Law

Law can be broadly defined as a codified system of formal, institutionalized rules that regulate human society. By and large, modern legal systems are enforced on a jurisdictional basis, which can be subdivided into specific areas of inquiry including international law, the federal laws of individual nations, and the local laws of states, provinces, territories, municipalities, and other smaller-scale political divisions. Alternately, systems of law can also be classified according to the types of legal questions they govern. Prominent examples include criminal law, civil or common law, contract law, property law, and constitutional law. In most countries, modern legal systems are secular and are enforced and administered through a hierarchy of courts. Some nations, particularly in the Islamic world, use a system of religious law.

Laws have been a feature of human society for thousands of years, evolving from basic codes of personal conduct into comprehensive and highly complex systems of governance. Historians note that the emergence and development of legal systems have strong correlations with the progressive progress of human civilization, with more intricate and detailed systems of law being associated with more advanced societies. In the contemporary world, most secular legal systems remain in an ongoing state of flux, changing and expanding as necessary as new statutory and ethical questions, issues, and challenges arise.

The Origins of Law

Historians are not exactly sure when codified laws first appeared, but compelling evidence suggests that the ancient Egyptians used a rudimentary legal system that dates back to about 2700 BCE. While there are no direct records of this system, Egyptologists have uncovered ancient inscriptions that refer to periodic censuses. These censuses apparently accounted for both people and property, including privately held gold and real estate, leading scholars to conclude that an early form of property law must have been in place at the time.

The Code of Hammurabi is considered a major milestone in the history of law. Dating back to about 1750 BCE, it laid out a system of governance in a region of ancient Mesopotamia ruled by King Hammurabi. The code comprises 282 laws and specific punishments for breaking them. Most of these laws dealt with payment for the rendering of services, though others dealt with interpersonal and familial issues including property, inheritance, marriage, child-bearing, and adultery. While the code is now known to be just one of several institutionalized legal systems used in ancient Mesopotamia, it is the best-preserved and most comprehensive surviving example.

Other early systems of governance had strong ties to religious traditions, with the Ten Commandments ranking as the best-known example. Historians estimate that the Ten Commandments date to approximately 1300 BCE; according to Judeo-Christian tradition, the prophet Moses received the Commandments directly from God on stone tablets, leading to their subsequent adoption as a code of ethical conduct. Given the central importance of the Judeo-Christian tradition in the development of Western society, the Ten Commandments can be seen as a foundational basis for the major principles of many modern legal systems.

One of the most prominent examples of systematized justice in the ancient world took place in Athens in 399 BCE, when the philosopher Socrates was tried and found guilty by a jury of Athenian citizens on charges of corrupting the city-state’s youth with his agnostic beliefs. Another important development in the early history of law, the Twelve Tables of ancient Rome, predate the trial of Socrates by approximately half a century; the laws codified in the Twelve Tables were developed directly from common folk customs and are noteworthy for several reasons. First, they are believed to be one of the first Western legal systems that allowed people to seek restitution for wrongs and injurious actions committed against them by others. In addition, the Twelve Tables provided class-based economic protections for the common people of Rome, inhibiting their exploitation at the hands of the ruling class. The Twelve Tables went on to form the basis for the legal system of the Roman Empire, which itself inspired early forms of European law during the first centuries of the first millennium CE.

In ancient China, laws largely developed out of the Confucian philosophical tradition until the Qin Dynasty of 221–06 BCE. During this period, a system known as the Qin Code was adopted, systematizing a penal code characterized by harsh sanctions, which were instituted as a means of enabling the ruling monarch to exercise extensive control over social behavior. The Qin Code allowed for extreme and grotesque punishments including amputation, castration, and other forms of physical mutilation that served as an effective deterrent against criminal activity.

Religious Law

While many ancient legal systems intertwined law with religion, Islamic sharia law is the most prominent and widely used surviving example of this practice. Developed directly from principles found in Islam’s holy book, the Qur'an, sharia law was institutionalized during the early history of the Islamic faith. According to prevailing interpretations of sharia law, it is the duty of every devout Muslim to adhere to the principles of self-governance and social interaction laid out in the Qur'an, which, according to Islamic tradition, was handed down directly from Allah (God).

Unlike the secular legal traditions seen in practically all democratic countries, sharia law does not provide for a clear and distinct division of religious and political life. Instead, religion and the state are seen as a united entity, creating a theocratic social order. Under sharia law, virtually every aspect of private and public life is explicitly regulated, covering everything from manner of dress and diet to sexuality, hygiene, and the rearing of children. In the twenty-first century, sharia law is applied to varying degrees in a significant number of Islamic countries, which are primarily located in the Middle East but also in Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. Some nations have fully institutionalized a strict and traditional form of Islamic law while others offer sharia legal and court systems to practicing Muslims as an alternative means of settling civil disputes.

