise and decline of the Roman Empire.As a legal system, Roman law has affected the development of law in most of Western civilization as well as in parts of the Eastern world. It also forms the basis for the law codes of most countries of continental Europe (). Roman law underwent major codification in the Corpus Juris Civilis of Emperor Justinian I. It was lost through the Dark Ages, but rediscovered around the 11th century. Mediæval legal scholars began researching the Roman codes and using their concepts. In mediæval England, the King's powerful judges began to develop a body of precedent, which became the common law. But also, a Europe-wide Law Merchant was formed, so that merchants could trade using familiar standards, rather than the many splintered types of local law. The Lex Mercatoria, a precursor to modern commercial law, emphasised the freedom of contract and alienability of property.Sealey-Hooley, Commercial Law, 14 As nationalism grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, Lex Mercatoria was incorporated into countries or Justitia is a personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system. Her blindfold symbolizes equality under the law through impartiality towards its subjects, the weighing scales represent the balance (metaphysics) of people's interests under the law, and her sword denotes the law's force of reason and the power of the sovereign to enforce the law.LawFrom Old English lagu "something laid down or fixed"; legal comes from Latin legalis, from translating "law" to other European languages "law", "statute" ( Law, Online Etymology Dictionary; Legal, Mirriam-Webster's Online Dictionary) is a system of social rules usually enforced through a set of structured institutions.Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90; see jurisprudence for extensive debate on what law is; H.L.A Hart argued law is a "system of rules" in his work The Concept of Law (Campbell, The Contribution of Legal Studies, 184); John Austin said law was "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction" (Bix, John Austin); Ronald Dworkin describes law as an "interpretive concept" to achieve justice (Dworkin, Law's Empire, 410); and Joseph Raz argues law is an "authority" to mediate people's interests (Raz, The Authority of Law, 3–36). Law affects everyday life and society in a variety of ways. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading swaptions on a derivative (finance). Property law defines rights and obligations related to buying, selling, or renting real property such as homes and buildings. Trust law applies to assets held for investment, such as pension funds. Tort law allows claims for compensation when someone or their property is harm principle. If the harm is criminalised in a penal code, criminal law offers means by which the state prosecutes and punishes the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for creating laws, protecting people's human rights, and election politics representatives. administrative law relates to the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. International law regulates affairs between sovereign nation-states in everything from trade to the natural environment to military action. "The rule of law", wrote the Ancient Greece philosopher Aristotle in 350 BCE, "is better than the rule of any individual."n.b. this translation reads, "it is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens" (Aristotle, Politics s:Politics (Aristotle)/Book 3#3:16).

Legal systems of the world around the world elaborate legal rights and responsibilities in different ways. Laws and legal systems reflect the society and culture out of which they arise. A basic distinction is made between Civil law (legal system) jurisdictions and systems using common law. Some countries base their law on religious law, while in others traditional customary law or Socialist law are strong influences. Scholars investigate the nature of law through many perspectives, including legal history and jurisprudence, or social sciences such as economic analysis of law and sociology of law. The study of law raises important questions about egalitarianism, fairness and justice, which are not always simple. "In its majestic equality", said the author Anatole France in 1894, "the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."The original French is: "la loi, dans un grand souci d'égalité, interdit aux riches comme aux pauvres de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain" (France, The Red Lilly, Chapter VII). The most important institutions for law are the judiciary, the legislature, the executive (government), its bureaucracy, the military and police, the lawyer and civil society.

Legal subjects Though all legal systems deal usually with the same or similar issues, different countries often categorise and name legal subjects in different ways. Quite common is the distinction between "public law" subjects, which relate closely to the state (including constitutional, administrative and criminal law), and "private law" subjects (including contract, tort, property).Although some scholars argue that "the boundaries between public and private law are becoming blurres," and that this distinction has become mere "folklore" (Bergkamp, Liability and Environment, 1–2). In civil law(legal system) systems, contract and tort fall under a general law of obligations and trusts law is dealt with under statutory regimes or Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition. International law, constitutional law and administrative law, criminal law, contract, tort, property law and trust law are regarded as the "traditional core subjects",e.g. in England these seven subjects, except with EU law instead of international law, are required knowledge for legal practice. Outside the European Union, students may focus on other regional organisations, such as North American Free Trade Agreement, South Asia Free Trade Agreement, South American Community of Nations, ASEAN or the African Union although there are many Law#Further disciplines which might be of greater practical importance. Each Juror should meet individually with both counsels and should cast his final thoughts guilty or not guilty or mistrial, the jury should not meet together for fear they could cause untruth or opinions to sustain a Judge's ultimate decision.

