What is Law? An introduction

Write the article hereindeed means different things for different people. People may see the law differently according to their culture, nationality or even religion can bare an influence on peoples beliefs about the law and may even contradict such beliefs. What is law? Law is by definition a system of rules and regulations, potential sanctions to prohibit those from breaking the 'law of the land'. Law has the implication that there are certain codes of conduct a society must adhere to. Usually there is a hierarchical structure to different jurisdictions. An example of this is the UK constitution which is made up of what we call an codified constitution. This means that our constitution (by contrast to the american constitution) is not written down in one single document. Ultimately, our constitution is made up of precedent, statute and so on. The unwritten nature of our constitution makes it so it can be flexible and subject to change.

The notion of bicameralism suggests that there is an upper chamber (the house of lords) and a lower chamber which is the house of commons. Both chambers have different crucial functions. The house of Lords can scrutinise bills, it also reviews and amends bills of the house of commons. The house of commons which is the 'lower house' there are a number of stages that take place when a law is being created. First there is the drafting of the bill; then there is a number of reading that takes place. A bill is also known as 'draft legislation. The final stage of a law being passed, is the Royal assent, whereby the Queen only acts symbolically and therefore signs the law and does not intervene in the law-making process itself.

Different countries will have different jurisdictions, different policies. Countries may also have different concepts of the meaning of 'law', moral subjectivity holds that the meaning of law varies from place to place and culture, to culture. And so this is evidence in the strong contrast in the constitution of the UK and America. Our political structures are also different as there are federalist countries such as America which is completely different to the UK's unitary political nature.

By NyishaHv