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<title>Law</title>
<authors>Wikipedia</authors>
<publisher>wikipedia.org</publisher>
<publishedplace>network</publishedplace>
<publishedyear>2010</publishedyear>
<edition></edition>
<category>Law</category>
<section id="47733" fatherid="0" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="1">
LawFrom Old English lagu "Words of Mel"; legal comes from Latin legalis, from lex "law", "statute" (Law, Online Etymology Dictionary; Legal, Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary) is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions.Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90; see "analytical jurisprudence" for extensive debate on what law is; in The Concept of Law Hart argued law is a "system of rules" (Campbell, The Contribution of Legal Studies, 184); Austin said law was "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction" (Bix, John Austin); Dworkin describes law as an "interpretive concept" to achieve justice (Dworkin, Law's Empire, 410); and Raz argues law is an "authority" to mediate people's interests (Raz, The Authority of Law, 3–36). It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets. Property law defines s and obligations related to the transfer and title of personal (often referred to as chattel) and real property. Trust law applies to assets held for investment and financial security, while tort law allows claims for compensation if a person's s or property are harmed. If the harm is criminalised in a statute, criminal law offers means by which the state can prosecute the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for the creation of law, the protection of human s and the election of political representatives. Administrative law is used to review the decisions of government agencies, while international law governs affairs between sovereign nation states in activities ranging from trade to environmental regulation or military action. Writing in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared, "The rule of law 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: upon the same principle, if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians, and the servants of the laws." (Aristotle, Politics 3.16).
Legal systems elaborate s and responsibilities in a variety of ways. A general distinction can be made between civil law jurisdictions, which codify their laws, and common law systems, where judge made law is not consolidated. In some countries, religion still informs the law. Law provides a rich source of scholarly inquiry, into legal history, philosophy, economic analysis or sociology. Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness and justice. "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 Lily, Chapter VII). In a typical democracy, the central institutions for interpreting and creating law are the three main branches of government, namely an impartial judiciary, a democratic legislature, and an accountable executive. To implement and enforce the law and provide services to the public, a government's bureaucracy, the military and police are vital. While all these organs of the state are creatures created and bound by law, an independent legal profession and a vibrant civil society inform and support their progress.

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<section id="47734" fatherid="0" title="Legal subjects" lv="" priority="2" level="1">
<section id="47735" fatherid="47734" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="2">
All legal systems deal with the same basic issues, but each country categorises and identifies its legal subjects in different ways. A common distinction is that between "public law" (a term related closely to the state, and including constitutional, administrative and criminal law), and "private law" (which covers contract, tort and property).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). In civil law systems, contract and tort fall under a general law of obligations, while trusts law is dealt with under statutory regimes or international conventions. International, constitutional and administrative law, criminal law, contract, tort, property law and trusts are regarded as the "traditional core subjects",E.g. in England these seven subjects, with EU law substituted for international law, make up a "qualifying law degree". For criticism, see Peter Birks' poignant comments attached to a previous version of the Notice to Law Schools. although there are many further disciplines which may be of greater practical importance.
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<section id="47736" fatherid="47734" title="International law" lv="" priority="2" level="2">
International law can refer to three things: public international law, private international law or conflict of laws and the law of supranational organisations.
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<section id="47737" fatherid="47734" title="Constitutional and administrative law" lv="" priority="3" level="2">
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 s or civil liberties of individuals against the state. Most jurisdictions, like the United States and France, have a single codified constitution, with a Bill of Rights. A few, like the United Kingdom, have no such document. A "constitution" is simply those laws which constitute the body politic, from statute, case law and convention. A case named Entick v CarringtonEntick v Carrington (1765) 19 Howell's State Trials 1030; 1765 95 ER 807 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 Earl of Halifax, was valid authority. However, there was no written statutory provision or court authority. The leading judge, Lord Camden, stated that,
The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That  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 John Locke, holds 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.Locke, The Second Treatise, Chapter 9, section 124Tamanaha, On the Rule of Law, 47 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 assumed power in France.Auby, Administrative Law in France, 75