International law In a global economy, law is globalization too. International law can refer to three things: public international law, private international law or conflict of laws and the law of supranational organisations.







Constitutional and administrative law , whose principles still have constitutional value

Constitutional and administrative law govern the affairs of the state. Constitutional law concerns both the relationships between the executive (government), legislature and judiciary and the human rights or civil liberties of individuals against the state. Most jurisdictions, like the Law of the United States and Law of France, have a single codified constitution, with a Bill of Rights. A few, like the Law of the United Kingdom, have no such document; in those jurisdictions the constitution is composed of statute, case law and constitutional conventions. A case named Entick v. CarringtonEntick v. Carrington (1765) 19 Howell's State Trials 1030 illustrates a constitutional principle deriving from the common law. Mr Entick's house was searched and ransacked by Sheriff Carrington. When Mr Entick complained in court, Sheriff Carrington argued that a warrant from a Government minister, the George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, was valid authority. However, there was no written statutory provision or court authority. The leading judge, Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, stated that,

"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole… If no excuse can be found or produced, the silence of the books is an authority against the defendant, and the plaintiff must have judgment."

The fundamental constitutional principle, inspired by Two Treatises of Government,Locke, The Second Treatise, s:Two Treatises of Government/The Second Treatise of Government: An Essay Concerning the True Origin, Extent, and End of Civil Government#2:9 is that the individual can do anything but that which is forbidden by law, and the state may do nothing but that which is authorised by law. Administrative law is the chief method for people to hold state bodies to account. People can apply for judicial review of actions or decisions by local councils, public services or government ministries, to ensure that they comply with the law. The first specialist administrative court was the Conseil d'État set up in 1799, as Napoleon I of France assumed power in France.Auby, Administrative Law in France, 75

Criminal law , for witchcraft in Salem witch trials

Criminal law is the body of law that defines criminal offences and the penalties for convicted offenders. Apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law of criminal procedure. In every jurisdiction, a crime is committed where three elements are fulfilled. First, the accused must commit the criminal act, or actus reus (guilty act).Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660 (1962). Second, there must exist a Victimology#Victim_of_a_crime, who suffered a legally recognised harm. In the case of victimless crimes, the legal system regards the accused, or society at large, as the victim of the criminal act. Third, there must exist Causation (law), which is a logical connection, supported by evidence, that establishes the link between the criminal act and the harm suffered. If it cannot be proven that the act caused the harm, a conviction cannot be sustained. For most, but not all crimes, the criminal must also have the requisite intention (criminal) to do a criminal act, or mens rea (guilty mind). A mens rea, however, is not a required element for strict liability crimes,Powell v. Texas, 392 U.S. 514 (1968). such as statutory rape, which require only that the accused engaged in a criminal act; the legal system does not take into account the mental state of the accused when determining culpability for the offense.

Examples of different kinds of crime include murder, assault, fraud or theft. In exceptional circumstances, defences can exist to some crimes, such as killing in self-defense (theory), or pleading insanity defense. Another example is in the 19th century English case of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens,Regina v. Dudley and Stephens ( 14 QBD 273 DC) which tested a defence of "necessity". The Mignotte, sailing from Southampton to Sydney, sank. Three crew members and a cabin boy were stranded on a raft. They were starving and the cabin boy close to death. Driven to extreme hunger, the crew killed and cannibalism the cabin boy. The crew survived and were rescued, but put on trial for murder. They argued it was necessary to kill the cabin boy to preserve their own lives. John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge, expressing immense disapproval, ruled, "to preserve one's life is generally speaking a duty, but it may be the plainest and the highest duty to sacrifice it." The men were sentenced to hanging, but public opinion, especially among seafarers, was outraged and overwhelmingly supportive of the crew's right to preserve their own lives. In the end, the Royal prerogative commuted their sentences to six months.

