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The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to law:
Law is the set of rules and principles (laws) by which a society is governed, through enforcement by governmental authorities. Law is also the field that concerns the creation and administration of laws, and includes any and all legal systems.
Law can be described as all of the following:
- Academic discipline – the body of knowledge given to - or received by - a disciple (student); a branch or sphere of knowledge, or field of study, that an individual has chosen to specialise in.
- one of the humanities – an academic discipline that studies the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences.
- System – set of elements (often called 'components' instead) and relationships which are different from relationships of the set or its elements to other elements or sets.
- part of the legal system – legal scholarship and practice shapes how the law is interpreted and applied in societies
- List of national legal systems
- Common law
- Civil law (legal system)
- Religious law
- Bahá'í laws
- Biblical law, in Judaism and Christianity
- Canon law, in Christianity
- Canon (canon law) - a certain rule or norm of conduct or belief prescribed by the Church. The word "canon" comes from the Greek kanon, which in its original usage denoted a straight rod that was later the instrument used by architects and artificers as a measuring stick for making straight lines.
- Canons of the Apostles
- Canon law of the Anglican Communion
- Canon law of the Catholic Church
- Custom (Catholic canon law) - the repeated and constant performance of certain acts for a defined period of time, which, with the approval of the competent legislator, thereby acquire the force of law. A custom is an unwritten law introduced by the continuous acts of the faithful with the consent of the legitimate legislator.
- Decree (Catholic canon law) - an order or law made by a superior authority for the direction of others.
- Dispensation (Catholic canon law) - the exemption from the immediate obligation of law in certain cases. Its object is to modify the hardship often arising from the rigorous application of general laws to particular cases, and its essence is to preserve the law by suspending its operation in such cases.
- Interpretation (Catholic canon law) - canonists provide and obey rules for the interpretation and acceptation of words, in order that legislation is correctly understood and the extent of its obligation is determined.
- Obrogation - the enacting of a contrary law that is a revocation of a previous law. It may also be the partial cancellation or amendment of a law, decree, or legal regulation by the imposition of a newer one.
- Promulgation (Catholic canon law) - the publication of a law by which it is made known publicly, and is required by canon law for the law to obtain legal effect.
- Halakha, in Judaism
- Hindu law
- Jain law
- Pāṭimokkha, in Theravada Buddhism
- Sharia, in Islam
- Traditional Chinese law
- Canon (canon law)
- Custom (customary law)
- Precedent of past judicial decisions (stare decisis)
- Statutory law
- Constitutional law
- Regulatory law
- Juristic writings (such as legal treatises)
- Sources of international law
Public law
- Constitutional law
- Tax law (revenue law)
Administrative law
Criminal law
- Criminal law (penal law)
- Criminal procedure
Substantive law and adjectival law
Law of persons
Civil law
Laws by jurisdictional scope
- International law
- Public international law
- Conflict of laws (Private international law)
- Supranational law
- Law of the European Union
- Municipal law
- Federal law (National law)
- State law
- Local ordinance
Canon law
- Aquinas, St. Thomas (wrote influential Treatise on Law)
- Benedict XIV, Pope
- Gratian ("Father of Canon Law", founder of canon law jurisprudence; canon law as legal system)
- Hostiensis (most influential decretist)
- Gregory IX, Pope (promulgated the Decretales Gregorii IX)
- Gasparri, Pietro (codified the 1917 Code of Canon Law)
- John Paul II, Pope (promulgated the 1983 Code of Canon Law and the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches)
- Penyafort, Raymond of (patron of canon lawyers, codified Decretales Gregorii IX)
- Photios I of Constantinople (writer of a nomocanon)
Civil law
Common law
Other legal systems
- Sources of law
- Lists of legislation
- Lists of case law
- List of treaties
- Branches of law
- List of areas of law
- Legislatures
- List of legislatures by country
- List of legislative buildings
- List of legislatures by number of members
- List of legislatures by female members
- Courts
- List of ad hoc international criminal tribunals
- List of constitutional courts
- List of courthouses
- List of courts in England and Wales
- List of High Courts of India
- List of special tribunals and courts
- List of supreme courts by country
- Prisons
- International law
- Environmental agreements
- List of international public law topics
- List of international trade topics
- List of international declarations
- Judges
- Privy council members
- Historical lists of Privy Counsellors
- List of current members of the British Privy Council
- List of current members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada
- List of members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland
- List of members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada
- Caselaw
- List of copyright case law
- List of European Court of Human Rights judgments
- List of European Court of Justice rulings
- List of International Court of Justice cases
- List of Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases
- List of United Kingdom House of Lords cases
- List of Supreme Court of Canada cases
- List of United States Supreme Court cases
- Legislation
- List of legislation named for a person
- List of legislation named for a place
- List of national constitutions
- List of civil codes
- List of criminal codes
- List of codes of canon law
- List of edicts
- List of government gazettes
- List of European Union directives
- List of European Union regulations
- List of Uniform Acts (United States)
- List of United States federal legislation
- Other
- List of business law topics
- Outline of criminal justice
- List of topics in logic
- List of environmental law journals
- List of legal abbreviations
- List of ayatollahs
- List of individuals executed by the federal government of the United States
- List of law journals
- List of jurists
- List of Latin phrases
- List of Latin legal terms
- List of largest law firms by revenue
- Lists of law schools
- List of national legal systems
- List of protective service agencies
- List of real estate topics
- List of riots
- List of software patents
- Legal news and information network for attorneys and other legal professionals
- Encyclopaedic project of the academic initiative in JurisPedia
- Legal articles, news, and interactive maps
- WorldLII – World Legal Information Institute
- CommonLII – Commonwealth Legal Information Institute
- AsianLII – Asian Legal Information Institute
- AustLII – Australasian Legal Information Institute
- BAILII – British and Irish Legal Information Institute
- CanLII – Canadian Legal Information Institute
- NZLII – New Zealand Legal Information Institute
- PacLII – Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute
This article includes a law-related list of lists.
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