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<section id="47738" fatherid="47734" title="Criminal law" lv="" priority="4" level="2">
Criminal law, also known as penal law, pertains to crimes and punishment.Cesare Beccaria's seminal treatise of 1763–1764 is titled On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene). It thus regulates the definition of and penalties for offences found to have a sufficiently deleterious social impact but, in itself, makes no moral judgement on an offender nor imposes restrictions on society that physically prevents people from committing a crime in the first place.Brody, Acker and Logan, Criminal Law, 2; Wilson, Criminal Law, 2 Investigating, apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law of criminal procedure.Brody, Acker and Logan, Criminal Law, 2 The paradigm 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, or actus reus (guilty act).See e.g. Brody, Acker and Logan, Criminal Law, 205 about Robinson v California, 370 U.S. 660 (1962). Second, the accused must have the requisite malicious intent to do a criminal act, or mens rea (guilty mind). However for so called "strict liability" crimes, an actus reus is enough.See e.g. Feinman, Law 111, 260–261 about Powell v Texas, 392 U.S. 514 (1968). Criminal systems of the civil law tradition distinguish between intention in the broad sense (dolus directus and dolus eventualis), and negligence. Negligence does not carry criminal responsibility unless a particular crime provides for its punishment.Dörmann, Doswald-Beck and Kolb, Elements of War Crimes, 491Kaiser, Leistungsstörungen, 333
Examples of crimes include murder, assault, fraud and theft. In exceptional circumstances defences can apply to specific acts, such as killing in self defence, or pleading insanity. Another example is in the 19th century English case of R v Dudley and Stephens, which tested a defence of "necessity". The Mignonette, sailing from Southampton to Sydney, sank. Three crew members and Richard Parker, a 17 year old cabin boy, were stranded on a raft. They were starving and the cabin boy was close to death. Driven to extreme hunger, the crew killed and ate 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. Lord 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 hang, but public opinion was overwhelmingly supportive of the crew's  to preserve their own lives. In the end, the Crown commuted their sentences to six months in jail.About R v Dudley and Stephens 1884 14 QBD 273 DC, see Simpson, Cannibalism and the Common Law, 212–217, 229–237
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 Regina) v ..." Also, lay juries 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 be imprisonment, fines, state supervision (such as probation), or community service. Modern criminal law has been affected considerably by the social sciences, especially with respect to sentencing, legal research, legislation, and rehabilitation.Pelser, Criminal Legislation, 198 On the international field, 108 are members  of the International Criminal Court, which was established to try people for crimes against humanity.The States Parties to the Rome Statute, International Criminal Court

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<section id="47739" fatherid="47734" title="Contract law" lv="" priority="5" level="2">
Contract law concerns enforceable promises, and can be summed up in the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be kept).Wenberg, Pacta Sunt Servanda, 775 In common law jurisdictions, three key elements to the creation of a contract are necessary: offer and acceptance, consideration and the intention to create legal relations. In Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company a medical firm advertised that its new wonder drug, the smokeball, would cure people's flu, and if it did not, the buyers would get £100. Many people sued for their £100 when the drug did not work. Fearing bankruptcy, 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 Lord Justice Lindley, "here is a distinct promise expressed in language which is perfectly unmistakable".About Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company 1893 1 QB 256, and the element of consideration, see Beale and Tallon, Contract Law, 142–143
"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 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 jurisdictions, consideration is not required for a contract to be binding.e.g. In Germany, § 311 Abs. II BGB 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)§ 105 Abs. II BGB 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 ful owner.Smith, The Structure of Unjust Enrichment Law, 1037

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<section id="47740" fatherid="47734" title="Tort law" lv="" priority="6" level="2">
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 . A simple example might be accidentally hitting someone with a cricket ball.Bolton v Stone 1951 AC 850 Under the law of negligence, the most common form of tort, the injured party could potentially claim compensation for his injuries from the party responsible. The principles of negligence are illustrated by Donoghue v Stevenson.Donoghue v Stevenson (1932 A.C. 532, 1932 S.C. (H.L.) 31, 1932 All ER Rep 1). See the original text of the case in UK Law Online. A friend of Mrs Donoghue ordered an opaque bottle of ginger beer (intended for the consumption of Mrs Donoghue) in a café in Paisley. Having consumed half of it, Mrs 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. The House 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 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 1932 AC 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 breached his duty of care (3) the harm would not have occurred but for his breach and (4) his act was the proximate cause, or not too remote 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, battery or trespass. A better known tort is defamation, 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 2004 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 1901 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

