Introduction to Law

• definition and meaning

• related words and phrases
• key-concepts: rule of law
• classification of law
 law – definition and Romanian correspondents

• rule or system of rules recognized by a country or community as

regulating the actions of its members and enforced by the imposition
of penalties
→ LEGE

• such rules as a subject of study or as the basis of the legal profession

→ DREPT
 LAW and LEGAL words and phrases
law-abiding (citizen) to enforce the law legal action
law court to obey / observe the law legal system
lawsuit to break the law legal person
lawyer rule of law law maker

(un)lawful vs (il)legal
• lawful relates with substance of law, legal is more concerned with the form of
law
• lawful places thrust on ethical content in law and focus on the spirit of law
whereas legal attaches more importance to the form of law

• illegal – generally used for behaviour that is contrary to criminal law

• An action is described as ‘unlawful’ if it is a breach of civil law.
 The Branches of Government
legislative power
executive power judicial power
makes laws
enforces laws interprets laws
(The Parliament)

the Judiciary
the Upper Chamber (judges
president (the Senate) &prosecutors)

the Cabinet Lower Chamber

(the Chamber of
Deputies)
The law exists to ensure that civilized life is possible,
through:

1. compulsion
2. the Constitution
3. a framework
4. a system
 1. Compulsion

• The law ensures that individual citizens can go about their daily business
without being attacked or robbed, and that society can set up institutions
which will be respected by the individual. To do this, the government
provides the legal machine with the weapons of compulsion:

• police – to enforce the law and catch those who break it

• courts – to establish guilt and innocence
• prisons – to punish the offenders
 2. The Constitution
• Government itself is defined by constitutional laws. In Britain, some
the most fundamental laws of the constitution are traditional rather
than being written down, but there is also a mass of written law
covering how people are governed, both centrally and by the local
authorities.
 3. A framework
• As individuals, we want to be able to make private arrangements
between ourselves, secure in the knowledge that if others break their
word, we will be compensated for our loss. We want to make sure
that other people cannot spoil our enjoyment of our property or hurt
us physically by their carelessness – and that if they do we can get
them to stop and/or be compensated. The law provides a framework
within which we can protect ourselves in this way.
 4. A system

• To achieve all these things we need a law that is consistent and

consistently applied. So we need a legal system that is capable of
applying the law fairly and consistently and amending and
interpreting it so that it can deal with new and changing
circumstances.
Rule of Law
 Rule of Law - meaning

• the legal principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to

being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government
officials

• the authority and influence of law in society, especially when viewed

as a constraint on individual and institutional behavior, hence the
principle whereby all members of a society (including those in
government) are considered equally subject to publicly disclosed
legal codes and processes (Oxford English Dictionary)
• It primarily refers to the influence and authority of law within society,
particularly as a constraint upon behavior, including behavior of government
officials.

• phrase that can be traced back to 16th century England, and popularized in the
19th century by British jurist A. U. Dicey
• see also Aristotle: ”Law should govern”

• It implies that every citizen is subject to the law, including law-makers

themselves.

• It stands in contrast to autocracy, collective leadership, dictatorship or oligarchy

(see also plutocracy or plutarchy) where rulers are held above the law and to the
idea that the ruler is above the law, for example by divine right.
• A solicitor is a man who calls in a person he doesn’t know to sign a contract he hasn’t
seen to buy property he doesn’t want with money he hasn’t got.
Dingwall Bateson (1898-1967) British lawyer

• “The minute you read something that you can't understand, you can almost be sure
that it was drawn up by a .............. . ” (Will Rogers)

• Good lawyers know the law; great lawyers know the ............. . (author unknown)

• If the laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the lawyers in the
first place. (Lord Halifax)

• When there's a single thief, it’s ........... . When there are a thousand thieves, it’s
............... . (Vanya Cohen)

• It's strange that men should take up ............ when there are so many legal ways to be
dishonest. (author unknown, quoted in Sunshine magazine)
• Lawyers are men whom we hire to protect us from .............. .(Elbert Hubbard)

• A lawyer will do anything to win a case, sometimes he will even tell the ......... .
(Patrick Murray)

• An incompetent lawyer can delay a trial for months or years. A competent

lawyer can delay one even longer.“ (Evelle Younger)

• “Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay
lawyers.” (George R.R. Martin, Ace in the Hole)

• Jury: Twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better ........... . (Lenora
Oliver, Herald, 1938)
 Classification of Law
1. Natural Law vs. Positive Law

Natural Law
• ● unwritten laws
● the premise: all our rights come from
God or nature and are inherent to
our being
LAW

Positive law
● written down
● made by people
Natural Law Positive law
• begins with the premise that all of our rights come • made by people
from God or nature and are inherent to our being • only applies to those people who are the subjects or
• comes from sources that are universal citizens of the government that creates the law

• unwritten laws • laws that must be written down

• a set of principles based on what are assumed to be • the body of legal theory which views law as the
the permanent characteristics of human nature, product of human thought and will
that can serve as a standard for evaluating conduct
and civil laws

• considered fundamentally unchanging and < lex posita or lex humana or ius positum < to posit - 1:
universally applicable to dispose or set firmly → FIX; 2: to assume or affirm the
(< divine law) existence of → POSTULATE; 3: to propose as an
explanation → SUGGEST
 Classification of Law
2. Substantive Law vs. Adjective (Procedural) Law

substantive (what)
defines the rights and duties of
the people
law
procedural (adjective) (how)
lays down the rules with the
help of which substantive law
is enforced
........................?
public
governs relationships
between individuals ......................?
(citizens and companies)
and the state
.....................?
private ......................?
governs relationships
between individuals, such
as contracts and the law of
obligations family