• What is the right?
• Characteristics of the law
• Sources of law
• Branches of law
• Importance of law
• Rights and duties

We explain what law is, its sources, branches and other characteristics. In addition, the relationship between rights and duties.

The law depends on our idea of ​​fairness and justice.

What is the right?

Law is understood as two different things, although closely related:

• On the one hand, the set of rules and principles with which a society determined chooses to rule his social life, to try to achieve the ideals of Justice, order and equity, and that Public Power is in charge of imposing through the monopoly of violence.
• And, on the other hand, the social science which is dedicated to the study, interpretation and ordering of the previous set of norms and principles, in contact with other disciplines such as politics, the economy, the sociology, the history and the philosophy.

Thus, the very definition of what law is is an object of study of this same discipline, especially some of its branches, such as the Theory of Law or the Philosophy of Law. This is because there is no precise and universal formulation of what exactly law is, since it depends directly on the idea that we have of what is fair and what is justice.

The term "law" comes from the times of the Middle Ages and from the latin voice directum, which was used at that time with a moral or religious sense. He was referring to that which did not deviate to one side or the other, that is to say, that which was considered "straight", "fair" and in accordance with the norms of the moment.

Its use later was similar to that of the voice ius, used in Ancient Rome to refer to law and legal matters. From the latter come terms such as justice (iustitia) or fair (iustus).

Therefore, the study of law is also the study of the idea of ​​justice in a society and its evolution in the weather. In the emergence of this notion, not only human rationality intervenes and the will to establish a common code with which to govern and guarantee the peace social, but also components of a cultural nature, that is, moral, religious, etc.

Characteristics of the law

Law can be broadly characterized as follows:

• It comes from the Antiquity. When the first forms of Law and Condition. The current understanding of the laws and the legal world owes much of its being to the laws of Ancient Rome (the Roman law), and the profound philosophical changes that took place in the West during the Renaissance, thanks to the influence of Humanism and after the Illustration.
• It is normative in nature. That is, it encompasses a set of valid norms, rules and guidelines within a reality social and a framework cultural determined. These are generally mandatory rules of conduct.
• They are based on bilaterality. Requires the interaction of two or more persons, reciprocally, since the laws work in a heteronomous way: society (outside) imposes the rules on the individuals with whom we must govern, regardless of whether we agree or not.
• The foregoing leads to the enforceability of the right. That is, the norms of law rely on force to be obeyed, and said force is granted to the State by the monopoly of the violence.
• Aspire to inviolability. In other words, it punishes those who violate the rules with sanctions, to prevent the habit of breaking them from ending up depriving them of their meaning.
• It operates as a system of norms. That they are established in an orderly, convergent manner, avoiding juxtapositions and arbitrariness. It is a legal apparatus.

Sources of law

It is known as "sources”To the set of facts, decisions, laws and ordinances from which the content of the law in force in a given place and time comes from. That is, they are the set of texts, traditions and rules that can be used to know the foundation of the justice model of a society, and thus know what decisions to make.

The sources of law can generally be of three different types:

• Historical sources. That is, more or less old documents that make up the history of law and tell how dilemmas were resolved in the past, how laws were formed, etc.
• Material sources. Also called "real", since they come from reality, they are the set of facts or events that motivate the decision making or the formulation of new laws, and that promote the law to its constant updating and growth.
• Formal sources. That is, the sources that come from the very action of the State, society and / or the legal apparatus, as well as those put in writing in the legal or legal documentation. This includes the following:
  • The habit (the customary). Insofar as things tend to be done as they have always been done. The law responds to itself tradition cultural and social.
  • The doctrine. Which are the set of reflections and provisions generated from the study of the legal literature.
  • The jurisprudence. In other words, the set of past decisions that judicial bodies have taken, and that serve as a precedent to enable new decisions, in such a way that the law is always applied more or less in the same way in the same situations.
  • The general principles of law. Which are the most basic and fundamental concepts of any legal act.
  • The legislation And the law. In which the content of the Magna Carta or National Constitution is included, as well as the decisions of the Legislative power, and the body of laws in force of a nation.
  • International treaties. Since every signatory country agrees to keep its word in front of third nations.

