Core Legal Principles and Branches of Law
Fundamentals of Law and Legal Systems
Law establishes rules that govern society and define the status of individuals and entities within it. Legal rules create rights, impose obligations, and bring institutions to life.
Understanding Legal Subjects and Permissions
The primary legal subjects in law are humans, although, in theory, the law can grant the status of a legal subject to other entities.
Permissions within the law can be understood in two ways:
- Implicit Permission: Actions are permitted if there is no specific prohibition against them.
- Explicit Permission: The law explicitly states what is allowed, often by creating exceptions to general prohibitions.
Core Branches of Law: Public vs. Private
Public Law: Governing State and Society
Public law deals with issues affecting the general public or the state and society as a whole. It governs the relationship between individuals and the state, and the organization and operation of the state itself.
Major Branches of Public Law
- Criminal Law: This defines offenses against the community at large (crimes) and regulates the investigation, charging, trial, and punishment of offenders. It is enforced by designated state bodies and is also known as penal law.
Key Features of Criminal Law:
- Harm must actually be caused; intention alone is insufficient.
- The harm must be legally forbidden.
- The conduct must result in harmful consequences.
- The harm must stem from voluntary actions.
- There must be a legally prescribed punishment for the offense.
- Constitutional Law: This branch focuses on the laws that protect citizens’ fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution and defines the structure and powers of the state.
- Administrative Law: This body of law governs the activities, administration, and regulation of government agencies. It is often referred to as regulatory law.
- Municipal Law: These are the laws, ordinances, and regulations that govern a specific city or town.
- International Law: This governs the relationships and interactions between sovereign states. Erga omnes obligations, for instance, refer to specific duties that states owe to the international community as a whole.
Private Law: Regulating Individual Interactions
Private law concerns the rights and obligations of individuals, families, businesses, and other private entities. It provides a framework for resolving disputes involving private matters.
Major Branches of Private Law
- Property Law: Governs the various forms of property ownership, transfers, and landlord-tenant issues.
- Contract Law: This comprises the set of rules and principles governing transactions between parties, establishing their respective rights and obligations upon entering into contracts.
Understanding Torts
A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a civil wrong (other than breach of contract) that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act.
Essential Legal Concepts and Distinctions
Types of Rights
- Rights Regarding an Object: These define the relationship between a right holder and the object of that right, such as ownership.
- Liberty Rights: Often considered basic human rights, these involve explicit permission to perform certain actions, like the right to vote or express one’s opinion.
Permissions, Competence, Claims, and Obligations
- Permission vs. Competence: Permission relates to what a person is legally allowed to do. Competence concerns the legal ability or power to perform an act that has legal consequences (e.g., creating a contract); it’s about what is legally possible, not just allowed. Competence is a precondition for intentionally creating legal effects through a juridical act.
- Claims vs. Obligations: Claims are rights that directly correspond to another party’s obligation. Obligations are legal duties to do or refrain from doing something, often arising from events (like signing a contract or committing a tort) to which the law attaches an obligation as a legal effect.
Procedural Law: The Machinery of Justice
Procedural law comprises the rules governing the machinery of the courts and the methods by which both the state and individuals enforce their rights within the legal system.