Portal:Law

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Law is a set of rules that are created and enforced by governmental or societal institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the art of justice. State-enforced laws can be made by a legislature, resulting in statutes; by the executive through decrees and regulations; or by judges' decisions, which form precedent in common law jurisdictions. An autocrat may exercise those functions within their realm. The creation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, and the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics, economics, history, and society in various ways and also serves as a mediator of relations between people.

Legal systems vary between jurisdictions, with their differences analysed in comparative law. In civil law jurisdictions, a legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates the law. In common law systems, judges may make binding case law through precedent, although on occasion this may be overturned by a higher court or the legislature. Religious law is in use in some religious communities and states, and has historically influenced secular law.

The scope of law can be divided into two domains: public law concerns government and society, including constitutional law, administrative law, and criminal law; private law deals with legal disputes between parties in areas such as contracts, property, torts, delicts and commercial law. This distinction is stronger in civil law countries, particularly those with a separate system of administrative courts; by contrast, the public-private law divide is less pronounced in common law jurisdictions. (Full article...)

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Selected article

The Tahirih Justice Center, or Tahirih, is a national charitable non-governmental organization headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, United States, that aims to protect immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence and persecution. Tahirih's holistic model combines free legal services and social services case management with public policy advocacy, training and education.

Since its founding in 1997, Tahirih has answered more than 30,000 pleas for help from individuals seeking protection from human rights abuses, such as female genital cutting, domestic violence, human trafficking, torture and rape.

Tahirih is inspired by principles of the Baháʼí Faith, including the belief that equality between women and men is necessary for peace and unity in society. The organization is named after Táhirih, an influential female poet and theologian in 19th-century Persia who campaigned for women's rights. (Full article...)

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A black and white photograph of Learned Hand

Billings Learned Hand (/ˈlɜːrnɪd/ LURN-id; January 27, 1872 – August 18, 1961) was an American jurist, lawyer, and judicial philosopher. He served as a federal trial judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1909 to 1924 and as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1924 to 1961.

Hand is also remembered as a pioneer of modern approaches to statutory interpretation. His decisions in specialist fields—such as patents, torts, admiralty law, and antitrust law—set lasting standards for craftsmanship and clarity. On constitutional matters, he was both a political progressive and an advocate of judicial restraint. He believed in the protection of free speech and in bold legislation to address social and economic problems. He argued that the United States Constitution does not empower courts to overrule the legislation of elected bodies, except in extreme circumstances. Instead, he advocated the "combination of toleration and imagination that to me is the epitome of all good government". As of 2004,^[update] Hand had been quoted more often by legal scholars and by the Supreme Court of the United States than any other lower-court judge. (Full article...)

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Selected statute

A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed will of a legislative body, whether that be on the behalf of a country, state or province, county, municipality, or so on. They are also distinguished from secondary legislation, or regulations, that are issued by an executive body under authority granted by a statute. Depending on the legal system, a statute may also be referred to as an "act." (Full article...)

The Ordinances of 1311 (The New Ordinances, Norman: Les noveles Ordenances) were a series of regulations imposed upon King Edward II by the peerage and clergy of the Kingdom of England to restrict the power of the English monarch. The twenty-one signatories of the Ordinances are referred to as the Lords Ordainers, or simply the Ordainers. English setbacks in the Scottish war, combined with perceived extortionate royal fiscal policies, set the background for the writing of the Ordinances in which the administrative prerogatives of the king were largely appropriated by a baronial council. The Ordinances reflect the Provisions of Oxford and the Provisions of Westminster from the late 1250s, but unlike the Provisions, the Ordinances featured a new concern with fiscal reform, specifically redirecting revenues from the king's household to the exchequer.

Just as instrumental to their conception were other issues, particularly discontent with the king's favourite, Piers Gaveston, whom the barons subsequently banished from the realm. Edward II accepted the Ordinances only under coercion, and a long struggle for their repeal ensued that did not end until Earl Thomas of Lancaster, the leader of the Ordainers, was executed in 1322. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

... that English professor Alice D. Snyder helped lead the campaign that earned New York women the right to vote?

... that per a 2019 Supreme Court ruling, U.S. states are immune from private suits against them in courts of other states without their consent?

... that between 1970 and 1984 the WE Seal of approval program aided in an estimated US$100,000 in restitution being made to collectors of comics and other memorabilia victimized by mail fraud?

... that at oral argument in NIFLA v. Becerra, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan questioned whether a California law was "gerrymandered" in order to discriminate against crisis pregnancy centers?

... that the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland of 1815, considered among the most liberal constitutions of its time, was increasingly disregarded by the Polish government, leading to the November Uprising of 1830?

