As the formal rules of a society, laws describe what people should and should not do. A ruler, a legislature, or a religious institution can make laws. The word law also refers to the study of laws—how they are made and what they mean. Lawyers and judges are professional experts in law. How laws are madeSocieties make their laws in different ways. Many laws come from religion or people's ideas about what is right. Others are based on traditional customs. Sometimes a supreme ruler, such as a dictator or a monarch, makes the laws. Often a legislature, or group of lawmakers, creates the laws. Legislatures can be part of national, state, or local governments. Most countries record, or write down, their laws. A collection of written laws is called a code. In addition to codes of laws, the United States and the United Kingdom have a system of common law. Common law is made up of the decisions of judges in past court cases. The legal systemThe laws of a society are often complex. Lawyers, also called attorneys, are trained to understand the laws. They give people advice about laws. They also represent people, businesses, and governments during lawsuits, or court cases. They make legal arguments before judges, who oversee the courts, and juries, or groups of citizens. Courts are places where people settle disagreements and decide whether laws have been broken. Branches of lawThe two main branches of law practiced in the courts are criminal law and civil law. Criminal law deals with crime. Civil law deals with disagreements between people. Criminal lawMost countries have laws against such serious crimes as murder and stealing. Local governments usually pass laws against smaller crimes, such as drawing graffiti on buildings. After the police arrest people for committing crimes, the government brings them to court. Lawyers for the government are called prosecutors. The people accused of crimes are called defendants. Judges may decide whether defendants are guilty and how they should be punished. In some cases juries make those decisions. Possible punishments include fines, or payments to the government; working without pay; and time in prison. In some places people may be executed, or killed, for committing serious crimes. Civil lawSometimes people think that the actions of others were wrong even though no crime has occurred. The wronged people, called plaintiffs, may decide to sue, or open a civil lawsuit. In a civil lawsuit the plaintiffs say that the defendants broke a promise or hurt them in some way. If the plaintiffs win the case, the defendants must keep their promise or pay the plaintiffs money. A judge or a jury decides the amount. For example, imagine that a family pays a company to paint some rooms, but no workers ever arrive. The family may then sue the company to get the work done or their money back. History of lawThe earliest groups of hunter-gatherers had rules made by the head of the family or the tribe. Later, as people began to live in larger groups, they created more formal rules, or laws. With the invention of writing, societies began to record their laws. Hammurabi, the king of Babylon, created one of the first codes of written laws in about 1800 BC. In the democracies of ancient Greece the citizens agreed on the laws that would govern them. The ancient Romans developed a complex set of laws for the vast Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages laws came mainly from the Roman Catholic church. When the English colonists arrived in North America, they brought with them the English idea of common law, or law based on the past decisions of judges. After the United States became an independent country, the Supreme Court and lower courts continued to use common law. In addition, Congress passed laws that became part of a written code of laws. Both types of laws must agree with the rules of government in the U.S. Constitution. In the 19th century countries around the world copied the code of laws created under the French emperor Napoleon I. Other countries used the code made by Germany or the common-law system of the United Kingdom. Some countries kept their own traditional systems of law. Today many countries also follow international laws created through treaties or by the United Nations. |