Criminal law offences are viewed as offences against not just individual victims, but the community as well. 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. (for Rex or Queen regnant) v. …" Also, lay jury are often used to determine the guilt of defendants on points of fact: juries cannot change legal rules. Some developed countries still have capital punishment and corporal punishment for criminal activity, but the normal punishment for a crime will be prison, fines, state supervision (such as probation), or community service. Modern criminal law has been affected considerably by the social sciences, especially with respect to sentence (law), legal research, legislation, and rehabilitation (penology). On the international field, 104 countries have signed the enabling treaty for the International Criminal Court, which was established to try people for crime against humanity. The States Parties to the Rome Statute, International Criminal Court

Contracts the Co. because it could not fulfill the terms it advertised

The concept of a "contract" is based on the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be kept).Wenberg, Pacta Sunt Servanda, 775 Contracts can be simple everyday buying and selling or complex multi-party agreements. They can be made orally (e.g. buying a newspaper) or in writing (e.g. signing a contract of employment). Sometimes statute of frauds, such as writing the contract down or having it witnessed, are required for the contract to take effect (e.g. when buying a house).e.g. In England, s.52 Law of Property Act 1925

In common law jurisdictions, there are three key elements to the creation of a contract. These are offer and acceptance, consideration and an intention to create legal relations. For example, in Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company QB 256 a medical firm advertised that its new wonder drug, the smokeball, would cure people's influenza, and if it did not, buyers would get pound sterling100.Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company Case citation. See a full law report from Justis. Many people sued for their £100 when the drug did not work. Fearing , Carbolic argued the advert was not to be taken as a serious, legally binding offer. It was an invitation to treat, mere puff, a gimmick. But the court of appeal held that to a reasonable man Carbolic had made a serious offer. People had given good consideration for it by going to the "distinct inconvenience" of using a faulty product. "Read the advertisement how you will, and twist it about as you will", said Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley, "here is a distinct promise expressed in language which is perfectly unmistakable".

"Consideration" means all parties to a contract must exchange something of value to be able to enforce it. Some common law systems, like Law of Australia, are moving away from consideration as a requirement for a contract. The concept of estoppel or culpa in contrahendo can be used to create obligations during pre-contractual negotiations.Austotel v. Franklins (1989) 16 NSWLR 582 In Civil law (legal system) jurisdictions, consideration is not a requirement for a contract at all.e.g. In Germany, § 311 Abs. II Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch In Law of France, an ordinary contract is said to form simply on the basis of a "meeting of the minds" or a "concurrence of wills". Law of 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) § 105 Abs. II Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch 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.Smith, The Structure of Unjust Enrichment Law, 1037

Tort law " two were involved in the longest running case in UK history for publishing a pamphlet criticising McDonald's restaurants

Torts, sometimes called delicts, are civil wrongs. To have acted tortiously, one must have breached a duty to another person, or infringed some pre-existing legal right. A simple Bolton v. Stone might be accidentally hitting someone with a cricket ball.Bolton v. Stone A.C. 850 Under negligence law, the most common form of tort, the injured party can make a claim against the party responsible for the injury. The principles of negligence are illustrated by Donoghue v. Stevenson.Donoghue v. Stevenson (Case citation#England and Wales). See the original text of the case in UK Law Online. Mrs Donoghue ordered an opaque bottle of beer in a café in Paisley. Having consumed half of it, she poured the remainder into a tumbler. The decomposing remains of a dead snail floated out. She fell ill and sued the manufacturer for carelessly allowing the drink to be contaminated. The House of Lords decided that the manufacturer was liable for Mrs Donoghue's illness. James Atkin, Baron 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 the lawyer'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."Donoghue v. Stevenson A.C. 532, 580