... that the red dresses in Métis artist Jaime Black's REDress Project represent the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada and the USA?

... that after the death of Olaseni Lewis, who was restrained by 11 police officers, UK law was changed to require police to wear body cameras when dealing with vulnerable people?

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Selected images

Image 1Jeremy Bentham's writings influenced law for generations.
Image 2King Hammurabi receiving the code of laws from the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash
Image 3Jawaharlal Nehru at the Allahabad High Court
Image 4The defendants sitting in the dock during the Nuremberg Trials
Image 5Painting of a jury deliberating
Image 6A courtroom in Tokyo, Japan
Image 7Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States as of October 2020
Image 8Emperor Justinian I (527–565) of the Byzantine Empire who ordered the codification of Corpus Juris Civilis.
Image 9The Langdell Library of Harvard Law School
Image 10Chief Justice John Marshall (1755 – 1835), an American statesman and jurist who greatly influenced constitutional law'
Image 11Signing of the Magna Carta
Image 12Legal systems of the world
Image 13The first Supreme Court of Puerto Rico
Image 14The Constitution of India
Image 15Statue of Lady Justice holding scales

Selected case

Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is a law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of a legal case that have been resolved by courts or similar tribunals. These past decisions are called "case law", or precedent. Stare decisis—a Latin phrase meaning "let the decision stand"—is the principle by which judges are bound to such past decisions, drawing on established judicial authority to formulate their positions. (Full article...)

Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that law enforcement must warn a person of their constitutional rights before interrogating them when they are in custody, or else the person's statements cannot be used as evidence against them at their trial. Specifically, the Court held that under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the government cannot use a person's statements made in response to an interrogation while in police custody as evidence at the person's criminal trial unless they can show that the person was informed of the right to consult with a lawyer before and during questioning, and of the right against self-incrimination before police questioning, and that the defendant not only understood these rights but also voluntarily waived them before answering questions.

Miranda was viewed by many as a radical change in American criminal law, because the Due Process Clause was traditionally understood to protect Americans only from certain forms of formal coercion, such as threats of contempt of court. It transformed law enforcement in the United States by making what became known as the "Miranda warning" part of routine police procedure to ensure that suspects were informed of their rights, which came to be known as "Miranda rights". The Miranda warning concept quickly caught on across American law enforcement agencies, who came to call the practice "Mirandizing".

Pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court decision Berghuis v. Thompkins (2010), a suspect must unambiguously invoke the right to remain silent or to counsel. If the suspect receives and understands the Miranda warnings and then voluntarily makes statements, those statements may be treated as establishing an implied waiver of those rights. (Full article...)

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See also: Lists of case law

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that autocratic legalism allows leaders to use the law to undermine liberal democracy while appearing to uphold it?
... that fridges filled with "frozen duck" sent to Britain actually contained illegal coins?
... that after Joseph S. Bartley was sentenced to twenty years in prison for embezzlement, he tried to have himself declared legally dead?
... that the Pokémon Heracross may have contributed to an increase in demand for rhinoceros beetles in both legal and illegal Japanese insect markets?
... that the pirate anime streaming site HiAnime had more visitors than legal competitors like Crunchyroll or Disney+?
... that Monica Smit was ordered to pay Victoria Police's legal bill of about A$250,000, despite winning a lawsuit against them?

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General images

The following are images from various law-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Thomas Aquinas was the most influential Western medieval legal scholar. (from Jurisprudence)
Image 2Corpus Iuris Civilis, 1607 (from Judiciary)
Image 3Lady Justice (Latin: Justicia), symbol of the judiciary. Statue at Shelby County Courthouse, Memphis, Tennessee (from Judiciary)
Image 4A gavel and court minutes from 1861–1862, symbolic of legal decisions. (from Jurisprudence)
Image 5"With law shall land be built", from the Code of Jutland (1241) above the Copenhagen Court House, Denmark (from Legal history)
Image 6Image of pages from the Decretum of Burchard of Worms, an 11th-century book of canon law (from Canon law)
Image 7Bentham's utilitarian theories remained dominant in law until the twentieth century. (from Jurisprudence)
Image 8Mill believed law should create happiness. (from Jurisprudence)
Image 9The separation of powers: legislature, executive and judiciary. (from Judiciary)
Image 10Oliver Wendell Holmes was a self-styled legal realist. (from Jurisprudence)
Image 11King John of England signs the Magna Carta. (from Legal history)
Image 12Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens (from Jurisprudence)
Image 13Gratian (from Judiciary)
Image 14The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. (from Judiciary)
Image 15The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution for a country, containing 444 articles, 12 schedules, numerous amendments, and 117,369 words. (from Legal history)
Image 16Aristotle, by Francesco Hayez (from Jurisprudence)

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