Law is the body of rules created by a country or community that regulates its members and enforces compliance. It permeates every aspect of human civilization and influences relationships, governance, commerce and individual rights. Law permeates the human fabric and is constantly changing and evolving with society. Legal history studies reveal adjustments, justifications and evolution of laws throughout the course of different civilizations.
Oxford Reference offers the most authoritative, expert-reviewed content on law available anywhere online. Our collection includes concise definitions and in-depth, specialist encyclopedic entries on all aspects of the law. Our comprehensive coverage covers major topics such as criminal law, family and employment laws, business and transactional law, environmental law, biolaw and more.
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Laws are formulated by an authority and are enforced by that authority in order to maintain stability, peace and fairness in societies. The question of how law shapes politics, economics, history and culture has been debated for centuries.
A major debate on the nature of law has revolved around whether or not it contains a moral component. Philosophers such as Bentham and Austin developed utilitarian theories of law based on the idea that law is commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from an authority to which people have a natural habit of obedience. Jean-Jacques Rousseau promoted a natural law theory, which argues that all laws are rooted in universal and unchanging principles of right and wrong.