Mainstream definitions[edit]

Numerous definitions of law have been put forward over the centuries. The
Third New International Dictionary from Merriam-Webster[5] defines law as:
"Law is a binding custom or practice of a community; a rule or mode of
conduct or action that is prescribed or formally recognized as binding by a
supreme controlling authority or is made obligatory by a sanction (as an
edict, decree, rescript, order, ordinance, statute, resolution, rule, judicial
decision, or usage) made, recognized, or enforced by the controlling
authority."
The Dictionary of the History of Ideas published by Scribner's in 1973
defined the concept of law accordingly as: "A legal system is the most
explicit, institutionalized, and complex mode of regulating human conduct.
At the same time, it plays only one part in the congeries of rules which
influence behavior, for social and moral rules of a less institutionalized kind
are also of great importance."[6]