Branches of law

Labor law focuses on the regulation of labor relations.

Law is a powerful discipline, which is divided into the following branches and sub-branches:

• Public Law. That deals with the regulation and study of the relationships between the private sector (the individuals and private entities that make up) with the different bodies of public power (State), or even the latter among themselves. It is made up of the following sub-branches:
  • Political law. Dedicated to the study of forms of government, electoral methods, command and obedience relations, and other forms of participation and political relations.
  • Constitutional right. Busy in the study of the fundamental laws that make up every State, especially those that have to do with basic rights and with the very organization of public power.
  • Administrative law. Focused on public administration, obviously. This means that it analyzes the regulation of the State and its organisms, as well as the public services, and the financial management of the public sector.
  • Immigration law. Dedicated to the body of rules that regulate the transit and filing of persons coming from abroad, as well as the emigration and repatriation of national people and assets
  • Procedural law. Dedicated to reviewing the mechanisms for solving conflicts established by the Law, that is, the so-called "process" and its actors: courts, organizations, etc.
  • Public international law. Whose center of interest is the relationship between the different States of the world, as well as the leadership of multilateral international organizations, such as the UN.
  • Criminal law. In charge of the punitive aspect of the State, that is, of determining the sanction for crimes and crime prevention.
  • Tax law. Also called “financial law”, it has to do with the collection, classification and implementation of taxes or taxes by the state.
• Private right. That deals with civil, commercial or whatever type of relationships that concern private actors in a situation of equality, without the State being one of them. Its purpose is to guarantee justice in the dealings between private parties. It is also made up of several sub-branches:
  • Civil law. In charge of regulating the legal relationships of the daily life of individuals, such as family ties, marriages and divorces, parental authority, civil registry, property, successions, etc.
  • Commercial law. Similarly in charge of ensuring the regulation of commercial or financial acts between private parties, such as sales, shopping, rentals, transfers, investments, etc.
  • Private international right. Whose difference with respect to public international law is that its attention is focused on private activity (commercial, for example) that does not involve States as actors, but private ones, but that takes place between different countries or regions.
• Social law. Finally, it encompasses the set of regulations that ensure the defense of the weak within society, in order to make it a more just place, and sustain coexistence and social peace among the social classes. It covers the following sub-branches:
  • Labor law. Also called Labor Law, it focuses on the regulation of labor relations, to guarantee that they are in accordance with the law and the different conventions between the sectors involved.
  • Economic law. Whose interest is focused on methods and the measures in which the State can intervene in economic activity, to apply regulations, incentives or other types of mechanisms to promote consumption, and provide justice to the entire production chain.
  • Agricultural law. In charge of regulating problems that have to do with the ownership and exploitation of land, especially in agriculture and livestock.
  • Environmental law. O Ecological Law, which ensures the defense of the environment and the Flora and fauna of a nation, protecting it from abuses and irresponsibilities of human economic (or any other) activity.

Importance of law

The law is fundamental in any form of organized society, because its laws contemplate the set of ordinances, rules and freedoms that frame social life. Without the right, the law of the strongest would prevail in society and it would be impossible to achieve some kind of order that allows progress and provides a greater sum of happiness common, guaranteeing social peace, the minimum necessary condition to produce.

Furthermore, law is an important source of anthropological, sociological and humanistic reflections, which shed light on the way we think about justice and the way we think of ourselves as community.

Rights and duties

In any legal framework, laws have two types of effects:

• Rights. That confer freedoms and protections.
• Homework. That force to comply with certain compromises Y responsibilities.

Any law-abiding citizen is expected to exercise the former and comply with the latter, since the former are left to his own free will, but the latter are not, since the freedoms of another surely depend on the fulfillment of our citizen duties.