This became the basis for the four principles of negligence; (1) Mr Stevenson owed Mrs Donoghue a duty of care to provide safe drinks (2) he Breach of duty in English law his duty of care (3) the harm would not have occurred causation (law) his breach and (4) his act was the proximate cause, or not too remoteness a consequence, of her harm. Another example of tort might be a neighbour making excessively loud noises with machinery on his property.Sturges v. Bridgman (1879) 11 Ch D 852 Under a nuisance claim the noise could be stopped. Torts can also involve intentional acts, such as assault (tort), battery (tort) or trespass. A better known tort is slander and libel, which occurs, for example, when a newspaper makes unsupportable allegations that damage a politician's reputation.e.g. concerning a British politician and the Iraq War, George Galloway v. Telegraph Group Ltd EWHC 2786 More infamous are economic torts, which form the basis of labour law in some countries by making trade unions liable for strikes,Taff Vale Railway Co. v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants AC 426 when statute does not provide immunity.In the UK, Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; c.f. in the U.S., National Labor Relations Act

Property law , one of the world's first ever speculations and crashes, led to strict regulation on share trading

Property law governs everything that people call 'theirs'. Real property, sometimes called 'real estate' refers to ownership of land and things attached to it. Personal property, refers to everything else; movable objects, such as computers and sandwiches, or intangible rights, such as share (finance). A right 'in rem' is a right to a specific piece of property. If an individual loses his computer and another finds it and it changes hands, a right in rem gives the individual the ability to take the computer from whoever has it. A right 'in personam' however is a right against one specific individual for something equivalent to the property in question. If an individual loses his computer and it passes hands, the right in personam allows the individual to claim the price of the computer from the thief (but not the actual computer, as this might now belong to someone else.) The classic civil law approach to property, propounded by Friedrich Carl von Savigny, is that it is a right good against the world. This contrasts to an obligation, like a contract or tort, which is a right good between individuals.Savigny. Das Recht des Besitzes, 25 Preferred in common law jurisdictions is an idea closer to an obligation; that the person who can show the best claim to a piece of property, against any contesting party, is the owner.P. Matthews, The Man of Property, 251–274 The idea of property raises important philosophical and political issues. John Locke famously argued that our "lives, liberties and estates" are our property because we own our bodies and Labour theory of property with our surroundings.Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government, Chapter 9, section 123. The idea of privately owned property has been contentious in the view of a number of thinkers. French philosopher Pierre Proudhon once famously wrote, "property is theft".Proudhon, What is Property?, Chapter I (Method Pursued in this Book – The Idea of a Revolution)

Land law forms the basis for most kinds of property law, and is the most complex. It concerns mortgages, leasehold estate, license, covenants, easements and the statutory systems for registration of land. Regulations on the use of personal property fall under intellectual property, company (law), trust law and commercial law.

Trusts and equity , London, early 19th century

Equity is a body of rules that developed in England separately from the "common law". The common law was administered by judges, whilst the Lord Chancellor, as the King's keeper of conscience, could overrule the judge made law if he thought it equitable to do so.McGhee, Snell's Equity, 7 This meant equity came to operate more through Maxims of equity than rigid rules. For instance, whereas neither the common law nor civil law systems allow people to split the ownership from the control of one piece of property, equity allows 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 trust.c.f. Bristol and West Building Society v. Mothew Ch 1 In the early case of Keech v. SandfordKeech v. Sandford (1726) Sel Cas. Ch.61 a child had inherited the lease on a Romford Market in Romford, London. Mr Sandford was entrusted to look after this property until the child matured. But before then, the lease expired. The landlord had (apparently) told Mr Sandford that he did not want the child to have the renewed lease. Yet the landlord was happy (apparently) to give Mr Sandford the opportunity of the lease instead. Mr Sandford took it. When the child (now Mr Keech) grew up, he sued Mr Sandford for the profit that he had been making by getting the market's lease. Mr Sandford was meant to be trusted, but he put himself in a position of conflict of interest. The Lord Chancellor, Earl of Lovelace, agreed and ordered Mr Sandford should disgorge his profits. He wrote,

"I very well see, if a trustee, on the refusal to renew, might have a lease to himself few trust-estates would be renewed… This may seem very hard, that the trustee is the only person of all mankind who might not have the lease; but it is very proper that the rule should be strictly pursued and not at all relaxed."Keech v. Sandford (1726) Sel Cas. Ch.61

Of course, Lord King LC was worried that trustees might exploit opportunities to use trust property for themselves instead of looking after it. Business speculators using trusts had just recently caused a South Sea Bubble. Strict duties for trustees made their way into company law and were applied to directors and chief executive officers. Another example of a trustee's duty might be to invest property wisely or sell it.Nestle v. National Westminster Bank plc 1 WLR 1260 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 for charitable trust, famous examples being the British Museum or the Rockefeller Foundation.

