Classification of law

The first way to classify law is substantive or procedural.

A substantive law is a law that creates and controls the rights and duties of
parties. General examples include the laws regarding torts, contracts, and real
property. A specific example of a substantive law is a law prohibiting
trespassing on another’s property. Why? Because such a law creates and
defines trespassing and puts would-be trespassers on notice regarding the
liability (if it is civil trespassing) or punishment (if it is criminal trespassing) that
they face for violating the law.

A procedural law, on the other hand, is a law that creates and controls the
process of enforcing the rights and duties under substantive law. General
examples include the rules of evidence, jurisdiction, and pleading and practice
(which are referred to as either civil procedure or criminal procedure,
depending on the type of proceeding). A specific example of a procedural law
is a statute of limitations. A statute of limitations is a statute that creates a
time limit for bringing a civil case (i.e., filing a lawsuit) or a criminal case (i.e.,
initiating a prosecution); typically, the time limit is measured from the date of
the event giving rise to the lawsuit or prosecution. This means that in personal
injury cases, for instance, a lawsuit must be brought within a certain period of
time after the injury occurred; otherwise, it will be time-barred. The case could
be very strong substantively; but that is immaterial because a court will dismiss
the case on procedural grounds.

There are many types of law

1. Civil law

Civil law is concerned with private rights and remedies, that is, the duties that
exist among and between persons, organizations, and governments (other
than, of course, the duty not to commit crimes).

Emperor Justinian I ruled ancient Rome from 527 A.D. to 565 A.D. One of his
lasting legacies is his rewriting of Roman law in “Corpus Juris Civilis,” (“Body of
Civil Law”) which still serves as a basis for modern civil law systems worldwide.
Civil law cases are divided into four main categories, each covering a range of
issues.

Contract Law

Contract law deals with agreements between two or more parties, each of
which is obligated to hold up their portion of the agreement. For example, two
parties enter into an agreement for the lease of an apartment. The Lessor has
the right to use the apartment, and the landlord receives rent money as
compensation. If one party violates any of the provisions of the contract, they
have committed a civil wrong known as “breach of contract.” Generally
speaking, contracts may be oral or written; however there are certain types of
contracts that must be put in writing.

Tort Law

Tort law is a branch of civil law that is concerned with personal injury and civil
wrongdoing. A tort is a civil wrong, done by one person or entity to another
which results in injury or property damage, and frequently involves monetary
compensation to the injured party. There are three categories of torts:
negligence, intentional tort, and strict liability.

Negligence is an unintentional tort, to which there are four elements that must
be satisfied.

1. Duty. The defendant had a duty to act in a reasonable manner

2. Breach of Duty, meaning that the defendant failed to act reasonably

3. Causation. The defendant’s breach of duty must be the cause of the

plaintiff’s injury or loss

4. Damages. Monetary, property, or other loss

An intentional tort is a deliberate wrongdoing in which the defendant acted

with intent to cause harm or injury. Some examples of intentional torts
include: assault and battery, false imprisonment, fraud, invasion of privacy,
and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Strict liability is a tort that does not require actual negligence or intent to
injure. It is based on an absolute or “strict” duty to ensure something is safe.
Strict liability frequently comes into play with hazardous activities, such as
bungee jumping. The company that owns the bungee cords, or offers the
activity to consumers, has an absolute duty to make sure the bungee cords are
intact, hooked up correctly, and are ready to operate safely. If a consumer is
injured because the cord breaks or comes undone, the company is liable for
the injury under strict liability.

Property Law

Property law covers both personal property and real property. Personal
property can be tangible, such as jewellery, animals, and merchandise, or
intangible such as patents, copyrights, stocks, and bonds. Real property refers
to land and anything built on it that cannot be easily removed, as well as
anything under the surface of the land, such as oil and minerals. There are two
types of property law torts: trespass and conversion.

 Trespass to chattels refers to a defendant intentionally and physically

interfering with the plaintiff’s right to possession and use of their
personal property.

 Trespass to land occurs when a defendant enters plaintiff’s private

property without consent of the plaintiff.

 Conversion refers to a defendant depriving a plaintiff of their personal

property without the plaintiff’s consent, and then using the plaintiff’s
property as his own.

