Law is the system of normative rules established by a government that defines the conditions under which people are permitted to act. Law can also define the consequences of actions in terms of legal punishments. The main functions of laws are to protect the safety and property of people, ensure fair treatment in public affairs, and resolve disputes between citizens.
Laws are enforceable by judicial or quasi-judicial bodies, such as courts and administrative tribunals. Alternatively, they may be enforced by armed force. The legal system is often based on a combination of written statutes and unwritten common law, which refers to the institutionalized opinions and interpretations of judicial authorities and public juries. Common law draws upon detailed records of past legal decisions, and often proves to be the inspiration for new legislation to be enacted.
Depending on the type of law, laws can be defined as a set of rules regulating an area of social life or a particular event. A law can also be a document or record that sets out the terms and conditions under which a person may conduct business or obtain credit, or a legal definition of a right or obligation. Laws can be made by a parliament or legislature, or by a court. The enactment of laws is usually preceded by debates in a House of Commons and/or Senate, and is subject to the approval of two thirds of both houses.
Rights are a central topic in political philosophy and philosophical ethics, and their function is a major concern of legal philosophy. A prominent theme in the literature is that rights provide a sense of control over one’s life and relationships with others. The most prominent defender of this view is Joel Feinberg, who argues that rights are a form of claim or demand. A right is a morally valid claim or demand for something owed to the right-holder by another party, and the purpose of the law is to make such claims or demands for goods or services possible (Feinberg 2006: 18-19).
In contrast with this view, other authors argue that rights are not merely claims but rather legal positions with correlative duties. In this view, rights are not merely “outcomes” but are more like “intermediate conclusions” that result from or depend on the intersection and counterweighting of different reasons for their existence (Hart 1953: 15-17).
Rights can be manifested in four forms: privileges, powers, liberties, and immunities. Privileges and powers determine what parties may or must do, while liberties and immunities establish whether or not parties are able to change certain norms. Rights can be held in rem or in personam. Rights in rem are typically associated with obligations (contracts, trusts, and parts of torts) or property. Rights in personam are typically associated with private law rights, such as claims, privileges, and powers (Lyons 1994: 11). Some privileged forms of freedom, however, do not qualify as true “rights” in this sense: a stand-alone liberty to ph hardly seems to be a genuine right unless it comes with an accompanying claim or other form of legal insolation against interference with that phing.