Law: Difference between revisions

** [[Intellectual property]] (IP) law involves the rights people have over things they create, such as art, music, and literature. This is called [[copyright]]. It also protects inventions that people make, by a kind of law called [[patent]]. It also covers the rights people have to the names of a company or a distinctive mark or logo. This is called [[trademark]].

*Administrative law is used by ordinary citizens who want to challenge decisions made by governments. It also involves things like [[regulations]], and the operation of the [[Public administration|administrative agencies]].  

'''[[Common law]]''' is based on the decisions made by judges in past court cases. It comes from England and it became part of almost every country that once belonged to the British Empire, except [[Malta]], [[Scotland]], the U.S. state of [[Louisiana]], and the Canadian province of [[Quebec]]. It is also the predominant form of law in the United States, where many laws called [[statutes]] are written by [[Congress]], but many more legal rules exist from the decisions of the courts. Common law had its beginnings in the Middle Ages, when King John was forced by his barons to sign a document called the [[Magna Carta]].

Until the 1700s, Sharia law was the main legal system throughout the Muslim world. In some Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, the whole legal systems still base their law on Sharia law. Islamic law is often criticised because it often has harsh penalties for crimes. A serious criticism is the judgement of the [[European Court]] that "sharia is incompatible with the fundamental principles of [[democracy]]".<ref name=Judgement/><ref>[http://www.echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/29AC6DBD-C3F8-411C-9B97-B42BE466EE7A/0/2004__Wildhaber_Cancado_Trindade_BIL__opening_legal_year.pdf Hearing of the European Court of Human Rights], January 22, 2004 (PDF)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.echr.coe.int/Eng/Press/2001/July/RefahPartisi2001jude.htm |title=ECHR press release Refah Partisi (2001) |publisher=Echr.coe.int |accessdate=2012-04-04}}</ref>

The [[Turkey|Turkish]] [[Refah Party]]'s sharia-based "plurality of legal systems, grounded on religion" was ruled to contravene the [[European Convention on Human Rights|European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms]]. The Court decided Refah's plan would "do away with the State's role as the guarantor of individual rights and freedoms" and "infringe the principle of non-discrimination between individuals as regards their enjoyment of public freedoms, which is one of the fundamental principles of democracy".<ref name="Judgement">[http://www.strasbourgconsortium.org/common/document.view.php?docId=3878], by Christian Moe, Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, published at the site of The Strasbourg Conference (31 pages).</ref>

"[[Corporation]]s are among the organizations that use the legal system to further their goals.  Like the others, they use means such as [[campaign donation]]s and [[advertising]] to persuade people that they are right.  Corporations also engage in [[commerce]] and make new things such as [[automobile]]s, vaporisers/e-cigarettes, and [[Unmanned aerial vehicle]]s (i.e. "drones") that the old laws are not well equipped to deal with. Corporations also makes use of a set of rules and regulations to ensure their employees remain loyal to them (usually presented in a legal contract), and that any disobedience towards these rules are considered uncivilized and therefore given grounds for immediate dismissal.

 

== Other websites ==

* [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Law Law] -Citizendium