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All the rules requiring or prohibiting certain actions are known as law. In the most general sense, there are two kinds of law—natural law and positive law. Natural law has been recognized since the ancient world to be a general body of rules of right conduct and justice common to all mankind. This concept grew from the observation of the operation of the laws of nature and their uniformity. Positive law, on the other hand, consists of regulations formulated by the heads of a country or society. In many cases, natural laws have been written into positive laws by governments. The prohibition against killing, for example, is common to virtually all of mankind, and most nations have enacted laws against it. This article is concerned primarily with the many aspects of positive law in Western society.

Development of Positive Law

When people first began to live in groups they had few rules or laws, but they soon realized that each individual had to pay attention to the needs and welfare of his neighbors in order to make life not only tolerable but pleasant for the greatest number of people. It was considered necessary, for instance, for each person to recognize everyone else’s rights to life and the ownership of property. Without this mutual recognition, society could not function in peace.

With the emergence of written languages it was possible to put laws into written form. One of the best known of the early codes, or collections of written laws, is that of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, who lived about 1800 bc. Probably the most famous of the ancient codes, however, is that found in the first five books of the Bible, the laws of Moses. The heart of this code is the Ten Commandments presented by Moses to the people of Israel. These commandments are the basic summary of all moral law designed to regulate the behavior of individuals with regard to each other.

All other societies in the ancient world devised sets of laws. In the 7th century bc, a lawgiver named Draco drew up a very harsh code that punished offenses, no matter how trivial, with death. Not many years later, another Greek lawgiver, Solon, repealed all but the laws dealing with murder. In the Greek city-state of Sparta, there was a legendary lawgiver named Lycurgus who, after giving the Spartans a code of law, left the city with the instruction that the laws were not to be changed until he returned. He never did return.

The most complete and complex system of laws in the ancient world was developed by the Romans. It was the product of many centuries of civilization, from the early years of the Republic until the end of the Empire. In the 6th century ad, the emperor Justinian collected and organized the laws for use as the Roman Civil Law. Roman law has strongly influenced the general character of the laws in every nation of Western Europe except England.

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, ad 476, the Christian church, as the strongest institution in society, became a major lawmaking and law enforcement body. Called canon law (canons are regulations), a body of rules formulated by the church was designed to regulate human behavior, with respect to religious matters primarily. But it eventually came to apply to the actions of people on social, economic, and political levels as well.

To enforce its laws against those who disagreed with it, the church of the Middle Ages created the Inquisition. Church courts in several countries examined those who were suspected of breaking church laws. Many people were cleared of wrongdoing, but others were not and were punished, frequently with death. One of the best known trials was that of the scientist Galileo. He agreed, under pressure, to deny his opinion that the planets orbit the Sun in favor of the church doctrine that the Sun circled the Earth.

The society of the Middle Ages was rigidly structured, with kings, princes, and nobles at the top and the common people—mostly peasants working the land—at the bottom. Within each kingdom the ruler issued the laws by which his people were to live. Such laws could not conflict with those of the church.

In England, each locality had its own laws based on custom and tradition. After the Norman Conquest, 1066, judges appointed by the king moved from one place to another to administer these local laws. As time passed, local laws gave way to judges’ interpretations of a broader system of laws accepted in more than one area. Eventually the decisions of the judges, constantly modified by later decisions, were accepted as the body of English common law.

In France, under the guidance of Napoleon, a civil code was enacted in 1804. With revisions, it still remains in force and has been a major influence in the legal systems of most European countries and in Latin America. The Code Napoléon was made necessary by the diversity and confusion of laws that had developed in France and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages and early modern period. The premise for the code was the idea that, for the first time in history, a law based purely on common sense should be created, free of all past prejudices and inequities. Under the code all citizens were recognized as equal, and all class privileges were done away with. The code was originally introduced in areas under French control in 1804: Belgium, Luxembourg, northwestern Italy, and parts of Germany. After the Napoleonic conquests it was introduced into conquered Italy, the Netherlands, and most of Germany. It was voluntarily adopted during the 19th century in a number of other places, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina. In the United States, only Louisiana has a civil code closely connected with the Napoleonic code.

The influence of the Napoleonic code was somewhat diminished at the start of the 20th century by the introduction of the German Civil Code in 1900 and the Swiss Civil Code in 1912. Japan adopted the German code and Turkey the Swiss code.