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<section id="47741" fatherid="47734" title="Property law" lv="" priority="7" level="2">
Property law governs valuable things that people call 'theirs'. Real property, sometimes called 'real estate' refers to ownership of land and things attached to it.eg Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd 1997 2 All ER 426 Personal property, refers to everything else; movable objects, such as computers, cars, jewelry, and sandwiches, or intangible s, such as stocks and shares. A  in rem is a  to a specific piece of property, contrasting to a  in 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 concerns mortgages, 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 and commercial law. An example of a basic case of most property law is Armory v Delamirie.Armory v Delamirie (1722) 93 ER 664, 1 Strange 505 A chimney sweep's boy found a jewel encrusted with precious stones. He took it to a goldsmith to have it valued. The goldsmith's apprentice looked at it, sneakily removed the stones, told the boy it was worth three halfpence and that he would buy it. The boy said he would prefer the jewel back, so the apprentice gave it to him, but without the stones. The boy sued the goldsmith for his apprentice's attempt to cheat him. Lord Chief Justice Pratt ruled that even though the boy could not be said to own the jewel, he should be considered the ful keeper ("finders keeper") until the original owner is found. In fact the apprentice and the boy both had a  of possession in the jewel (a technical concept, meaning evidence that something could belong to someone), but the boy's possessory interest was considered better, because it could be shown to be first in time. Possession may be nine tenths of the law, but not all.
This case is used to support the view of property in common law jurisdictions, that the person who can show the best claim to a piece of property, against any contesting party, is the owner.Matthews, The Man of Property, 251–274 By contrast, the classic civil law approach to property, propounded by Friedrich Carl von Savigny, is that it is a  good against the world. Obligations, like contracts and torts are conceptualised as s good between individuals.Savigny, Das Recht des Besitzes, 25 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 and mix our labour with our surroundings.Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government, Chap. IX. Of the Ends of Political Society and Government. Chapter 9, section 123.

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<section id="47742" fatherid="47734" title="Equity and trusts" lv="" priority="8" level="2">
Equity is a body of rules that developed in England separately from the "common law". The common law was administered by judges. The Lord Chancellor on the other hand, 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 principles 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 entrusted property.c.f. Bristol and West Building Society v Mothew 1998 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 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, Lord King, agreed and ordered Mr Sandford should disgorge his profits. He wrote,
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 stock market crash. 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 1993 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 purposes, famous examples being the British Museum or the Rockefeller Foundation.

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<section id="47743" fatherid="47734" title="Further disciplines" lv="" priority="-9" level="2">
Law spreads far beyond the core subjects into virtually every area of life. Three categories are presented for convenience, though the subjects intertwine and overlap.
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<section id="47744" fatherid="0" title="Legal systems" lv="" priority="3" level="1">
<section id="47745" fatherid="47744" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="2">
In general, legal systems can be split between civil law and common law systems.Modern scholars argue that the significance of this distinction has progressively declined; the numerous legal transplants, typical of modern law, result in the sharing by modern legal systems of many features traditionally considered typical of either common law or civil law (Mattei, Comparative Law and Economics, 71) The term "civil law" referring to a legal system should not be confused with "civil law" as a group of legal subjects distinct from criminal or public law. A third type of legal system—still accepted by some countries without separation of church and state—is religious law, based on scriptures. 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. The sources that jurisdictions adopt as authoritatively binding are the defining features of any legal system. Yet classification is a matter of form rather than substance, since similar rules often prevail.
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<section id="47746" fatherid="47744" title="Civil law" lv="" priority="2" level="2">
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 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 Babylonian Codex Hammurabi. Modern civil law systems essentially derive from the legal practice of the Roman Empire whose texts were rediscovered in medieval Europe. Roman law in the days of the Roman Republic and Empire was heavily procedural, and lacked a 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 Eastern Roman 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, alongside some influences from religious laws such as Canon law and Islamic law,Badr, Islamic Law, 187–198 196–8 continued to spread throughout Europe until the 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. Greece), but also the Japanese and Korean legal traditions.Hatzis, The Short-Lived Influence of the Napoleonic Civil Code in Greece, 253–263Demirgüç-Kunt -Levine, Financial Structures and Economic Growth, 204 Today, countries that have civil law systems range from Russia and China to most of Central and Latin America.The World Factbook — Field Listing – Legal system, CIA  The United States follows the common law system described below.
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<section id="47747" fatherid="47744" title="Common law and equity" lv="" priority="3" level="2">
Common law and equity are legal systems where decisions by courts are explicitly acknowledged to be legal sources. The "doctrine of precedent", or stare decisis (Latin for "to stand by decisions") means that decisions by higher courts bind lower courts. Common law systems also rely on statutes, passed by the legislature, but may make less of a systematic attempt to codify their laws than in a "civil law" system. Common law originated from England and has been inherited by almost every country once tied to the British Empire (except Malta, Scotland, the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the Canadian province of Quebec).
In medieval England, the Norman conquest led to a unification of various tribal customs and hence a law "common" to the whole country. Perhaps influenced by Islamic legal practices around the time of the Crusades,Makdisi, The Islamic Origins, 1635–1739 the common law developed when the English monarchy had been weakened by the enormous cost of fighting for control over large parts of France. King John 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 Sir Thomas More, the first lawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body of equity grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its own Court of Chancery. At first, equity was often criticised as erratic, that it varied according to the length of the Chancellor's foot.Pollock (ed) Table Talk of John 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 stadard for the measure a Chancellor's foot." But over time it developed solid principles, especially under Lord Eldon.Gee v Pritchard (1818) 2 Swans. 402, 414 In the 19th century the administration of the two systems were fused by the passage of the Judicature Acts. The bodies of law remain separate to this day, but are administered by the same judges.
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

