1.2 Nature of law
‘Law’ is a term which is used in many different senses. All of these senses contain the common element of the law being a general rule of conduct. Thus there are the laws of science, the laws of morality, natural justice and the law of God, among others. To a lawyer, however, ‘law’ has a far narrower meaning. To him the term designates a rule or system of rules recognized by a country or community as regulating the actions of its members and enforced by the imposition of penalties.
It consists of the rules recognised and acted on by the courts of justice. It can be differentiated from other types of rules in that:
- Legal rules are obligatory: the citizen has no choice but to obey them
- Legal rules are created by a formal and usually somewhat complicated and solemn procedure
- Disputes concerning their applicability or their breach (breaking of the laws) are subject to special procedures which might involve trials in the courts
- There are mechanisms is a regular machinery which exists for the enforcement of the laws