For example, a lady sees her neighbour planting flowers in her garden, and
notices she has five extra containers of flowers with no place to plant them.
The lady decides she would like flowers in her garden as well, and takes the
leftover containers of flowers without asking for permission from neighbour.
The lady deprived the neighbour of her flowers, planting them instead in her
own garden. The lady has committed conversion.

Family Law

Family law is the branch of civil law that deals with marriage, divorce,
annulment, child custody, adoption, birth, child support, and any other issues
affecting families. This branch of civil law is unique in that there is not
necessarily a person who committed a civil wrong. This is particularly true in
states that have no-fault divorces. The family court gets involved with dividing
up property and finances after a divorce, establishing child custody, child
support, and spousal support among other things.

2. Criminal law

Criminal Law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct
perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the
property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people. Most criminal law is
established by statute, which is to say that the laws are enacted by a
legislature. It includes the punishment of people who violate these laws.
Criminal law varies according to jurisdiction, and differs from civil law,
where emphasis is more on dispute resolution and victim compensation
than on punishment. Criminal procedure is formalized official activity that
authenticates the fact of commission of a crime and authorizes punitive
treatment of the offender.

The first civilizations generally did not distinguish between civil law and
criminal law. The first written codes of law were designed by the Sumerians.
Around 2100–2050 BC Ur-Nammu, the Neo-Sumerian king of Ur, enacted
the oldest written legal code whose text has been discovered: the Code of
Ur-Nammu.

Objectives of Criminal law

Five objectives are widely accepted for enforcement of the criminal law.

 Retribution – Criminals ought to Be Punished in some way. This is the

most widely seen goal. Criminals have taken improper advantage, or
inflicted unfair detriment, upon others and consequently, the
criminal law will put criminals at some unpleasant disadvantage to
"balance the scales." People submit to the law to receive the right
not to be murdered and if people contravene these laws, they
surrender the rights granted to them by the law. Thus, one who
murders may be executed himself. A related theory includes the idea
of "righting the balance."
 Deterrence – Individual deterrence is aimed toward the specific
offender. The aim is to impose a sufficient penalty to discourage the
offender from criminal behaviour. General deterrence aims at society
at large. By imposing a penalty on those who commit offenses, other
individuals are discouraged from committing those offenses.

 Incapacitation – Designed simply to keep criminals away from society

so that the public is protected from their misconduct. This is often
achieved through prison sentences today. The death penalty or
banishment has served the same purpose.

 Rehabilitation – Aims at transforming an offender into a valuable

member of society. Its primary goal is to prevent further offense by
convincing the offender that their conduct was wrong.

 Restoration – This is a victim-oriented theory of punishment. The goal

is to repair, through state authority, any injury inflicted upon the
victim by the offender. For example, one who embezzles will be
required to repay the amount improperly acquired. Restoration is
commonly combined with other main goals of criminal justice and is
closely related to concepts in the civil law, i.e., returning the victim to
his or her original position before the injury.

Elements

The criminal law generally prohibits undesirable acts. Thus, proof of a

crime requires proof of some act. Scholars label this the requirement
of an Actus reus or guilty act. Some crimes – particularly modern
regulatory offenses – require no more, and they are known as strict
liability offenses (E.g. Under the Road traffic Act 1988 U.K it is a strict
liability offence to drive a vehicle with an alcohol concentration
above the prescribed limit). Nevertheless, because of the potentially
severe consequences of criminal conviction, judges at common law
also sought proof of an intent to do some bad thing, the Mens rea or
guilty mind. As to crimes of which both Actus reus and Mens rea are
requirements, judges have concluded that the elements must be
 present at precisely the same moment and it is not enough that they
occurred sequentially at different times.

3. Customary Law

Customary law is unofficial law in short. It is the long-established

customs (standards of community) of a particular place or locale that the
general law regards as a legal practice. For example, the so-called "Law
of Nations" is a customary law. It comes from the customary exchanges
between nations over time, and those customary exchanges may be
based on historical relations, diplomacy or conflict.

Customary law (also, consuetudinary or unofficial law) exists where:

1. A certain legal practice is observed and

2. The relevant actors consider it to be law.

Origin and Development:

The history of customary law is as long as the history of human kind. In

those early times where there was no codified law by institutionalized
organ of the state, people were governing themselves in a certain way.
The evaluation of law began before history was recorded with laws built
upon one by one as disputes were settled. In fact the development of
rules in society predates both courts and the written law. For thousands
of years, customary and private legal systems alone ordered human
activities. The obligation to behave in a certain way in a particular
community became a customary law in that particular community the
failure to observe result in a sort of sanction from the community
against the deviant. This is so because behind customary law there is
moral force to behave in a certain way. They became compulsory and
have acquired the force of law with respect to the place or subject
matter to which it related.