Common Law and Statute Law

As noted above, the law in England developed over the centuries from the combined decisions of judges, the decisions based on rules already established. Known popularly as the common law, it was embodied in reports of decided cases that originated in the early Middle Ages. The broad acceptance of the common law in England was largely due to the dominant position of the royal courts, especially the King’s Court established at Westminster (now part of London). The royal judges went out to the provincial towns and interpreted the law of Westminster in both civil and criminal cases. Hence common law came to apply everywhere in England. This early centralization of the court system removed the necessity of importing into England any foreign system, such as Roman law.

Statute law differs from common law in that it is legislation, or codes of law made by legislative bodies such as parliaments, congresses, and legislatures. In England, for example, statutes are passed by Parliament. In the United States laws are passed by the Congress in Washington, D.C. Each state in the United States has its own legislature that makes statute laws, and there are many local lawmaking bodies such as city councils and town councils as well. Statute law grew up because conditions arose to which common law did not apply.

The chief difference between common law and statute law is that common law is based on what has happened, on precedents, while statute law is passed to meet present circumstances and future possibilities. The complexity of modern society in every industrialized nation has bred an enormous amount of statute law that affects the private and public life of every individual—laws on compulsory education, taxation, regulation of businesses, protection of the environment, and many more.

In recent years, governments under the common-law system have increasingly adopted statute laws and regulations. In this situation, the difference between common law and statute law has become much less distinct than it once was.

The American System of Law

Law in the United States has become a complex blend of common and statute law. When the first English colonists came to America in the 17th century, they brought English customs with them, but there was little expertise in law. Colonial charters, or agreements with England, gave the colonists the Englishmen’s traditional rights that had developed as part of the common law. An example is the right to trial before a jury of one’s peers, or equals. But there were few men trained in the law, few judges, and no schools of law. Local jurisdictions passed their own statutes to meet specific situations.

Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London

By the early 18th century, there were lawyers practicing in the colonies. They used English lawbooks and followed English procedures and precedents. In 1701 the colony of Rhode Island accepted English law in full, subject to local legislation. The Carolinas soon followed suit, and eventually most of the colonies had their own mixture of English common law and local statute. Legal battles before the American Revolution were fought on common-law principles. After the revolution many Americans wanted to divorce themselves from English practices, but other European legal systems were too different and written in unfamiliar languages. The Commentaries of William Blackstone had been printed in the colonies in 1771 and had come into wide use. Thus, despite the objections of many citizens, English common law remained the heart of the American legal system.

The work of Blackstone was reinforced by judges in the United States. As chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall had a powerful influence in shaping the development of constitutional law through his legal decisions. In the 1830s two important judges, James Kent of New York and Joseph Story of Massachusetts, produced significant commentaries on common law, stressing the need for legal certainty.

Along with the development of the common-law tradition in the United States, there has also arisen an enormous body of statute law on the federal, state, and local levels. This body of law has been made to work well with the common-law tradition by means of the American judiciary. In 1803, in one of the most famous decisions in the area of constitutional law—Marbury vs. Madison—Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that federal courts are the final authority in determining the conformity of all laws with the federal Constitution. In addition, the Sixth Article of the Constitution makes the Constitution the supreme law of the land, “any thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.” Later, in 1868, the 14th Amendment guaranteed to every citizen of the United States the equal protection of the laws. (See also bill of rights.)

The Main Branches of Positive Law

In modern legal systems there are two primary branches of law. These are criminal law and civil law. Criminal law defines offenses so harmful to society that violations are punished by fines, imprisonment, or even death. Such offenses include murder, armed robbery, theft, rape, kidnapping, assault, and embezzlement. In the late 20th century, many nations have added laws on airplane hijacking and terrorist activities to their books because both involve violence against people. There are also lesser offenses, such as driving through a stop sign or behaving badly in public, that may also bring fines. But even these so-called lesser offenses can become serious, if injury or death results from them.

Civil laws define the rights and liabilities of individuals in relation to each other and to society. Actions in civil law may enable one person to recover money from another, for example, but it does not require payment of money to the government in the form of a fine. If, for instance, one person hires another to do work for him, and they sign a contract, the individual must do the work or he is considered to have broken the contract. The one who breaks the contract may be sued in court. One of the most common types of civil actions is the divorce trial, in which a contract is at issue.

In a criminal action a governmental unit asks the court to try an individual who is alleged to have committed a specific offense. Normally the person has been indicted for the offense by a grand jury. In the United States the governmental unit may be the federal, state, or local jurisdiction, depending on the law that has been violated. Murder, robbery, and rape are state crimes. Traffic offenses are usually handled locally—by the town, city, or county; though they occasionally fall within the jurisdiction of a state. Robbery of banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an arm of the federal government, is a federal offense. In all cases, the person on trial—the defendant—is presumed innocent until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In criminal trials the plaintiff—the party bringing the complaint—is the governmental unit through its attorneys. The prosecuting arm of the federal government is the Department of Justice and regionally based federal attorneys. In a local jurisdiction, it is the state’s attorney or the attorney general of a state who brings the action.

