Documents for "Law: Divisions and Codes":

• administration, public see administrative law.

• administrative law law governing the powers and processes of administrative agencies. The term is sometimes used also of law (i.e., rules, regulations) developed by agencies in the course of their operation. In the...

• blue laws legislation regulating public and private conduct, especially laws relating to Sabbath observance. The term was originally applied to the 17th-century laws of the theocratic New Haven colony, and...

• Breviary of Alaric Visigothic code of Roman law issued (506) by King Alaric II for his Roman subjects in Spain and S Gaul. It is also known as the Lex Romana Visigothorum. Based largely on the Theodosian Code and accompanied by valuable commentaries, it was a compilation of contemporary Roman law for the Roman element of the population; the Germanic element was under the authority of the earlier code...

• chancery see equity.

• civil law as used in this article, a modern legal system based upon Roman law , as distinguished from common law. Civil law is based on written legal codes, a hallmark of the Roman legal system, in which disputes were settled by reference to a written legal code arrived at through legislation, edicts, and the...

• Code Civil see Code Napoléon.

• Code Napoléon or Code Civil , first modern legal code of France, promulgated by Napoleon I in 1804. The work of J. J. Cambacérès and a commission of four appointed by Napoleon I in 1800 was important in making the final draft. The Code Napoléon...

• commercial law the laws that govern business transactions, except those relating to the maritime transportation of goods (see maritime law ). Commercial law developed as a distinct body of jurisprudence with the beginning...

• common law system of law that prevails in England and in countries colonized by England. The name is derived from the medieval theory that the law administered by the king's courts represented the common...

• Corpus Juris Civilis most comprehensive code of Roman law and the basic document of all modern civil law. Compiled by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, the first three parts appeared between 529 and 535 and were the work of a commission of 17 jurists presided over by the eminent jurist...

• court-martial see military law.

• criminal law the branch of law that defines crimes, treats of their nature, and provides for their punishment. A tort is a civil wrong committed against an individual; a crime, on the other hand, is regarded as an offense committed against the public, even though only one individual may have been wronged. The real...

• Digest see Corpus Juris Civilis.

• equity principles of justice originally developed by the English chancellor. In Anglo-American jurisprudence equitable principles and remedies are distinguished from the older system that the common law courts evolved. One of the earliest functions of the king's chaplain (the chancellor) and of the chancery (the office that he headed) was to govern access to the royal courts by issuing on...

• Fleta treatise of unknown authorship on the English common law, written in the late 13th cent. Its name is derived from the belief that it was written in the old Fleet Prison. The book is almost...

• game laws restrictions on the hunting or capture of wild game, whether bird, beast, or fish. After the Norman Conquest (1066), England enacted stringent game laws, known as the Forest Laws, which made...

• Germanic laws customary law codes of the Germans before their contact with the Romans. They are unknown to us except through casual references of ancient authors and inferences from the codes compiled after the...

• Institutes see Corpus Juris Civilis.

• law rules of conduct of any organized society, however simple or small, that are enforced by threat of punishment if they are violated. Modern law has a wide sweep and regulates many branches of...

• law merchant see commercial law.

• liquor laws legislation designed to restrict, regulate, or totally abolish the manufacture, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages. The passage of liquor laws has been prompted chiefly by the desire to prevent...

• martial law temporary government and control by military authorities of a territory or state, when war or overwhelming public disturbance makes the civil authorities of the region unable to enforce its law...

• military law system of rules established for the government of persons in the armed forces. In most countries the legislature establishes the code of military law. It is distinguished from both martial law (rule by domestic military forces over an area) and military government (rule by the military over occupied foreign territory). The scope of military law differs somewhat in peace and in war. In time of peace it is generally limited to military offenses—e.g., absence...

• Novels see Corpus Juris Civilis.

• Pandects see Corpus Juris Civilis.

• Roman law the legal system of Rome from the supposed founding of the city in 753 BC to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in AD 1453; it was later adopted as the basis of modern civil law. Most authorities, however,...

• Salian Law see Germanic laws.

• Salic law see Germanic laws.

• Theodosian Code Latin Codex Theodosianus, Roman legal code, issued in 438 by Theodosius II , emperor of the East. It was at once adopted by Valentinian III, emperor of the West. The code was intended to reduce and systematize the complex mass of law that had been issued since the reign of...

• Twelve Tables early code of Roman law. Most modern authorities accept the traditional date of 450 BC, but several place the work later. The tables were supposedly written in response to the plebeians' protest...