Assignment No. 1: Answer The Following Questions and Limit Your Answer To 1-5 Pages. 1. What Is Law?

Assignment No.
1
Answer the following questions and limit your answer to 1-5 pages.
1. What is Law?
- A set of rules or framework of standards enforced by the courts for population/

person's/ citizens and / or subjects belonging to a specific area or territory is termed as
"General Law". Law can be defined as standard rules, regulations and set of practices
which guides human behavior and actions with respect to various subjects. Generally, it
restricts people to do illegal activities like frauds, criminal activities and unethical
conduct in the society. It can be categorized in many ways as per the context of the
legislative environment like labor laws, civil laws, code of conduct, revenue laws,
business laws and much other segregation. Law comes from our old heritages, custom,
practices and many time Conflicting issues on various subjects of day to day life.
2. What are the Subjects of Law?
- a person—physical or juridical—
who in law has the capacity to realize rights and juridical duties.
The subject of law is a necessary element of legal relations in all branches of the law, alt
hough its status is specific in each such branch. In civil legal relations, citizens are physi
cal persons, and state organs and public organizations are juridical persons. In administr
ative legal relations, the subjects of law are state organs, officials, and citizens. In recogn
izing the citizen as a subject of law, the state defines his legal status, which describes hi
s relation to the state, the organs of the state, and other persons.
The concept of subject of law varies from one socioeconomic formation to another. In sla
veholding law, only free persons were considered subjects of law, and the extent of their
rights depended on citizenship, sex, and social position. Feudal law distinguished betwe
en subjects of law according to social estate (soslovie). Bourgeois law declared the form
al equality of all citizens, thus masking the de facto inequality stemming from economic i
nequality. In the socialist countries, all citizens are equal subjects of law, irrespective of
sex, race and nationality, social origin, and property ownership.
The legal status of citizens of the USSR embraces the fundamental rights, freedoms, and
duties defined in the Constitution of the USSR. The legal status of state organs and publi
c organizations as subjects of law is defined in the USSR by their charters and statutes t
o the extent necessary for the fulfillment of their tasks. The Soviet state is a subject of fe
deral legal relations, of the law of state ownership of land, factories, railroads, and other
such properties, and of the legal relations with respect to the budget and state loans; it is
also a subject of law in relations with citizens with respect to their constitutional rights a
nd duties.
In international law, states and several international organizations are subjects of law.
3. What are the Characteristics of Law?
1) It is a set of rules.
2) It regulates the human conduct
3) It is created and maintained by the state.
4) It has certain amount of stability, fixity and uniformity.
5) It is backed by coercive authority.
6) Its violation leads to punishment.
7) It is the expression of the will of the people and is generally written down to give it
definiteness.
8) It is related to the concept of ‘sovereignty’ which is the most important element of

state.
4. What are the Sources of Law?
- The main sources of Philippine law are:
• the Constitution - the fundamental and supreme law of the land

• Statutes - including Acts of Congress, municipal charters, municipal
legislation, court rules, administrative rules and orders, legislative rules
and presidential issuances.
• Treaties and conventions - these have the same force of authority as
statutes.
• Judicial decisions - Art 8 of the Civil Code provides that ‘judicial decisions
applying to or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a part of
the legal system of the Philippines’. Only decisions of its Supreme Court
establish jurisprudence and are binding on all other courts.
To some extent, customary law also forms part of the Filipino legal system. Art 6,
para 2 of the Constitution provides that ‘the State shall recognize, respect, and
protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to preserve and develop
their cultures, traditions and institutions’.
The primary sources of Muslim law / Shariah are the
Quran, Sunnaqh, Ijma and Qiyas.
5. What are the Classifications of Law?

- The following are the major classifications of law:
1. Public and Private Law

2. Civil Law and Criminal Law
3. Substantive and Procedural Law
4. Municipal and International Law
5. Written and Unwritten Law
6. Common Law and Equity
1. Public and Private Law: Public Law can be defined as that aspect of Law that
deals with the relationship between the state, its citizens, and other states. It is
one that governs the relationship between a higher party — the state — and a
lower one, the citizens. Examples of public law include Constitutional Law,
Administrative Law, Criminal Law, International Law and so on.
Private law, on the other hand, is that category of the law that concerns itself
with the relationship amongst private citizens. Examples include the Law of Torts,
the Law of Contract, the Law of Trust and so on.
2. Civil Law and Criminal Law: Civil law in this regard can be defined as the
aspect of Law that deals with the relationship between citizens and provides
means for remedies if the right of a citizen is breached. Examples of civil law
include the Law of Contract, the Law of Torts, Family Law etc.
Criminal Law, on the other hand, can be referred to as that aspect of Law that
regulates crime in the society. It punishes acts which are considered harmful to
the society at large. An example of criminal law is the Criminal Code Act which
is applicable in the Southern part of Nigeria.
3. Substantive and Procedural Law: Substantive Law is the main body of the
law dealing with a particular area of law. For example, the substantive law in
relation to Criminal Law includes the Criminal Code Act and the Penal Code
Act.
Procedural law, on the other hand, is law in that deals with the process which
the courts must follow in order to enforce the substantive law. Examples include
the rules of the various courts and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act
2015, which is the procedural law in relation to the Criminal Code Act and
the Penal Code Act.
4. Municipal/Domestic and International Law: Municipal/Domestic law is the

aspect of law which emanates from and has effect on members of a specific
state. An example of a municipal Nigerian law is the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria 1999(as amended) which applies in only Nigeria.
International law, on the other hand, is the law between countries. It regulates
the relationship between different independent countries and is usually in the
form of treaties, international customs etc. Examples of International law include
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on
Human and People’s Rights.
5. Written and Unwritten Law: A law would not be regarded as written just
because it is written down in a document. Written laws are those laws that have
been validly enacted by the legislature of a country.
Unwritten laws, on the other hand, are those laws that are not enacted by the
legislature. They include both customary and case law. Customary Law as part of
its basic characteristic is generally unwritten. Case law, though written down in a
documentary format, would be regarded as unwritten law based on the fact that it
is not enacted by the legislature.
6. Common Law and Equity: In the legal sense, the term common law means
the law developed by the old common law courts of the King’s Bench, the Courts
of Common Pleas and the Courts of Exchequer.
Equity (law), this term refers to a particular division within the English legal
system. As the common law progressed, there developed a formality among
judges, typified by a reluctance to deal with matters that were not or could not be
processed in the proper form of action. Such a refusal to deal with injustices
because they did not fall within the particular procedural and formal constraints,
led to much dissatisfaction with the legal system. A modern analogy would be
with a company or Government department that refused to deal with your
complaint because none of its existing forms was suitable even though you had
obviously suffered a wrong. In addition, the common law courts were perceived
to be slow, highly technical and very expensive, and a trivial mistake in pleading
a case could lose a good argument. The only available remedy was damages,
but such monetary compensation was not always the best remedy. How could
people obtain justice, if not in the common law courts? The response was the
development of equity.

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Assignment No.

- A set of rules or framework of standards enforced by the courts for population/

2. What are the Subjects of Law?

2) It regulates the human conduct

3) It is created and maintained by the state.

4) It has certain amount of stability, fixity and uniformity.

5) It is backed by coercive authority.

6) Its violation leads to punishment.

8) It is related to the concept of ‘sovereignty’ which is the most important element of

4. What are the Sources of Law?

- The main sources of Philippine law are:

• the Constitution - the fundamental and supreme law of the land

5. What are the Classifications of Law?

1. Public and Private Law

4. Municipal/Domestic and International Law: Municipal/Domestic law is the

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