Further disciplines Law spreads far beyond the core subjects into virtually every area of life. Three categories are presented for convenience, though the subjects intertwine and flow into one another.

Law and society while on strike

Law and commerce trading floor

Law and regulation trading floor after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, before tougher banking regulation was introduced



Legal systems In general, legal systems around the world can be split between civil law jurisdictions, on the one hand, and systems using common law and equity, on the other. The term civil law, referring to a legal system, should not be confused with civil law (common law) as a group of legal subjects, as distinguished from criminal law or public law. A third type of legal system — still accepted by some countries in part, or even in whole — is religious law, based on scriptures and interpretations thereof. The specific system that a country follows is often determined by its history, its connection with countries abroad, and its adherence to international standards. The sources of law that jurisdictions recognise as authoritatively binding are the defining features of legal systems. Yet classification of different systems is a matter of form rather than substance, since similar rules often prevail.

Civil law 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 – especially codifications in constitutions or statutes passed by government – and, secondarily, custom.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). Codifications date back millennia, with one early example being the ancient Babylonian law Code of Hammurabi, but modern civil law systems essentially derive from the legal practice of the Roman Empire, whose texts were rediscovered in Middle Ages Europe. Roman law in the days of the Roman Republic and Empire was heavily procedural, and there was no professional legal class.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 18 Instead a lay person, iudex, was chosen to adjudicate. Precedents were not reported, so any case law that developed was disguised and almost unrecognised.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 21 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. During the 6th century AD in the Byzantine Empire, the Emperor Justinian I codified and consolidated the laws that had existed in Rome, so that what remained was one-twentieth of the mass of legal texts from before.Stein, Roman Law in European History, 32 This became known as the Corpus 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."Stein, Roman Law in European History, 35 Western Europe, meanwhile, slowly slipped into the Dark Ages, and it was not until the 11th century that scholars in the University of Bologna rediscovered the texts and used them to interpret their own laws.Stein, Roman Law in European History, 43 Civil law codifications based closely on Roman law continued to spread throughout Europe until the Age of Enlightenment; then, in the 19th century, both France, with the Code Civil, and Germany, with the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, modernised their legal codes. Both these codes influenced heavily not only the law systems of the countries in continental Europe (e.g. Law of Greece), but also the Law of Japan and South Korea legal traditions.Hatzis, The Short-Lived Influence of the Napoleonic Civil Code in Greece, 253–263* Demirgüç-Kunt -Levine, Financial Structures and Economic Growth, 204 Today countries that have civil law systems range from Law of Russia and Law of the People's Republic of China to most of Central America and Law of South America. The World Factbook — Field Listing – Legal system, CIA

Common law and equity Common law and equity are systems of law whose special distinction is the doctrine of precedent, or stare decisis (Latin for "to stand by decisions"). Alongside this "judge-made law", common law systems always have governments who pass new laws and statutes. But these are not put into a codified form. Common law comes from England and was inherited by almost every country that once belonged to the British Empire, with the exceptions of Malta, Law of Scotland, the U.S. state of Louisiana law and the Canadian province of Quebec law. Common law had its beginnings in the Middle Ages, when the English monarchy had been weakened by the enormous cost of fighting for control over large parts of France. John of England had been forced by his barons to sign a document limiting his authority to pass laws. This "great charter" or Magna 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. Magna Carta, Fordham University 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, the English Court of Common Pleas had five.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 4 This powerful and tight-knit judiciary gave rise to a rigid and inflexible system of common law.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 3 As a result, as time went on, increasing numbers of citizens petitioned the King to override the common law, and on the King's behalf the Lord Chancellor gave judgment to do what was equitable in a case. From the time of Thomas More, the first lawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body of Equity (law) grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its own Court of Chancery. At first, equity was often criticised as erratic, that it "varies like the Chancellor's foot". But over time it developed solid Maxims of equity, especially under John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon.Gee v. Pritchard (1818) 2 Swans. 402, 414 In the 19th century the two systems were fused into one another. In developing the common law and equity, academic authors have always played an important part. William Blackstone, from around 1760, was the first scholar to describe and teach it.Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book the First – Chapter the First But merely in describing, scholars who sought explanations and underlying structures slowly changed the way the law actually worked.Gordley-von Mehren, Comparative Study of Private Law, 17