Since its inception, customary law has undergone considerable change

as the society is always in a constant motion. Customary rules also
respond to the particular needs and interests of the social group. When
 these change, customary rules tend to change though the way they
change is influenced by the nature of previous rules… Some customary
law lost its power as there is a constant mobility and interaction of the
society. As a result, there is a move from old customary law to modern
law. As certain activities of human beings are beyond the reach of
customary law, it is supplemented by modern law. In ancient societies a
greater degree of psychological conformity was necessary. So custom is
stronger in ancient than modern societies.
Characteristics

The characteristics of customary laws as follows:

1) It must be existence;

It must be shown that the people of the particular area acknowledge its
existence. It should not be that of by gone days.

2) It must be acceptable;

Customary law derives its strength from its acceptance. Hence not
only enough that law shown in existence. It must be custom as well as law.
This factor gives custom a binding character.

3) Flexible;

It is Striking feature of customary law. It’s not as rigid as coded law.

4) Largely unwritten

Originally customary law is evolutionary rather than product of conscious

human efforts.

5) Universally applicable

It must be applicable to all section of society not only one section of people.

4. International law

International law is the set of rules generally regarded and accepted as

binding in relations between states and between nations. It serves as a
framework for the practice of stable and organized international
relations.

History

The current order of international law, the equality of sovereignty

between nations, was formed through the conclusion of the "Peace of
Westphalia" in 1648. The 17th, 18th and 19th centuries saw the growth
of the concept of the sovereign "nation-state", which consisted of a
nation controlled by a centralised system of government.

The modern study of international law starts in the early 19th century,
but its origins go back at least to the 16th century, and Alberico Gentili,
Francisco de Vitoria and Hugo Grotius, the "fathers of international law.

Sources of international law

International law is sourced from decision makers and researchers

looking to verify the substantive legal rule governing a legal dispute or
academic discourse. The sources of international law applied by the
community of nations to find the content of international law are listed
under Article 38.1 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice:
Treaties, customs, and general principles are stated as the three primary
sources; and judicial decisions and scholarly writings are expressly
designated as the subsidiary sources of international law. Many scholars
agree that the fact that the sources are arranged sequentially in the
Article 38 of the ICJ Statute suggests an implicit hierarchy of sources.
However, there is no concrete evidence, in the decisions of the
international courts and tribunals, to support such strict hierarchy, at
least when it is about choosing international customs and treaties. In
addition, unlike the Article 21 of the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court, which clearly defines hierarchy of applicable law (or
sources of international law), the language of the Article 38 do not
explicitly support hierarchy of sources.

Subjects of international law

The range of subjects and actors directly concerned with international

law has widened considerably, moving beyond the classical questions of
war, peace, and diplomacy to include human rights, economic and trade
issues, space law, and international organizations. Although
international law is a legal order and not an ethical one, it has been
influenced significantly by ethical principles and concerns, particularly in
the sphere of human rights.

International law is an independent system of law existing outside the

legal orders of particular states. It differs from domestic legal systems in
a number of respects. For example, although the United Nations (UN)
General Assembly, which consists of representatives of some 190
countries, has the outward appearances of a legislature, it has no power
to issue binding laws. Rather, its resolutions serve only as
recommendations—except in specific cases and for certain purposes
within the UN system, such as determining the UN budget, admitting
new members of the UN, and, with the involvement of the Security
Council, electing new judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Also, there is no system of courts with comprehensive jurisdiction in
international law. The ICJ’s jurisdiction in contentious cases is founded
upon the consent of the particular states involved. There is no
international police force or comprehensive system of law enforcement,
and there also is no supreme executive authority. The UN Security
Council may authorize the use of force to compel states to comply with
its decisions, but only in specific and limited circumstances; essentially,
there must be a prior act of aggression or the threat of such an act.
Moreover, any such enforcement action can be vetoed by any of the
council’s five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United
Kingdom, and the United States). Because there is no standing UN
military, the forces involved must be assembled from member states on
an ad hoc basis.