Law

Iustitia ("Lady Justice") is a symbolic personification of the coercive power of a tribunal: a sword representing state authority, scales representing an objective standard and a blindfold indicating that justice should be impartial.
Classic symbol of law in heraldry.
"The Law" sculpture at interior of the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland.
Bentham's utilitarian theories remained dominant in law until the 20th century.
King Hammurabi is revealed the code of laws by the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash, also revered as the god of justice.
The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution for a country, containing 444 articles, 12 schedules, numerous amendments and 117,369 words.
Colour-coded map of the legal systems around the world, showing civil, common law, religious, customary and mixed legal systems. Common law systems are shaded pink, and civil law systems are shaded blue/turquoise.
Emperor Justinian (527–565) of the Byzantine Empire who ordered the codification of Corpus Juris Civilis.
First page of the 1804 edition of the Napoleonic Code.
King John of England signs Magna Carta.
A trial in the Ottoman Empire, 1879, when religious law applied under the Mecelle.
The Chamber of the House of Representatives, the lower house in the National Diet of Japan.
The G20 meetings are composed of representatives of each country's executive branch.
Officers of the South African Police Service in Johannesburg, 2010.
The mandarins were powerful bureaucrats in imperial China (photograph shows a Qing dynasty official with mandarin square visible).
In civil law systems such as those of Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Greece, there is a distinct category of notary, a legally trained public official, compensated by the parties to a transaction. This is a 16th-century painting of such a notary by Flemish painter Quentin Massys.
A march in Washington, D.C., during the civil rights movement in 1963.
Providing a constitution for public international law, the United Nations system was agreed during World War II.
The Italian lawyer Sir Alberico Gentili, the Father of international law.
The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
A depiction of a 17th-century criminal trial, for witchcraft in Salem.
The famous Carbolic Smoke Ball advertisement to cure influenza was held to be a unilateral contract.
The "McLibel case" was the longest-running case in UK history. It involved publishing a pamphlet that criticised McDonald's restaurants.
A painting of the South Sea Bubble, one of the world's first ever speculations and crashes, led to strict regulation on share trading.
The Court of Chancery, London, England, early 19th century.
A trade union protest by UNISON while on strike.
The New York Stock Exchange trading floor after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, before tougher banking regulation was introduced.
Richard Posner, one of the Chicago School, until 2014 ran a blog with Bank of Sweden Prize winning economist Gary Becker.
Max Weber in 1917, Weber began his career as a lawyer, and is regarded as one of the founders of sociology and sociology of law.

System of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate.

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Politics

Set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.

Election to the Sabzevar City Council, Iran
The Greek philosopher Aristotle criticized many of Plato's ideas as impracticable, but, like Plato, he admires balance and moderation and aims at a harmonious city under the rule of law
Women voter outreach (1935)
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), from a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics secured the two Greek philosophers as two of the most influential political philosophers.
Systems view of politics.
Legislatures are an important political institution. Pictured is the Parliament of Finland.
The pathway of regional integration or separation
Inglehart-Weltzel cultural map of countries.
Two-axis political compass chart with a horizontal socio-economic axis and a vertical socio-cultural axis and ideologically representative political colours, an example for a frequently used model of the political spectrum
Three axis model of political ideologies with both moderate and radical versions and the goals of their policies
Map of European nations coloured by percentage of vote governing party got in last election as of 2022

A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries.

Administrative law

The Stenbockska Palace is the former seat of the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden
American administrative law often involves the regulatory activities of so-called "independent agencies", such as the Federal Trade Commission, whose headquarters is shown above.

Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government.

Criminal law

The Old Bailey in London (in 1808) was the venue for more than 100,000 criminal trials between 1674 and 1834, including all death penalty cases.
An English court room in 1886, with Lord Chief Justice Coleridge presiding
International Criminal Court in The Hague

Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime.

Commercial law

Iustitia ("Lady Justice") is a symbolic personification of the coercive power of a tribunal: a sword representing state authority, scales representing an objective standard and a blindfold indicating that justice should be impartial.

Commercial law, also known as mercantile law or trade law, is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of persons and business engaged in commerce, merchandising, trade, and sales.

Legal history

The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution for a country, containing 444 articles, 12 schedules, numerous amendments and 117,369 words
King John of England signs the Magna Carta

Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed.

Justice

Justitia by Maarten van Heemskerk, 1556. Justitia carries symbolic items such as: a sword, scales and a blindfold
Justice, one of the four cardinal virtues, by Vitruvio Alberi, 1589–1590. Fresco, corner of the vault, studiolo of the Madonna of Mercy, Palazzo Altemps, Rome
Justice by Luca Giordano
Allegorical fresco cycle (cardinal virtues) by Renaissance painter Domenico di Pace Beccafumi from the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, scene: ’'Justitia'’
Lex, justitia, pax (Latin for "Law, justice, peace") on the pediment of the Supreme Court of Switzerland
J. L. Urban, statue of Lady Justice at court building in Olomouc, Czech Republic
Walter Seymour Allward's Justitia (Justice), outside Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Canada
Bonino da Campione, Justice, c. 1357, National Gallery of Art
Moses with the Tablets of Law, by Rembrandt van Rijn
"Justice as a naked woman with a sword and balance" by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1537
"Justitia", copper engraving by Jost Amman, made between 1539 and 1591
Painted Coat of Arms of Pope Paul V, ceiling of the room of the geographical maps, Vatican City
Stained glass of the Saint-Paul church in Montluçon France
Allegory of Justice. Ceiling of galleria del Poccetti in the Palazzo Pitti (Florence)

Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspectives, including the concepts of moral correctness based on ethics, rationality, law, religion, equity and fairness.

Legislature

Palace of Westminster in February 2007
Map showing the terminology for each country's national legislature
The Congress of the Republic of Peru, the country's national legislature, meets in the Legislative Palace in 2010
The British House of Commons, its lower house
The German Bundestag, its theoretical lower house
The Australian Senate, its upper house

A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city.

Decree

9 October 1981, Jamaran, Tehran; Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader of Iran signs presidential decree of Ali Khamenei.

A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution).

Law and economics

This map shows the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for every country (2020).

Law and economics or economic analysis of law is the application of economic theory (specifically microeconomic theory) to the analysis of law that began mostly with scholars from the Chicago school of economics.

Precedent

Principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive without going to courts for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts.

Canadian criminal cases

In law, a binding precedent (also known as a mandatory precedent or binding authority) is a precedent which must be followed by all lower courts under common law legal systems.