What is Law?

People live in communities because they are social beings. They need the companionship of other people. Relations between community members are regulated by customs, social rules and laws.

Customs are informal rules of social and moral behaviour. They are not made by law-making bodies and they are not written down. You learn how to behave through the instruction of family and teachers, the advice of friends and your own experiences. Even if you do not observe customs, you suffer no penalty. Relations between members of religious, educational, cultural and other social institutions are regulated by a set of rules. These rules are more formal than customs. They carry precise penalties for those who break them. You have to obey these rules if you want to be a member of the group. They are not, however, enforced by any political authority.

Laws are made and enforced by government institutions. They are nevertheless often based upon informal rules of conduct that already exist in society. Governments use a system of courts and the power of the police to enforce laws. Laws protect and direct the actions of all people equally. Law-breakers are prosecuted under laws of their country. Ignorance of the law is almost never a defence for breaking it.

Legal dictionaries define "law" as "the body of rules and principles for human behaviour and the conduct of government in an organized community, state or nation, created by government institutions and enforced by the government". Governments have many purposes when they make and implement laws. Social control is undoubtedly one of them because people have not yet learnt how to live in groups without conflict. Laws provide ways to resolve conflicts and settle disputes among group members.

Another purpose of law-making is the implementation of justice. Most people feel that the concept of justice is very important but few are able to define. Sometimes a just decision is simply a decision that most people feel is fair. But there is always a danger that it is unfair to minorities. Concepts of justice are much more theoretical than everyday notions of fairness. Justice is an ideal that is difficult to realize. In general, law-makers have more practical motives such as rising crime rate or the lobbying of pressure groups.

Most laws are the creation of individual nations. They reflect law-making traditions of the country. That is why the laws of one country are often very different from the laws of another country. Although there is a growing body of international law, the law today is a complex of relatively independent national systems.

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