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<section id="47748" fatherid="47744" title="Religious law" lv="" priority="4" level="2">
Religious law is explicitly based on religious precepts. Examples include the Jewish Halakha and Islamic Sharia—both of which translate as the "path to follow"—while Christian canon 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. However a thorough and detailed legal system generally requires human elaboration. For instance, the Quran has some law, and it acts as a source of further law through interpretation,Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 159 Qiyas (reasoning by analogy), Ijma (consensus) and precedent. This is mainly contained in a body of law and jurisprudence known as Sharia and Fiqh respectively. 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, Israeli law 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, Sharia law was practiced throughout the Muslim world in a non-codified form, with the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code in the 19th century being first attempt at codifying 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.Anderson, Law Reform in the Middle East, 43Giannoulatos, Islam, 274–275 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.Sherif, Constitutions of Arab Countries, 157–158 Saudi Arabia recognises Quran as its constitution, and is governed on the basis of Islamic law.Saudi Arabia, Jurist Iran has also witnessed a reiteration of Islamic law into its legal system after 1979.Akhlagi, Iranian Commercial Law, 127 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

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</section>
<section id="47749" fatherid="0" title="Legal theory" lv="" priority="4" level="1">
<section id="47750" fatherid="47749" title="History of law" lv="" priority="1" level="2">
The history of law is closely connected to the development of civilization. Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BC, contained 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 By the 22nd century BC, the ancient Sumerian ruler Ur-Nammu had formulated the first law code, which consisted of casuistic statements ("if ... then ..."). Around 1760 BC, King Hammurabi further developed Babylonian law, by codifying and inscribing it in stone. Hammurabi placed several copies of his law code throughout the kingdom of Babylon as stelae, for the entire public to see; this became known as the Codex Hammurabi. The most intact copy of these stelae was discovered in the 19th century by British Assyriologists, and has since been fully transliterated and translated into various languages, including English, German, and French.Richardson, Hammurabi's Laws, 11
The Old Testament dates back to 1280 BC, and takes the form of moral imperatives as recommendations for a good society. The small Greek city-state, Ancient Athens, and from about 8th century BC was the first society to be based on broad inclusion of its citizenry; excluding women and the slave class. However, Athens had no legal science, and no word for "law" as an abstract concept.Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, 5–6 Yet Ancient Greek law contained major constitutional innovations in the development of democracy.Ober, The Nature of Athenian Democracy, 121
Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, but its detailed rules were developed by professional jurists, and were highly sophisticated.Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory, 39Stein, Roman Law in European History, 1 Over the centuries between the rise and decline of the Roman Empire, law was adapted to cope with the changing social situations, and underwent major codification during Justinian I.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). Although it declined in significance during the Dark Ages, Roman law was rediscovered around the 11th century when mediæval legal scholars began to research Roman codes and adapt their concepts. In mediæval England, the King's judges developed a body of precedent, which later became the common law. A Europe-wide Lex Mercatoria was formed so that merchants could trade with common standards of practice; rather than with the many splintered facets of local laws. 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' local law under new civil codes. The French Napoleonic Code and the German 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.Mattei, Comparative Law and Economics, 71 EU law is codified in treaties, but develops through the precedent laid down by the European Court of Justice.
Islamic law and jurisprudence developed during the Middle Ages.Badr, Islamic Law, 187–198 The methodology of legal precedent and reasoning by analogy (Qiyas) used in early Islamic law was similar to that of the later English common law system.Justice Gamal Moursi Badr argues that Islamic law may "be called a lawyer's law if common law is a judge's law"(Badr, Islamic Law, 187–198, El-Gamal, Islamic Finance, 16). This was particularly the case for the Maliki school of Islamic law active in North Africa, Islamic Spain and the Emirate of Sicily. Between the 8th and 11th centuries, Maliki law developed several legal institutions that were parallel with later common law institutions.The "royal English contract protected by the action of debt is identified with the Islamic Aqd, the English assize of novel disseisin is identified with the Islamic Istihqaq, and the English jury is identified with the Islamic Lafif". Other parallels include "the scholastic method, the license to teach" (Ijazah), the "law schools known as Inns of Court in England and Madrasas in Islam", and the agency (Hawala) and trust law (Waqf) (Gaudiosi, The Influence of the Islamic Law , 1231–1261; Makdisi, The Islamic Origins, 1635–1739).
Ancient India and China represent distinct traditions of law, and have historically had independent schools of legal theory and practice. The Arthashastra, probably compiled around 100 AD (although it contains older material), and the Manusmriti (c. 100–300 AD) were foundational treatises in India, and comprise texts considered authoritative legal guidance.For discussion of the composition and dating of these sources, see Olivelle, Manu's Code of Law, 18-25. Manu's central philosophy was tolerance and Pluralism, and was cited across Southeast Asia.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 276 This Hindu tradition, along with Islamic law, was supplanted by the common law when India became part of the British Empire.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 273 Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Hong Kong also adopted the common law. The eastern Asia legal tradition reflects a unique blend of secular and religious influences.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 287 Japan was the first country to begin modernising its legal system along western lines, by importing bits of the French, but mostly the German Civil Code.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 304 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 the Ch'ing dynasty in the form of six private law codes based mainly on the Japanese model of German law.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 305 Today Taiwanese law retains the closest affinity to the codifications from that period, because of the split between Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists, who fled there, and Mao 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 by Soviet Socialist law, which essentially inflates administrative law at the expense of private law  s.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 307 Due to rapid industrialisation, today China undergoing a process of reform, at least in terms of economic, if not social and political, s. A new contract code in 1999 represented a move away from administrative domination.Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World, 309 Furthermore, after negotiations lasting fifteen years, in 2001 China joined the World Trade Organisation.Farah, Five Years of China WTO Membership, 263–304

