What is Law?

Law is a system of rules created and enforced by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior. Its precise definition is a subject of longstanding debate and it has been variously described as both a science and an art. Law has many branches, including contract law (which covers everything from buying a bus ticket to trading options on the derivatives market) and property law, which defines people’s rights and obligations toward tangible goods such as land or cars, and intangible assets like money, bank accounts and shares of stock.

The legal profession is one of the most highly respected in modern society and a career as a lawyer can be lucrative. It also offers a number of benefits that other careers do not, including prestige and a work environment that is generally more comfortable than a typical corporate office.

Moreover, the discipline of Law is incredibly fascinating, and studying it can help students build confidence in their abilities because it is very challenging. It is not an easy degree to study and it requires a lot of hard work, reading and analysis, but the rewards can be immense.

Originally, laws were simply a collection of customs and policies that were enforced by a community’s authority. Later, Plato advanced philosophical claims about the nature of law and it became a central element in his model of an ideal state. The modern law-enforcement apparatus has radically expanded beyond what Aristotle and his contemporaries could have imagined and this expansion raises new issues of accountability that earlier writers such as Locke and Montesquieu did not consider.