Law is a set of rules created by the state that form a framework to ensure a peaceful society and can be enforced when they are broken. It incorporates a mix of ethics, social science and history and the exact definition is debated. John Austin’s utilitarian answer was that law is “commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience.” However, some, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, believed that laws reflected essentially moral and unchanging laws of nature.
There are many areas of the law, including criminal, civil and administrative. These include tort law, which deals with a person’s right to compensation when they are injured or defamed, contract law, which governs the exchange of goods and services, and property law, which covers a person’s rights to their home and possessions. Other areas of the law are family law, which outlines marriage and divorce proceedings and child protection laws, immigration and nationality law which concern a person’s ability to live and work in a nation-state, and biolaw, which looks at the intersection between the law and the biosciences.
A career in law is becoming increasingly popular among young people, and it involves studying a wide range of areas within the field. It requires knowledge of legal precedents, laws and regulations, as well as the ability to analyze current events and new developments, so researching thoroughly is an important part of the process. This research can be done using legal databases, scholarly journals and primary sources.