In civil cases, generally one person—the plaintiff—asks the court to determine whether another person—the defendant—has violated the plaintiff’s rights in some way and should, therefore, make up for it in some way. Usually the plaintiff asks the court to order the defendant to pay an amount owed, either because of a promise in the form of a contract or by way of damages because the defendant caused injury to the plaintiff. If the court agrees, it will issue an injunction, an order that a person take some action (such as deliver goods that were promised in a contract) or refrain from doing something (such as playing a radio so loud that it disturbs the neighbors). Violation of an injunction, however, changes the action from a civil one to a criminal one, because failing to carry out the instructions of the court is a criminal offense, that is, an offense against the state. An individual who violates an injunction is, therefore, subject to imprisonment or fine. Most civil cases do not involve injunctions, fines, or penalties if there is a settlement or judgment in the trial. Sometimes there is what is called an out-of-court settlement. If, for instance, one person is suing another over injuries received in an auto accident and wants a large sum of money, the two parties may settle on a lesser sum, agreeable to both, outside of court. Such a settlement can take place even if a trial is already in process.

European Civil Law


During the Middle Ages, Roman law in western Europe fell into disuse and was replaced by canon law and by the customs of the several Germanic peoples that overran the empire. But in the late 11th century Roman law was rediscovered and studied by scholars in northern Italy, especially at the University of Bologna. With the increased demand for trained experts in law and administration, students flocked to Bologna from all over Europe, and soon the revival of Roman law had spread to other centers of learning. Hence, Roman law came to influence the developing legal systems of the newly emerging nations of Europe. The system that resulted was called everywhere the jus civile.

In Europe civil law similarities that had been attained by the end of the Middle Ages were split by the Reformation and by the rise of strong nationalism in many countries. Individual nations organized and put down in writing all of their specific laws. In Denmark this occurred in 1683. Norway followed four years later. Sweden-Finland codified law in 1734, as did Prussia in 1791. France did the same with the Napoleonic code of 1804. Because of the different dates of codification and the different styles of legal learning in Europe, the civil law of the Continent is divided into the French and Germanic branches. The civil law system, in both of its branches, is still dominant in Europe and has found wide acceptance in other parts of the world except where the common-law tradition of England has taken hold.

The Soviet Legal System

Law in the Soviet Union changed considerably in the early 1990s, as a result of dramatic reforms in Soviet life initiated by President Mikhail Gorbachev. The traditional view of law as an instrument of state to further the aims of Communist ideology was discarded, and ultimately the Soviet Union itself ceased to exist. The following discussion deals with the Soviet legal system from the Russian Revolution up to the time of Gorbachev.

Lenin and the other leaders of the 1917 revolution lacked a precise pattern for a legal system, since Karl Marx and his associate, Friedrich Engels, had left no scheme for such a system. The revolutionaries therefore issued a few decrees designed to establish a framework for the new society. These decrees deprived individuals of the ownership of land, banks, insurance companies, shipping fleets, and large-scale industry; created restrictions on the employment of labor; and removed marriage and divorce from the sphere of church activities.

Finally, in 1922 and 1923, statutes and legal procedures to be used in the courts were set down in codes covering criminal, civil, family, land, and labor matters. In principle, the legislature was to be the only source of law, but in practice the executive (especially during the rule of Joseph Stalin) often made laws. More often it was the Presidium, a smaller body elected from the membership of the legislature, that created day-to-day changes in the law. Ratification by the whole legislature was, according to the Soviet constitution, deemed necessary, but, in actuality, altering Presidium action became impossible. The Presidium thus became the most important source of law.

Technically, the orders and decisions of the Communist party were not a source of law. But, in fact, the party provided the initiative for a good deal of legislative action, especially in economic planning. The wishes of the party were followed because the party’s secretary was normally the real ruler of the nation. Stalin, for example, was party secretary for the whole time he governed the Soviet Union.

Soviet law reflected the strong presence of the state in the lives of the people. The law codes covered virtually every activity in which the state and its citizens were engaged. There were extensive regulations concerning the ownership and management of property. At the heart of these regulations was the provision that the state owns and operates all the means of production. Only small plots of land and certain nonproductive property were left in the hands of individuals. The state managed economic planning, social insurance, artistic creation, and family relationships. These state powers crumbled during the Gorbachev reforms.

