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| What is law? |
Definition and Characteristics of Law
Introduction:
Dear Students,
In this Article, you will learn about law its definition and characteristics. Dear students this Article is basically all about understanding the vocabulary of law and to learn about the institutions that make and enforce law it is an interesting subject because it will help you in understanding the fundamental concepts of law that will assist you with studying and understanding other areas of law. We will also be learning how to read cases and statutes which as you know is one of the essential skills a lawyer must develop.
What is Law? Definition of Law
I'm going to start with the basics and encourage you to think what is law before we answer this question. let's find out why this is an important question what are your thoughts on this why do you think we need to consider this question your first response might be that it's natural to wonder about the law if you are going to study law or we have to face rules and regulations in our daily day-to-day life. Well you are right to some extent we come across legal rules all the time like the last time you bought something from a shop or did an online purchase and you benefited from consumer protection laws or let's say you are making a video with your smartphone to share it with your family and friends and you want to add some cheerful music in the background.
So you start looking for music on the Internet you find a collection of music on our website but the website allows the use of music under a Creative Commons license so what is law the law is a system of rules that are enforced through the common law institutions to govern behavior and conduct in the UK law is made by the Parliament and is executed by the executive through rules and regulations the judges also uphold the law through binding precedent the formation of losses influenced by the constitutional arrangement and the rights are enforced by European Convention on Human Rights the lost ships politics economics history and society in various ways however it is important to remember that the definition of law is not an easy one to describe Glanville Williams said that the meaning of the word law depends on the context in which that word is used.
Characteristics of Law
Early customary law and municipal law are contexts where the word law has two different meanings so you see the definition of law can have many interpretations depending on the context in which it is used it can be seen as enabling a free market regulating behavior applying model rules or a tool used by the powerful to suppress the poor these are all very diverse and abstract approaches to answering the question and that's why we have to find a better approach to answer the question what is law here is a list of different approaches that we will take to understand this complex question we will look at law through the functions it performs as a set of rules a legal system through its constitutional arrangement and through the sources of law the most intuitive way of looking at law is through its functions as Aristotle put set law is order and good law is good order so let's look at the functions of the law the law performs several functions to keep order in the society it includes protecting human rights and civil liberties preserving our democratic way of life and enabling the political system facilitating the
economic activity which includes protection to businesses and consumers regulating our relationships like marriage preserving morals and norms and finally preserving world peace but what happens when two functions of the law come into conflict with each other for example the function to keep order and
the right to demonstrate can the government justify its action to restrict demonstrators who are expressing their dissatisfaction of a policy according to Clark the widespread view of the function of the law is to forbid and negate action he states that the common view lacks the realization that the law can and must be dynamic and constructive this is even truer in a democracy where the law must be employed to foster and safeguard that equality of opportunity which is the essence of the democratic way of life you can visit the link provided to read the article a contemporary view is presented by Dr.
Robin Williams who argues for a space provided by the rule of law where everyone exercise their rights this view is quite opposite to the common view of the function of a law the second way to look at the law is to look at it as a set of rules and regulations we are surrounded by all of these different kinds of rules in the society for example don't cross the road without a zebra crossing don't cut a line don't talk in the library or don't drive over the speed limit I'm sure you know that all of them are not laws what makes some of the rules as laws is the fact that the Parliament enacted them as statues the reason we
allow Parliament to legislate a speeding law for example is because we want to make sure that everyone is driving at a reasonable speed furthermore if someone violates the speed limit they should be punished in the form of fines or imprisonment this way the safety of everyone on the road is ensured the third way of looking at the law is through its constitutional arrangement there are different doctrines or
principles that can be used to define a legal system the first principle is parliamentary supremacy which means that the Parliament is the supreme lawmaking Authority the doctrine holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all other government institutions including
executive and judicial bodies it also holds that the legislative body may change or repeal any previous
legislation and so it is not bound by written law or by precedent the second principle is the rule of law which means that no one is above law the law should govern a nation as opposed to being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government officials the third principle is separation of power the power of the state is divided between different institutions and no one institution is absolutely powerful
and free from accountability the power is divided between the legislative executive and judicial branches of the state parliamentary sovereignty may be contrasted with separation of powers which often limits the Legislature's scope of general lawmaking where laws passed by the legislature may be
declared invalid in certain circumstances through judicial review the fourth is the prerogative powers of
the crown these powers are unique to the UK due to its history in countries like the US and France the
revolutions and discontinuity gave way to the shift of such powers to the executive branch at a later time you should watch more lectures on parliamentary sovereignty the rule of law separation of power and the royal prerogative in the public law section.
