Law is a set of rules, usually written or tacit, that shape politics, economics, history and society.
The word law is also used to refer to the Mosaic covenant, containing commands and regulations that God commanded his people to follow (Matthew 5:17; 22:37). In the New Testament, the term law often refers to specific commandments of the Old Testament Scriptures, such as the prohibition against adultery in Matthew 5:21.
It is a legal system that governs the interaction of people with the state, each other and the environment. It is typically divided into several branches, such as constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law and civil law.
Common law is a form of legal system that originated in continental Europe and is still common in most nations today. It distinguishes between public and private law, with public law governing the state and common law covering individual topics such as property and contracts.
Generally, legal rights are those that are enforceable and which the law is willing to adjudicate if they are violated. Imperfect rights, on the other hand, are those that may be infringed but for which remedies or sanctions are not imposed by law.
According to Hohfeld, there are four normatively distinct kinds of right, each of which consists of claim-rights, correlative duties, powers and disabilities. A claim-right is a type of entitlement that entitles the subject to ph if and only if the object is under a duty to ph (Kamm 2002: 476). Powers are derived from holding or being able to alter the normative landscape, while disabilities are associated with being unable to hold, exercise, or use such powers.