A
Ordinary people regularly encounter law in a variety of circumstances. Freely negotiated commercial contracts may bind them to act in particular ways. By becoming members of a sports club or a trade union they agree to comply with a set of rules. Sometimes these forms of law will use the courts to enforce their arrangements. In other cases privately-instituted adjudication bodies are established, a third party being appointed to decide whether an agreement or rule has been broken or not. These kinds of arrangements may seem very different from the normal idea of law, especially if law is thought of mainly in terms of the criminal law. However, it is possible to see law simply as a way of regulating our actions, of deciding what can be done and what cannot be done. Most laws are not about something spectacular but, rather, about the details of ordinary life. Every time a purchase is made, a contract is made. Both parties make promises about what they will do; one to hand over the goods, one to pay the price. In this and other ways, everybody is involved in law every day of their lives.
B
Legal rules can be divided up in many different ways. The rules show differences in purpose, in origin and form, in the consequences when they are breached, and in matters of procedure, remedies and enforcement. One of the most fundamental divisions in law is the division between criminal and civil law. Newcomers to the study of law tend to assume that criminal law occupies the bulk of a lawyer’s caseload and of a law student’s studies. This is an interesting by-product of the portrayal of the legal system by the media. Criminal law weighs very lightly in terms of volume when measured against non-criminal (that is, civil) law. There are more rules of civil law than there are of criminal law; more court cases involve breach of the civil law than that of the criminal law.
C
The term ‘national law’ is used to mean the internal legal rules of a particular country, in contrast to international law which deals with the external relationships of a state with other states. There is no world government or legislature issuing and enforcing laws to which all nations are subject. The international legal order has no single governing body and operates by agreement between states. This means that the creation, interpretation and enforcement of international law lie primarily in the hands of states themselves. Its scope and effectiveness depend on the sense of mutual benefit and obligation involved in adhering to the rules. Disputes about the scope and interpretation of international law are rarely resolved by the use of international courts or binding arbitration procedures of an international organisation. This is because submission to an international court or similar process is entirely voluntary and few states are likely to agree to this if there is a serious risk of losing their case or where important political or national interests are at stake.
D
One source of detailed information about the legal system is statistical analyses. Information about the number of cases handled by a court shows in specific terms what a court’s workload is. Changes in these from year to year may indicate some effects of changes in the law and practice. Statistical tests can establish that there is a relationship, a correlation, between different things. For example, the length of a sentence for theft may correlate with the value of the items stolen or the experience of the judge who heard the case. This means that the sentence will be longer if, for example, more items are stolen or the judge is more experienced. A correlation can provide evidence for a theory. Such confirmation is important; without it we have little to establish the impact the law has, being forced to rely on individual instances of its application and having to assume that these have general truth. Empirical study of the operation of law may reveal areas of improvement. It can also confirm that, measured by particular standards, the courts are working well.