Law is a discipline of study that encompasses both the rules that govern society (law) and the study of how those laws are created, enforced, challenged or changed by political, economic and cultural forces (legal studies). As such, it provides an important source for research in subjects as diverse as legal history, philosophy, political science and sociology. Despite the broad scope of the subject, there are two main areas of focus in law: criminal law, which protects the public from harm by regulating the conduct that can result in imprisonment or fines, and civil law, which helps to resolve noncriminal disputes through the court system.
The nature of law varies greatly from place to place. It is the product of a nation’s social, cultural and economic conditions, and is constantly shaped by these factors. This complexity makes law an interesting and challenging subject for study. Laws are enacted at the national, state and local levels by government bodies. These laws are then reviewed, defended, challenged or struck down by the courts, with the highest court being the Supreme Court of the United States.
In addition to protecting the public from harmful activities, such as murder and robbery, law provides ways for people to resolve their differences peacefully. This is accomplished through fields like property law, which establishes ownership of real estate, family law, which determines the distribution of marital assets and child custody, and tort law, which compensates a person when they suffer injury or damage to themselves or their possessions through the fault of another.
Other fields of law include regulatory law, which sets standards for services and utilities such as water, energy and telecommunications, corporate or commercial law, which deals with issues such as contract law, intellectual property law and the law of corporations, and tax law, which regulates the amount and type of taxes a corporation must pay.
When writing a paper on Law, it is important to consider the level of knowledge of your audience. If the topic is too difficult, the audience will quickly lose interest. To help keep the audience engaged, try to use concrete examples of situations where a particular law was used or why it was changed. This will give your audience a sense of competence, and may even teach them something new about Law along the way! Using this approach can be more effective than pages and pages of explanations. Moreover, it can also be more enjoyable to read. It is almost as if the audience is performing math: one example can solve more problems than multiple pages of formulas.