</section>
<section id="47751" fatherid="47749" title="Philosophy of law" lv="" priority="2" level="2">
The philosophy of law is commonly known as jurisprudence. Normative jurisprudence is essentially political philosophy, and asks "what should law be?", while analytic jurisprudence asks "what is law?". John Austin's utilitarian answer was that law is "commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience".Bix, John Austin Natural lawyers on the other side, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, argue that law reflects essentially moral and unchangeable laws of nature. The concept of "natural law" emerged in ancient Greek philosophy concurrently and in entanglement with the notion of justice, and re-entered the mainstream of Western culture through the writings of Thomas Aquinas and the commentaries of Islamic philosopher and jurist Averroes.Roeber, What the Law Requires, 887Stone, Human Law and Human Justice, 14, 51
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.Fritz Berolzheimer, The World's Legal Philosophies, 115–116 Immanuel Kant believed a moral imperative requires laws "be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature".Kant, Immanuel, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 42 (par. 434) Jeremy Bentham and his student Austin, following David Hume, believed that this conflated the "is" and what "ought to be" problem. Bentham and Austin argued for law's positivism; that real law is entirely separate from "morality".Green, Legal Positivism Kant was also criticised by Friedrich Nietzsche, who rejected the principle of equality, and believed that law emanates from the will to power, and cannot be labelled as "moral" or "immoral".Nietzsche, Zur Genealogie der Moral, Second Essay, 11Kazantzakis, Friedrich Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Law, 97–98Linarelli, Nietzsche in Law's Cathedral, 23–26
In 1934, the Austrian philosopher Hans Kelsen continued the positivist tradition in his book the Pure Theory of Law.Marmor, The Pure Theory of Law 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 highway is €500); law tells us what we "should" do. Thus, each legal system can be hypothesised to have a basic norm (Grundnorm) instructing us to obey. Kelsen's major opponent, Carl Schmitt, rejected both positivism and the idea of the rule of law because he did not accept the primacy of abstract normative principles over concrete political positions and decisions.Bielefeldt, Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism, 25–26 Therefore, Schmitt advocated a jurisprudence of the exception (state of emergency), which denied that legal norms could encompass of all political experience.Finn, Constitutions in Crisis, 170–171
Later in the 20th century, H. L. A. Hart attacked Austin for his simplifications and Kelsen for his fictions in The Concept of Law.Bayles, Hart's Legal Philosophy, 21 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 book Law'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",Dworkin, Law's Empire, 410 that requires judges to find the best fitting and most just solution to a legal dispute, given their constitutional traditions. Joseph Raz, on the other hand, defended the positivist outlook and criticised Hart's "soft social thesis" approach in The Authority of Law.Raz, The Authority of Law, 3–36 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 are best  to sociology, rather than jurisprudence.Raz, The Authority of Law, 37 etc.

