Law is the discipline and profession concerned with the body of rules governing everyday life in a particular jurisdiction or community. The term can also refer more broadly to a set of laws, as in “the law of the land.” A central function of law is to regulate the behavior of individuals and groups. In a society, the body of law typically consists of civil, criminal, and administrative laws. The civil law is about the relations among people and things (like property), the criminal law is about offenses against people, and the administrative laws deal with government-to-people relationships like employment and traffic.
A specialized form of law is the law of rights. This theory argues that the principal functions of law are to protect individuals and groups against the power of the state or other powerful entities, to preserve individual autonomy, and to promote social justice. Some legal systems serve these purposes more effectively than others. For example, an authoritarian government may keep the peace and maintain the status quo, but it might also oppress minorities or political opponents.
The primary mechanisms of creating legal rights are acts of law that create a right or judicial decisions directly bestowing a right. Other mechanisms include rights that are implied by actions (typically gifts, forfeitures, consent, appointments, or last will and testaments), or ascribed to an entity through the creation of legal documents. The rights ascribed to entities are often defined in terms of privileges, powers, or immunities. Privileges and powers determine what right-holders ought to do or can do, while immunities establish what they cannot do.