For additional definitions and discussions thereon, see 14 L. Q. R. 253 (Sir F. Pollock); id. 307 ; 18 id. 431 (O. W. Holmes, Jr.) ; 22 id. 321; 38 Amer. L. Rev. 68 ; Dillon, Laws and Jurisd. 10. As to the meanings of the va rious equivalents of law in different lan guages, see 15 L. Q. R. 367 (by Salmond). As to the relation of law to judicial decisions, see 21 Harv. L. Rev. 121.
In its relation to human affairs there is a broad use of the term, in which it denotes any of those rules and methods by which a society compels or restrains the action of its members. Here the idea of a command is more generally obvious, and has usually been thought an essential element in the notion of human law.
A distinction is to be observed in the out set between the abstract and the concrete meaning of the word. That which is usually intended by the term "laws" is not coexten sive with that which is intended by the term "law." In the broadest sense which it bears when used in the abstract, law is a science. It treats of the theory of government, the relation of states to each other. and to in dividuals, and the rights and obligations of states, of individuals, and of artificial per sons and local communities among them selves and to each other.
An analysis of the science of law presents a view, first, of the rights of persons, distinguishing them as natural persons and artificial persons, or bodies politic or corporations. These rights are deemed either absolute, as relating to the enjoyment of personal security, liberty, and of private property, or, on the other hand, as relative,—that is, arising out of the relation in which several persona stand. These relations are either (1) public or political, viz.: the relation of magistrates and people ; or, (2) private, as the relations of master and serv ant, husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and ward, to which might be added relations arising out of private contracts, such as partnership, prin cipal and agent, and the like. Under the head of the rights of persons as arising out of public re lations may be discussed the constitution and polity of the state, the distribution of powers among the various departments of the government, the political status of individuals, as aliens, citizens, and the like.
In the second place, the analysis presents the rights of property, which is divided into personal property or chattels, viz., that which is movable, and real property, or that which le Immovable, viz., lands, including nearly all degrees of interest there in, as well as such chattels as by a peculiar con nection with land may be deemed to have lost their character as legally movable: these rights of prop erty are viewed in respect to the origin of title, the traosmission of title, and the protection of the en joyment thereof.
In the third place, the analysis presents a view of private wrongs, or those injuries to persons for which the law provides a redress for the aggrieved party ; and under this head may be considered the tribunals through which the protection of rights or the redress of wrongs may he obtained, and the various modes of procedure to those ends.
Lastly, the analysis presents a view of public wrongs, or crimes and misdemeanors, in which may be considered the theory of crime and punishment, the persons capable of committing crimes, the sev eral degrees of guilt of principals and accessories, the various crimes of which the law takes cogni zance,—as, those against religion, those against the state and its government, and those against persons! and property,—with the punishment which the law affixes to each, and also the tribunals and procedure by which crimes threatened may be prevented, and crimes committed may he punished. Bia. Com.
In a stricter sense, but still in the abstract, law denotes the aggregate of those rules and principles of conduct which the governing power in a community recognizes as those which it will enforce or sanction, and accord ing to which it will regulate, limit, or pro tect the conduct of members of the com munity.
It is the aggregate of legal rules and prin.' ciples, as distinguished from any particular rule or principle. No one statute, nor all statutes, constitute the law of the state ; the principles laid down by the courts and the regulations of municipal bodies, as well as, to some extent, the universal principles of ethics, go to make up the body of the law. It includes principles, which rest in the com mon sense of justice and right, as well as positive rules or regulations, which rest in ordinance. It is the aggregate of the rules or principles only which the governing power in the community recognizek because that power, whether it be deemed as residing in a monarch, an aristocracy, or in the people at large, is the source of the authority and the sanction of those rules and principles. It is the aggregate of those rules and principles which are recognized as the law by that pow er, rather than those which are actually en forced in all cases ; for a statute is none the less a law because the community forbear to enforce it, so long as it is officially recog nized by them as that which, in theory at least, should be enforced ; nor does a de, pasture from the law by the governing power in itself abrogate the law. It comprises not only those rules and principles which are to be enforced, but also those which are sim ply permissive ; for a very large part even of modern statute-law—which is commonly defined as a rule commanding or prohibiting 7:4n reality commands nor prohibits, except in the most distant and indirect sense, but simply authorizes, permits, or sanctions ; and this is much more generally true of those principles of the law which rest in custom and the adjudications of the courts. It is only those which relate to the members of the comm/unity in question ; for laws, as such, have no extra-territorial operation.