Law is the body of rules that are created and enforced by a social or governmental authority to regulate behavior. It serves many purposes, including establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberties and rights. Law can be made by a legislature, resulting in statutes; by the executive, resulting in regulations; or by judges, forming case law. It is often regulated by a constitution or a bill of rights, which establishes the relationships between the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government and the rights of citizens against the state.
In addition to regulating behavior, laws can also create rights and duties to property. Contract law, for example, sets out the rights and duties of people in agreements to exchange goods or services; while property law defines people’s right to their tangible property, such as a house or car, as well as intangible assets, such as shares on a stock market.
A fundamental debate in the philosophy of law concerns the extent to which it incorporates morality. John Austin’s utilitarian answer was that law consists of “commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign to whom people have a habit of obedience”. Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that, in addition, law is based on essentially moral and unchangeable laws of nature.
Modern law includes a variety of professional disciplines, such as constitutional law, administrative law and criminal law. These are all governed by separate legal bodies, with lawyers gaining their distinct identity through specified legal procedures and qualifying examinations.