A homemaker shops the local supermarket for dinner items to accompany the ground beef that is well within the expiration date. Later that night her family becomes ill and she discovers she has grounds for a lawsuit spelled b-o-t-u-l-i-s-m. Boy meets girl and leads her to believe he is making a promise of marriage. When he doesn’t follow through she believes she has grounds for a breach of promise. Both of these incidents could fall under the umbrella of contract law.
The Governmental Document of a Nation is its Highest Law
Laws, regardless of the nation, regulate social behavior by informing the citizens of what they can and cannot do and thereby lead to a society that runs efficiently. Although the function of law is stated simply here, the law is not a one sentence wonder but a complex legal system. Without laws a society, and by extension, a nation, would regress into anarchy, then chaos, and then collapse; which is what threatened to happen among the 13 states during the first 5 years after the revolution (1783-1788).
Laws are not only for bringing order to nations and regulating citizen to citizen interaction but also play a significant role in the successful operation of business. The governmental document of a nation lays the foundation for the successful operation of its society and its business enterprising. In the United States the different types and classifications of laws begin with the federal constitution and extend to the state constitutions. The United States Constitution set up the structure of government into branches and subdivisions and stated the powers given and denied each unit; it states what other units of government – such state, city, etc. – can and cannot do; it prohibits government restricting certain individual rights through the Bill of Rights.
The Constitution is the highest law of the United States; it overrides all other laws. The U.S. Constitution does not legislate but it did establish Congress which does. The U.S. Constitution established the office of the chief executive – the president – to execute or enforce the laws legislated by Congress and the federal judiciary to interpret the laws made by Congress.
Constitution law is the major type of law, but statutes, common law, treaties, ordinances, and executive orders are other types of law. Statutes are laws enacted by members of Congress. Common laws are made by judges when they decide cases not governed by statutes or other types of laws. Treaties are contracts between two or more countries and here in the United States, once two-thirds of the Senate approves a treaty made by the president, it is considered the supreme Law of the Land. An ordinance is a law created by counties and municipalities. Executive orders are laws enacted by the president or governors. As complex as these types of law seem they do not encompass the legal system which also categorize laws into classifications.
The Law has a Public and Private Side
The criminal and civil law classification was made famous by the O.J. Simpson criminal trial where Johnny Cochran demonstrated his criminal law expertise, which did not count for much when it came to the civil law case brought against Simpson by the Brown and Goldman families. Criminal law is used to prosecute those that commit crime while civil law is mainly concerned with the obligations that private parties owe one another.
Substantive law sets the rights and duties of people as they act in society, for example, a statute making murder a crime is a rule of substantive law. Procedural law controls the behavior of government bodies as they establish and enforce rules of substantive law, for example, rules describing the proper conduct of trial are procedural.
The public and private law classification concerns itself with conduct. Public law concerns the powers of government and its relationship with private parties. Constitutional, administrative and criminal laws come under the umbrella of public law. Private law concerns the relationship of individuals to one another. Contracts are an example of private law.
These types and classifications of law are just a small telling of the legal system. An ordinary individual would find the system daunting and would only begin to appreciate the person who finds the legal system interesting enough to make a career of interpreting it for others when he or she finds grounds for a day in court.
Source:
Bushman, M. (2007, Feb. 10). The role and functions of law in business and society. Associated Content: Business & Finance..
Lieberman, J. K. (2007). "Constitution of the United States." Microsoft® Encarta® 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.
Mallor, J.P., Barnes, A.J., Bowers, L.T., and Langvardt, A.W. (2004). Business Law: The Ethical, Global, and E-commerce Environment (13th ed.). Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw Hill.
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