Law is a set of rules created by an authority to regulate society and prevent chaos. The rules, backed by the threat of sanctions, establish the framework in which individuals and groups interact and live with one another. Law defines relationships, governance, commerce and human rights. It is influenced by social viewpoints on rationality, justice, morality and order, and it may also be shaped by religious beliefs on God’s word or by the ideas of philosophers such as John Locke or Max Weber, who reshaped thinking about the extension of state power.
Many types of laws exist in the world today, and their scope varies by country, region and legal system. Some laws are based on historical precedent, such as the English common law tradition that institutionalised itself in medieval England under Henry II and his Plantagenet dynasty. This system put judicial decisions on par with legislative statutes and allowed judges to use past cases to evaluate future ones, in a practice known as stare decisis.
Other laws are based on societal values, as in the case of human rights and the constitution. The former focuses on a set of principles that a person is entitled to, and the latter sets out what citizens must do to access those fundamental rights.
Banking laws, for example, focus on financial regulation, such as determining the amount of capital banks must hold or best practices for investment, to reduce risks of economic crises. Civil procedure law concerns what a citizen is entitled to when they are involved in a lawsuit or trial, and evidence law outlines what materials are admissible to courts for a case to be built.
Environmental protection laws are designed to penalise polluters within domestic legal systems. Aviation laws are framed by national civil aviation acts that are aligned with the recommendations or mandatory standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation or ICAO.
Religious laws include Jewish Halakha and Islamic Sharia, as well as Christian canon law. Often, the basis of these laws is a belief that God’s word is unchangeable, and thus should not be altered by judges or governments. Other religions rely on further human elaboration to produce more thorough legal systems, such as Muslim jurisprudence through Qiyas (reasoning by analogy) and Ijma (consensus). The law shapes politics, economics, history, and society in many ways, and its diverse fields reflect a broad range of cultural influences. The law is a crucial part of the fabric of humanity, and its ongoing evolution highlights its importance for human development. Law also includes military and policing laws, as well as the laws of war. See also censorship; crime and punishment; and police.