The Law is the system of rules that governs a country or community. The law encompasses both legislation and the prevailing customs of a society or community. A legal system can be civil or criminal and may contain many different branches. It can cover a variety of topics including the environment, tax, employment, property and contracts. Legal systems can vary widely and there are a wide variety of theories about what makes them work or fail.

The main purposes of the law are setting standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberties and rights. The varying branches of the law are designed to achieve these goals. Bank law imposes minimum standards on the amount of money banks must keep, financial regulation sets best practice and public service law deals with utilities like water and electricity.

Contract law regulates agreements to exchange goods and services. Labour law deals with a tripartite industrial relationship between employer, worker and trade union and focuses on workers’ rights. Property law covers ownership of tangible items, including land or real estate (a right in rem) and personal possessions such as computers, cars and jewellery (a right in personam).

The nature and scope of the law is a complex topic with many debates and books devoted to it. A central issue is the extent to which the law should be coercive and how much control it should have over the lives of citizens. Max Weber reshaped thinking about the extension of state power, while modern military, policing and bureaucratic power pose challenges to accountability that earlier writers such as Locke or Montesquieu could not have foreseen.