Outline of law

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to law:

Law (article link) is the set of rules and principles (laws) by which a society is governed, through enforcement by governmental authorities. Law is also the field which concerns the creation and administration of laws, and includes any and all legal systems.

Nature of law

Law can be described as all of the following:

Academic discipline – 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 – academic discipline that study 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 law is interpreted and applied in societies

Legal systems

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
  - Canons of the Apostles
  - Canon law of the Anglican Communion
  - Canon law of the Catholic Church
    - Canon (canon law) - a certain rule or norm of conduct or belief prescribed by the Catholic 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.
    - Custom (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 (canon law) - an order or law made by a superior authority for the direction of others.
    - Dispensation (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 (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 (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
- Patimokkha, in Theravada Buddhism
- Sharia, in Islam