In the area of criminal law, new definitions of crime emerged under Stalin that reflected socialism. Along with the traditional crimes dealt with in other legal systems—crimes against persons and property—the Soviet Union added certain “economic crimes” and counterrevolutionary activities. Among the economic crimes was the private employment of labor for production purposes. Counterrevolutionary activities, later called state crimes, constituted a broad range of actions that were viewed as subversive of state authority. Criticism of the state itself, or of its socialist policies, frequently brought heavy penalties. Undertaking religious activity also fell within the sphere of the criminal code until 1990.

The court system of the Soviet Union was established by the judiciary act of Oct. 31, 1922. At the local level there were people’s courts with a full-time judge and two lay judges, who were selected for a few days of service from a panel of local citizens. Appeals from the people’s courts went to provincial courts, which also had original jurisdiction in certain security, criminal, and civil cases. At the top of the legal system was the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. It heard cases on appeal from the provincial courts, but it was also responsible for disciplining the lower courts, issuing rulings to interpret the legal codes, and trying cases of a significant nature to the state.

In the Soviet Union there was no separation of powers as there is in the United States, and the courts were therefore subject to the legislative authority. The United States Supreme Court can declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. No such possibility existed in the Soviet Union.


Because law is complex and because most people are involved in legal actions only rarely, professionals are needed to study law and handle legal matters for other people. Lawyers advise individuals and organizations on the requirements of law, draft legal documents, and plead cases in court.

Another name for lawyer is attorney. Strictly speaking, an attorney is one who acts for another, an appointed agent. Someone so appointed who is not a lawyer is sometimes called an attorney-in-fact, as distinguished from an attorney-at-law.

Some lawyers maintain a general practice to assist the public in all matters of ordinary law. But many lawyers, because of the complexity of the field, become specialists in such areas as tax law, administrative law, family law, labor law, corporation law, criminal law, contract law, or other branches.

A substantial number of lawyers form partnerships, or law firms, because by law they are not usually permitted to form corporations. The reason for this is that shareholders in a corporation have limited liability, or legal responsibility, for the actions of the corporation, but lawyers are supposed to be fully liable for their actions. They may be deprived of their licenses to practice law if they fail to represent their clients properly. In some states lawyers may now form special corporations to take advantage of federal income tax provisions, but in these corporations the lawyer-shareholders have unlimited liability, just as in a partnership.

Because so much of American public and private life revolves around law and the court systems, there are far more lawyers per person in the United States than in any other country. Although no clear proof is available, American lawyers seem to have a higher economic and social status than lawyers elsewhere—perhaps because of greater diversity of opportunities. In Communist countries, lawyers are few in number, and the courts are run, in part at least, by laymen. In China, civil cases are often decided by groups of people drawn from the neighborhood.

Careers in Law

Legal education varies from country to country. In England, law can be studied in college and a bachelor’s degree is awarded, usually after four years. But additional training is required to become an experienced, practicing lawyer. The graduate is articled, or apprenticed, to one or more senior lawyers for at least a year before being licensed to practice as a solicitor. Solicitors may not represent clients in court; only barristers may do that. There are associations of barristers who control the admission of candidates to argue cases in the courts. This situation of having the legal profession divided into solicitors and barristers is called a split bar. Some other European countries also have a split bar. In France, for example, only a special group of lawyers—avocats, meaning “advocates”—are licensed to argue in court.

In the United States, lawyers are required to be college graduates and to attend a law school for three years. Upon graduating from law school, the student receives the degree of Juris Doctor (doctor of law). In addition, the law school graduate must pass an examination before being admitted to the bar. (The legal profession is called the bar because, when the profession was developing in England many centuries ago, there was a fence in courtrooms separating the judges’ area from the rest of the room. This fence was called the bar, and it became customary to say that a lawyer was called to the bar, meaning he was called upon to practice his profession.)

Whereas in England, the practice of law is regulated by associations of barristers, in the United States it is governed by the courts. Bar associations in the United States may discipline a lawyer or recommend disbarment, but the courts have the final say in the disposition of the matter.

The field of law is so vast that lawyers, in addition to going into private practice or joining law firms, find employment in other ways. Some work exclusively for corporations. Others work in all branches at every level of government. Each government department usually has a full-time legal staff. A legal education is also useful in other occupations. About 10 percent of the chief executive officers of large corporations are lawyers. Most politicians and many bankers, stockbrokers, and businessmen have had a legal education.

Thomas M. Stanton