What Is Law?
Law is a broad term for a system of rules that a society or government develops in order to deal with things like crime, business agreements and social relationships. It can also refer to a specific branch of the law such as criminal or civil law.
A legal system may consist of either a written constitution or an unwritten system of customs, precedent and case law. The latter is more common in most countries. Legal systems often differ from one country to the next and even within a single country, although they generally share certain features based on historically accepted justice ideals.
The Law was a tutor and guardian, establishing Israel as a people of promise until the Messiah came to claim her inheritance (Deut 28:1). It was a pattern for worship that emphasized substitutionary sacrifice (Heb 9). It separated Israel from the nations and set them apart as God’s people (Ps 119). It served as a shadow of the realities of salvation to come (1 Cor 2:17; Col 1:24).
Legal subjects range widely, from labour law to evidence law. Labour law involves the tripartite industrial relationship between employer, worker and trade unions and includes regulations on wages and conditions of employment. Evidence law deals with which materials are admissible for a court to build a case. Law also encompasses the conduct of a nation’s citizens and raises fundamental questions about equality, fairness and justice. It is a subject of scholarly study in many fields, including history, philosophy and sociology.