</section>
<section id="47752" fatherid="47749" title="Economic analysis of law" lv="" priority="3" level="2">
In the 18th century Adam Smith presented a philosophical foundation for explaining the relationship between law and economics.According to Malloy (Law and Economics, 114), 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". The discipline arose partly out of a critique of trade unions and U.S. antitrust law. The most influential proponents, such as Richard Posner and Oliver Williamson and the so-called Chicago School of economists and lawyers including Milton Friedman and Gary Becker, are generally advocates of deregulation and privatisation, and are hostile to state regulation or what they see as restrictions on the operation of free markets.Jakoby, Economic Ideas and the Labour Market, 53
The most prominent economic analyst of law is 1991 Nobel Prize winner Ronald 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 of transaction costs.Coase, The Nature of the Firm, 386–405 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 would bargain with one another to create the same allocation of resources, regardless of the way a court might rule in property disputes.Coase, The Problem of Social Cost, 1–44 Coase used the example of a nuisance case named Sturges v Bridgman, where a noisy sweetmaker and a quiet doctor were neighbours and went to court to see who should have to move. Coase said that regardless of whether the judge ruled that the sweetmaker had to stop using his machinery, or that the doctor had to put up with it, they could strike a mutually beneficial bargain about who moves house that reaches the same outcome of resource distribution. Only the existence of transaction costs may prevent this.Coase, The Problem of Social Cost, IV, 7 So the law ought to pre-empt what would happen, and be guided by the most efficient solution. The idea is that law and regulation are not as important or effective at helping people as lawyers and government planners believe.Coase, The Problem of Social Cost, V, 9 Coase and others like him wanted a change of approach, to put the burden of proof for positive effects on a government that was intervening in the market, by analysing the costs of action.Coase, The Problem of Social Cost, VIII, 23

</section>
<section id="47753" fatherid="47749" title="Sociology of law" lv="" priority="4" level="2">
Sociology of law is a diverse field of study that examines the interaction of law with society and overlaps with jurisprudence, economic analysis of law and more specialised subjects such as criminology.Jary, Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 636 The institutions of  social construction and legal frameworks are the relevant areas for the discipline's inquiry. At first, legal theorists were suspicious of the discipline. Kelsen attacked one of its founders, Eugen Ehrlich, who sought to make distinct the differences 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.Rottleuthner, La Sociologie du Droit en Allemagne, 109Rottleuthner, Rechtstheoritische Probleme der Sociologie des Rechts, 521
Around 1900 Max Weber defined his "scientific" approach to law, identifying the "legal rational form" as a type of domination, not attributable to people but to abstract norms.Rheinstein, Max Weber on Law and Economy in Society, 336 Legal rationalism was his term for a body of coherent and calculable law which formed a precondition for modern political developments and the modern bureaucratic state and developed in parallel with the growth of capitalism. Another sociologist, Émile Durkheim, wrote in The 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.Johnson, The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology, 156 Other notable early legal sociologists included Hugo Sinzheimer, Theodor Geiger, Georges Gurvitch and Leon Petrażycki in Europe, and William Graham Sumner in the U.S.Gurvitch, Sociology of Law, 142Papachristou, Sociology of Law, 81–82

</section>
</section>
<section id="47754" fatherid="0" title="Legal institutions" lv="" priority="5" level="1">
<section id="47755" fatherid="47754" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="2">
Law is less a body of static rules than a "dynamic process by which rules are constantly changed, created, and molded to fit particular situations."Hamilton and Spiro, The Dynamics of Law,  3 Changes are continuously made by various institutions in a society. Law's main institutions in liberal democracies are the independent judiciaries, the justice systems, the representative legislatures or parliaments, an accountable executive, a competent and non-corrupt bureaucracy, a police force, a civilian control of the military and a robust legal profession ensuring people's access to justice and a pluralistic civil society—a term used to refer to the social institutions, communities and partnerships that form law's political basis.Jakobs, Pursuing Equal Opportunities, 5–6Karkatsoulis, The State in Transition, 275 etc.
John Locke, in his Two Treatises of Government, and Baron de Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws, advocated for a separation of powers between the political, legislature and executive bodies.Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, Book XI: Of the Laws Which Establish Political Liberty, with Regard to the Constitution, Chapters 6–7 Their principle was that no person should be able to usurp all powers of the state, in contrast to the absolutist theory of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan.Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, XVII 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. Modern international organisations tend to focus on the importance of rule of law and good governance, while other authors explore the relation of rule of law and efficient governance in modern states.Curtin–Wessel, Good Governance, 73Fukuyama, State-Building, 132

