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Introduction to Law

Definition of Law
  • all the rules of conduct established and enforced by the authority, legislation, or custom of a given community, state, or other group
  • any one of such rules
Common Law

  • A system of law that is derived from judges' decisions (which arise from the judicial branch of government), rather than statutes or constitutions (which are derived from the legislative branch of government).
Civil Law
  • A legal system derived from Roman law and based on fixed rules and statutes rather than on a court’s interpretation of broad principles. Prominent in continental Europe, Latin America, Scotland, Quebec, and Louisiana.
Natural Law

  • A philosophical explanation of the origins of law, grounding it in purported external facts (such as biology, religious conceptions of right and wrong, and so on) rather than in human custom or practice.

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