Religious law Religious law refers to the notion that the word of God is law. Examples include the Judaism Halakha and Islamic Sharia, both of which mean the "path to follow". Christianity canon law also survives in some church communities. The implication of religion for law is unalterability, because the word of God cannot be amended or legislated against by judges or governments. However religion never provides a thorough and detailed legal system. For instance, the Quran has some law, and it acts merely as a source of further law through interpretation.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 159 This is mainly contained in a body of jurisprudence known as the fiqh. Another example is the Torah or Old Testament, in the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. This contains the basic code of Jewish law, which some Israeli communities choose to use. The Halakha is a code of Jewish law which summarises some of the Talmud's interpretations. Nevertheless, Law of Israel allows litigants to use religious laws only if they choose. Canon law is only in use by members of the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion.

Until the 18th century elements of Sharia law were found in legal systems throughout the Muslim world, for instance under the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code. But since the mid-1940s efforts have been made, in country after country, to bring the law more into line with modern conditions and conceptions.Anderson, Law Reform in the Middle East, 43* Giannoulatos, Islam, 274–275 In modern times, Sharia is merely an optional supplement to the civil or common law of most countries, though Saudi Arabia and Iran's whole legal systems source their law in Sharia. During the last few decades, one of the fundamental features of the movement of Islamic resurgence has been the call to restore the Sharia, which has generated a vast amount of literature and affected world politics.Hallaq, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law, 1

Jurisdictions Though the legal traditions described have resulted in a number of common traits across jurisdictions, each sovereign entity can have unique aspects. The lists below link to articles on individual jurisdictions, organised by geography.

Legal theory History of law is revealed the Code of Hammurabi by the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.The history of law is closely connected to the development of civilizations. Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BCE, had a civil code that was probably broken into twelve books. It was based on the concept of Ma'at, characterised by tradition, rhetorical speech, social equality and impartiality.* VerSteeg, Law in ancient Egypt Around 1760 BCE under Hammurabi, ancient Babylonian law was codified and put in stone for the public to see in the marketplace; this became known as the Code of Hammurabi. However like Egyptian law, which is pieced together by historians from records of litigation, few sources remain and much has been lost over time. The influence of these earlier laws on later civilisations was small.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 86
The Old Testament is probably the oldest body of law still relevant for modern legal systems, dating back to 1280 BCE. It takes the form moral imperatives, as recommendations for a good society. History of Athens, the small Ancient Greece city-state, was the first society based on broad inclusion of the citizenry, excluding women and the slave class from about 8th century BCE. Athens had no legal science, and Ancient Greek has no word for "law" as an abstract concept.Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, 5–6 Yet Ancient Greek law contained major Constitution of the Athenians innovations in the development of Athenian democracy.Ober, The Nature of Athenian Democracy, 121

Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek teachings.Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, 39 It forms the bridge to the modern legal world, over the centuries between the rise and decline of the Roman Empire.As a legal system, Roman law has affected the development of law in most of Western civilization as well as in parts of the Eastern world. It also forms the basis for the law codes of most countries of continental Europe (). Roman law underwent major codification in the Corpus Juris Civilis of Emperor Justinian I. It was lost through the Dark Ages, but rediscovered around the 11th century. Mediæval legal scholars began researching the Roman codes and using their concepts. In mediæval England, the King's powerful judges began to develop a body of precedent, which became the common law. But also, a Europe-wide Law Merchant was formed, so that merchants could trade using familiar standards, rather than the many splintered types of local law. The Lex Mercatoria, a precursor to modern commercial law, emphasised the freedom of contract and alienability of property.Sealey-Hooley, Commercial Law, 14 As nationalism grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, Lex Mercatoria was incorporated into countries

 

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