Administrative Law
The collection of rules and decisions made by administrative agencies to fill in particular details missing from the constitutions and statutes.
Business Law
The enforceable rules of conduct that govern the actions of buyers and sellers in market exchanges.
Case Law
The collection of legal interpretations made by judges. They are considered to be law unless otherwise revoked by a statutory law. Also known as Common Law.
Civil Law
The body of laws that govern the right and responsibilities either between persons or between persons and their government.
Common Law
The collection of legal interpretations made by judges. They are considered to be law unless otherwise revoked by a statutory law. Also known as Case Law.
Constitutional Law
The general limits and powers of a government as interpreted from its written constitution.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
An economic school or jurisprudence in which all costs and benefits of a law are given monetary values. Those laws with the highest ratios of benefits to costs are then preferable to those with lower ratios.
Criminal Law
A classification of law involving the rights and responsibilities an individual has with respect to the public as a whole.
Cyberlaw
A classification of law regulating business activities that are conducted online.
Identification with the Vulnerable
The school of jurisprudence of pursuing change on the grounds that some higher law or body of moral principles connects all of us in the human community.
Legal Positivism
The school of jurisprudence which holds that because society requires authority, a legal and authoritarian hierarchy should exist. When a law is made, therefore, obedience is expected because authority created it.
Legal Realism
The school of jurisprudence which dictates that context must be considered as well as law. Context includes factors such as economic conditions and social conditions.
Model (Uniform) Laws
A law created to account for the variability of laws among states; serves to standardize the otherwise different interstate laws. (Model Law)
Natural Law
A school of jurisprudence that recognizes the existence of higher law, or law that is morally superior to human laws.
Precedent
A tool used by judges to make rulings on cases on the basis of key similarities to previous cases.
Private Law
Law that involves suits between private individuals or groups.
Public Law
Law that involves suits between private individuals or groups and their governments.
Restatements of the Law
Summaries of common law rules in a particular area of the law. Restatements do not carry the weight of law but can be used to guide interpretations of particular cases.
Stare decisis
Latin for "standing by the decision"; a principle stating that rulings made in higher courts are binding precedent for lower courts.
Statutory Law
The assortment of rules and regulations put forth by legislatures.
Treaty
A binding agreement between two nations or international organizations.