</section>
<section id="47756" fatherid="47754" title="Judiciary" lv="" priority="2" level="2">
A judiciary is a number of judges  mediating disputes to determine outcome. Most countries have systems of appeal courts, answering up to a supreme legal authority. In the United States, this is the Supreme Court;A Brief Overview of the Supreme Court, Supreme Court of the United States in Australia, the High Court; in the UK, the the Supreme Court  (since 1 October 2009; previously, it used to be the House of Lords);House of Lords Judgements, House of Lords in Germany, the Bundesverfassungsgericht; in France, the Cour de Cassation.Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, BundesverfassungsgerichtJurisprudence, publications, documentation, Cour de cassation 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 the Council of Europe member states to bring cases relating to human s issues before it.Goldhaber, European Court of Human Rights, 1–2
Some countries allow their highest judicial authority to over-rule legislation they determined as unconstitutional. In Roe v Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas law which forbade the granting of assistance to women seeking  abortion.Roe v Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113 Retrieved 2007-01-26 The U.S.'s constitution's fourteenth amendment was interpreted to give Americans a  to privacy, and thus a woman's  to choose abortion.
A judiciary is theoretically bound by the constitution, much as legislative bodies are. In most countries judges may only interpret the constitution and all other laws. But in common law countries, where matters are not constitutional, the judiciary may also create law under the doctrine of precedent. The UK, Finland and New Zealand assert the ideal of parliamentary sovereignty, whereby the unelected judiciary may not overturn law passed by a democratic legislature.Dicey, Law of the Constitution, 37–82 In communist 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.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 In Muslim countries, courts often examine whether state laws adhere to the Sharia: the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt may invalidate such laws,Sherif, Constitutions of Arab Countries, 158 and in Iran the Guardian Council ensures the compatibility of the legislation with the "criteria of Islam".Rasekh, Islamism and Republicanism, 115–116

</section>
<section id="47757" fatherid="47754" title="Legislature" lv="" priority="3" level="2">
Prominent examples of legislatures are the Houses of Parliament in London, the Congress in Washington D.C., the Bundestag in Berlin, the Duma in Moscow, the Parlamento Italiano in Rome and the Assemblée nationale in Paris. By the principle of representative government people vote for politicians to carry out their wishes. Although countries like Israel, Greece, Sweden and China are unicameral, most countries are bicameral, meaning they have two separately appointed legislative houses. In the 'lower house' politicians are elected to represent smaller constituencies. The 'upper house' is usually elected to represent states in a federal 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 a house 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.Riker, The Justification of Bicameralism, 101
To pass legislation, a majority of Members of Parliament must vote for a bill (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 will 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). But in a presidential system, an executive appoints a cabinet to govern from his or her political allies whether or not they are elected (e.g. the United States or Brazil), and the legislature's role is reduced to either ratification or veto.About "cabinet accountability" in both presidential and parliamentary systems, see Shugart–Haggard, Presidential Systems, 67 etc.

</section>
<section id="47758" fatherid="47754" title="Executive" lv="" priority="4" level="2">
The executive in a legal system serve as a government's centre of political authority. In a parliamentary 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 chosen by the Prime Minister or Chancellor, whose office holds power under the confidence of the legislature. Because popular elections appoint political parties to govern, the leader of a party can change in between elections. The head of state is apart from the executive, and symbolically enacts laws and acts as representative of the nation. Examples include the German president (appointed by the Parliament); the Queen of the United Kingdom (a hereditary title), and the Austrian president (elected by popular vote). The other important model is the presidential system, found in France, the U.S. and Russia. In presidential systems, the executive acts as both head of state and head of government, and has power to appoint an unelected cabinet. Under a presidential system, the executive branch is separate from the legislature to which is not accountable.Haggard, Presidents, Parliaments and Policy, 71Olson, The New Parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe, 7
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 for foreign relations, the military and police, and the bureaucracy. Ministers or other officials head a country's public offices, such as a foreign ministry or interior ministry. The election of a different executive is therefore capable of revolutionising an entire country's approach to government.

</section>
<section id="47759" fatherid="47754" title="Military and police" lv="" priority="5" level="2">
While military organizations have existed as long as government itself, the idea of a standing police force is relatively modern concept. Mediæval England's system of traveling criminal courts, or assizes, used show trials and public executions to instill communities with fear to maintain control.See, eg Tuberville v Savage (1669), 1 Mod. Rep. 3, 86 Eng. Rep. 684, where a knight said in a threatening tone to a layman, "If it were not assize time, I would not take such language from you." The first modern police were probably those in 17th-century Paris, in the court of Louis XIV,History of Police Forces, History.com Encyclopedia although the Paris Prefecture of Police claim they were the world's first uniformed policemen.Des Sergents de Ville et Gardiens de la Paix à la Police de Proximité, La Préfecture de Police
Weber famously argued that the state is that which controls the legitimate monopoly of the means of violence.Weber, Politics as a VocationWeber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation, 154 The military and police carry out enforcement at the request of the government or the courts. The term failed 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.In these cases sovereignty is eroded, and often warlords acquire excessive powers (Fukuyama, State-Building, 166–167).

