Law is the set of rules established by society and enforced by governmental institutions. It serves many functions, such as establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberties and rights.

Generally, laws are created and enforced by a government to ensure that people behave in a peaceful manner and do not interfere with others. They are often imposed by threat of punishment for breaking them. For example, it is against the law to steal in most places and those who do so are punished by being fined or put in jail. Alternatively, laws can also be established by a group of individuals, such as an employer and employees in a workplace agreement. These agreements are often legally binding and can be used to settle disputes without going to court.

The precise definition of law is a topic of debate. For instance, some writers have argued that law is a kind of natural science that can be explained objectively, while others have claimed that the word is simply an expression of social custom and not a scientific concept at all.

Some people have proposed that there are different types of law, with civil and common law being the main forms of legal system in use today. For instance, some countries employ a common law system that recognises decisions of judges as being law and puts them on an equal footing with legislative statutes and executive regulations. Other governments, such as Japan, have a civil law system in which the courts are guided by legal codes that explicitly state how a judge should decide a case.

There are a variety of fields within the study of law, including labour law, administrative law, family law and criminal law. Labour law, for example, deals with the legal rights of workers and trade unions in the workplace. Administrative law, on the other hand, concerns the processes and structures that an organisation must follow to be deemed legal. Criminal law is the field that deals with crimes committed against a person or property, such as murder or fraud.

Various other topics are studied in the study of law, such as constitutional law, the law of war and the philosophy of law. The term law can also refer to the profession of lawyers, who advise clients on legal issues and represent them in court. Alternatively, it can refer to a specific legal issue, such as a court case or a dispute over an inheritance. Zola was keen to pursue a career in law so she studied hard at school. She was eventually successful and found a job at a law firm. She has been studying and working in law ever since. She loves her job and finds it very rewarding. She hopes to become a partner in the firm soon. She feels like she is really killing it in her career at the moment! Her boss is always saying how well she does in her cases and her work is of a high standard.