Law

(laws)

Law has a number of related meanings. In a political context, law most often refers to the rules made by governments. The law can refer to a single rule, the set of rules covering a particular domain (criminal law, for example), or the whole set of rules governing a group of people. In contemporary Australia, the law is made in two main ways. The first is by parliament passing acts, sometimes called legislation or statutes, which set out written rules governing a particular area of activity. The second is through decisions made by the judiciary in court cases, which contribute to what is usually called the common law. Within Australian federalism, the Commonwealth, state and territory parliaments and courts all make the law in these ways, while local governments make by-laws under the authority of state governments.

Laws are not the only rules at work in contemporary Australian society and government is not the only rule-making body. Sports and games, for example, have rules. Clubs and associations exist to uphold them. There are also informal codes of social behaviour (mores or customs) that determine people's behaviour because they have been brought up within a particular culture to view that behaviour as the right way of doing things. The difference between law and these other rules is that the law carries the authority of government and the promise of enforcement by the executive and judiciary. The social customs and rules of associations with in a community often help shape the laws made by government; however, they only remain legal if they do not contradict those laws.