</section>
<section id="47760" fatherid="47754" title="Bureaucracy" lv="" priority="6" level="2">
The etymology of "bureaucracy"  derives from the French word for "office" (bureau) and the Ancient Greek for word "power" (kratos).Bureaucracy, Online Etymology Dictionary 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 by Baron 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 and intendants are not appointed to benefit the public interest, indeed the public interest appears to have been established so that offices might exist.Albrow, Bureaucracy, 16
Cynicism over "officialdom" is still common, and the workings of public servants is typically contrasted to private enterprise motivated by profit.Mises, Bureaucracy, II, Bureaucratic Management In fact private companies, especially large ones, also have bureaucracies.Kettl, Public Bureaucracies, 367 Negative perceptions of "red tape" aside, public services such as schooling, health care, policing or public transport are a crucial state function making public bureaucratic action the locus of government power. Writing in the early 20th century, Max Weber believed that a definitive feature of a developed state had come to be its bureaucratic support.Weber, Economy and Society, I, 393 Weber wrote that the typical characteristics of modern bureaucracy are that officials define its mission, the scope of work is bound by rules, management is composed of career experts, who manage top down, communicating through writing and binding public servants' discretion with rules.Kettl, Public Bureaucracies, 371

</section>
<section id="47761" fatherid="47754" title="Legal profession" lv="" priority="7" level="2">
A corollary of the rule of law is the existence of a legal profession sufficiently autonomous to be able to invoke the authority of the independent judiciary; the  to assistance of an advocate in a court proceeding emanates from this corollary—in England the function of barrister or advocate is distinguished from legal counselor (solicitor).Hazard–Dondi, Legal Ethics, 1 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.The Sunday Times v The United Kingdom 1979 ECHR 1 at 49 Case no. 6538/74 In order to maintain professionalism, the practice of law is typically overseen by either a government or independent regulating body such as a bar association, bar council or law society. Modern lawyers achieve distinct professional identity through specified legal procedures (e.g. successfully passing a qualifying examination), are required by law to have a special qualification (a legal education earning the student a Bachelor of Laws, a Bachelor of Civil Law or a Juris Doctor degreeHigher academic degrees may also be pursued. Examples include a Master of Laws, a Master of Legal Studies or a Doctor of Laws.), and are constituted in office by legal forms of appointment (being admitted to the bar). Most 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.Ahamd, Lawyers: Islamic Law In China and other developing countries there are not enough law-trained people to staff the existing judicial systems, and, accordingly, formal standards are more relaxed.Hazard–Dondi, Legal Ethics, 22–23
Once accredited, a lawyer will often work in a law firm, in a chambers as a sole practitioner, in a government post or in a private corporation as an internal counsel. In addition a lawyer may become a legal researcher who provides on-demand legal research through a library, a commercial service or through freelance work. Many people trained in law put their skills to use outside the legal field entirely. 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 exploring case-law reports, legal periodicals and legislation. Law practice also involves drafting documents such as court pleadings, persuasive briefs, contracts, or wills and trusts. Negotiation and dispute resolution skills (including ADR techniques) are also important to legal practice, depending on the field.Fine, The Globalisation of Legal Education, 364

</section>
<section id="47762" fatherid="47754" title="Civil society" lv="" priority="8" level="2">
Classical republican concept of "civil society" dates back to Hobbes and Locke.Warren, Civil Society, 3–4 Locke saw civil society as people who have "a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them."Locke, Second Treatise, Chap. VII, Of Political or Civil_Society. Chapter 7, section 87 German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel distinguished the "state" from "civil society" (burgerliche Gesellschaft) in Elements of the Philosophy of Right.Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, 3, II, 182; Karkatsoulis, The State in Transition, 277–278 Hegel believed that civil society and the state were polar opposites, within the scheme of his dialectic theory of history. The modern dipole state–civil society was reproduced in the theories of Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx.(Pelczynski, The State and Civil Society, 1–13; Warren, Civil Society, 5–9)
 Nowadays 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 author Geoffrey 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 s abuses they see on the television screen in their living rooms.Robertson, Crimes Against Humanity, 98–99
Freedom of speech, freedom of association and many other individual s allow people to gather, discuss, criticise and hold to account their governments, from which the basis of a deliberative 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 and legitimate 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 the European Economic and Social Committee) exclude the political parties. For further information, see Jakobs, Pursuing Equal Opportunities, 5–6; Kaldor–Anheier–Glasius, Global Civil Society, passim (PDF); Karkatsoulis, The State in Transition, 282–283.

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<section id="47764" fatherid="0" title="Notes" lv="" priority="-7" level="1">
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<section id="47766" fatherid="0" title="External links" lv="" priority="-9" level="1">
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