Evolution and Development of Modern Democratic Legal Systems

While the history of modern law is best understood as an ongoing process, a number of seminal events mark important moments in its development. In the Western tradition, these events include the signing of the Magna Carta, the creation of the English Bill of Rights, the American Declaration of Independence and the subsequent adoption of the Constitution of the United States, and the civil code of the Napoleonic empire.

The Magna Carta is a legal document signed on June 15, 1215 CE. In it, King John of England conceded a number of key monarchic powers to the control of the English aristocracy and common people, including taxation regulations, limits on arbitrary detention, and the free and unhindered movement of merchants except during times of war. It also provided legal protections for the rights of the church, and though the charter was eventually annulled, many legal scholars cite it as an important foundation for the eventual creation of the United Kingdom’s modern constitution.

The English Bill of Rights was adopted in 1689 in the aftermath of a period of extended civil strife that was largely the result of the monarchy’s interference in matters that were supposed to fall under the jurisdiction of English parliament. In addition to instituting a number of important civil rights and liberties, the Bill of Rights made English monarchs subject to laws passed by Parliament. It marked a watershed moment in the history of democratic reform, significantly reducing the dictatorial powers of kings and queens and concentrating more influence and legal recourse in the hands of elected officials.

The principles of democracy emerged as one of the most important social concerns of the eighteenth century and found clear and prominent expression in the American Declaration of Independence and the subsequent Constitution of the United States, which was passed after the thirteen American colonies staged a successful revolt against British rule. The Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776, embodied the spirit of national self-determination, which continued to be a definitive aspect of the legal systems of many democratic countries. The Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1788, established what was, at the time, the most sweeping and comprehensive egalitarian political system in history. It set forth a federal system of government consisting of legislative, judicial, and executive branches, each imbued with distinct powers that served as checks and balances, theoretically preventing any one branch from exercising an undue amount of control or influence. A series of constitutional amendments also laid out the essential rights of all citizens, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religious worship, and the right to peaceful assembly, among others.

The Napoleonic Civil Code, a French legal code passed in 1804, is noteworthy for the fact that it institutionalized many of the civil rights and liberties the country’s citizenry earned over the course of the French Revolution. The liberty of the individual, the right to equal treatment of all people under the law, and the secularization of the French state were all enshrined in the Napoleonic Civil Code. The charter also incorporated a number of important principles of common law, civil law, and property law and was also written in accessible language that ensured it would be easily understood by the common people.

While many other events and developments made significant contributions to the evolution of modern democratic legal systems, these examples encapsulate the fundamental foundational character of contemporary law. Following the era of the world wars, and with the founding of the United Nations in 1945, the global reach of law ushered in an age in which respect for the sovereignty of nations became an essential feature of the global legal community.

Law in the Contemporary World

Despite some major differences in the respective legal systems of individual nations, there are some near-universal features of how laws are applied in the contemporary world. Laws and policies are enacted on a jurisdictional basis; depending on the nature of its internal political divisions, statutes may apply federally, or on more localized levels such as states, provinces, internal or overseas territories, or municipalities. These policies are created by incumbent governments, and are typically applied by law enforcement agencies, including police and, in some countries, domestic intelligence services.

Criminal offenses are typically handled with the arrest and detention of the accused individual, after which they will usually have the right to a trial, either by judge or by jury. Individuals found guilty of a criminal offense are normally punished with fines and/or prison sentences, depending on the severity of the crime. In extreme cases, the guilty party may be sentenced to death. Capital punishment remained a contentious issue in contemporary law, and while it had been abolished in many democratic states, it was still used in others, though it was typically reserved for crimes of an extreme or violent nature.

Civil matters, involving disputes related to contract law, family law, property law, and related legal branches are normally handled by a separate court system. The goal of civil courts is to interpret and apply existing statutes and precedents to arbitrate disagreements and pass legally binding judgments that resolve the legal questions raised during the trial or hearing. Occasionally, criminal and civil matters overlap, though such situations are relatively rare.

Most countries also have a hierarchical court system that allows verdicts and judgments to be appealed and, potentially, overturned by a higher-ranking court. In most cases, a country’s federal supreme court, or an equivalent body, has final say over matters that cannot be resolved at the lower levels. Superior and supreme-level courts are typically adjudicated by panels of judges with extensive legal experience and lengthy careers characterized by distinguished service; these officials may be either elected or appointed by executive agents of the national government.

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