What is law?
Law is the system of rules a society creates to order daily life, settle disputes, and protect people - rules made through recognized institutions and backed by the authority of the state.
Scroll down for a short journey: where law came from, how it's organised, and where it comes from.
Begin the journey
Three ways to understand what law is.
Law sets out what we may, must, and must not do. It binds everyone - including those who govern.
Laws are created through recognized institutions - legislatures, courts, rulers - and backed by the authority of the state.
Law lets strangers cooperate, resolves conflict without force, and protects rights - the foundation of justice.
From the first written laws to today.
Law is older than almost every other institution. For four thousand years, societies have written down their rules - and each great code has built on the ones before it.
The Code of Ur-Nammu
The oldest surviving written law code. It already does something familiar: it lists offences and fixes a set penalty for each - often a fine rather than physical punishment.
The Code of Hammurabi
Nearly 300 laws carved on a stone pillar for all to see - the famous principle of proportional retaliation, "an eye for an eye," and the idea that the law is public.
Mosaic Law
Religious and moral law woven together - including the Ten Commandments - a tradition that still shapes legal and ethical thinking across the Abrahamic faiths.
The Twelve Tables
Rome's earliest law, written on twelve bronze tablets and displayed publicly - so that law would bind citizens and officials alike, not just the powerful.
Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis
Emperor Justinian's great compilation of Roman law. Rediscovered centuries later, it became the backbone of the entire civil-law tradition.
Islamic law (Sharia)
A comprehensive legal and ethical system drawn from the Qur'an and the Sunnah, developed by centuries of jurisprudence - and still the foundation of law in much of the world today.
Magna Carta
For the first time, a king accepted that he too was bound by the law. Its idea - no one is above the law, and none may be punished without lawful judgment - echoes in constitutions everywhere.
The Napoleonic Code
A single, clear, accessible civil code - written so an ordinary citizen could read it. It was copied across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and beyond.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
After two world wars, nations agreed for the first time on a shared statement of the rights every human being holds - the cornerstone of modern international human-rights law.
The story continues: international treaties, environmental and human-rights law, and brand-new questions raised by technology, data, and artificial intelligence. Law is still being written.
Branches & types of law.
Law is vast, so we divide it up. The biggest split is between law that involves the state and law between private parties - and from there, into familiar branches.
Governs the relationship between people and the state.
Governs relationships between people and organisations.
The framework of the state and rights.
Government bodies and their powers.
Offences against society, and penalties.
Disputes between private parties.
Agreements and promises.
Harm, negligence and compensation.
Land, things and ownership.
Marriage, divorce and children.
Built on judges' decisions and precedent - e.g. the UK, USA.
Built on written codes - e.g. France, the UAE.
Derived from faith traditions - e.g. Islamic Sharia.
Rooted in long-standing community practice. Many countries blend several.
The main sources of law.
When a judge or a lawyer asks "what does the law say?", they look to a handful of recognised sources - usually in order of authority.
The supreme law - it sets up the state and overrides everything below it.
Statutes passed by a legislature - the most common source of new law.
Detailed rules issued by agencies under powers a statute grants them.
Court decisions (precedent). In common-law systems, they bind later cases.
Long-standing, widely accepted practice that hardens into a rule.
Sacred texts and jurisprudence - e.g. the Qur'an and Sunnah in Sharia.
Treaties and agreements between states, and the rules that govern them.
Respected expert writing (doctrine) that guides how law is read and applied.
Now explore how these ideas play out in a real country - its courts, sources, and rights.
Images via Wikimedia Commons: Lady Justice photo by Jason Jacobs (CC BY 2.0) · Code of Hammurabi photo by Rama (CC BY-SA 3.0 FR) · Roman Forum photo by Wolfgang Moroder (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Eleanor Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration, FDR Presidential Library & Museum (CC BY 2.0). The remaining historical images are in the public domain.
.jpg){kind=link}
