CLASSIFICATION OF LAW

CONTENTS:

1.0       Introduction

2.0       Objectives

• Main Content
• Private Law and Public
• Civil Law and Criminal
• Civil Law and Common
• Substantive Law and Procedural Law
• Written Law and Unwritten Law
• Municipal Law and international Law

4.0       Conclusion

5.0       Summary

6.0       Tutor Marked Assignment

7.0       References/Further Reading

INTRODUCTION

Law can be divided into different branches such as Law of Contract, Company Law, Labour Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, etc. Within each subject classification you will find a body of rules and principles, which have been developed over the years on a particular aspect of law. The evolution and nature of subject sometimes differ significantly from one another. While some subjects such as law of contract have very old origin, others such as Human Rights, Environmental Law and Labour are purely Statutory in nature. It is important to note here that there is no single universal mode of classifying law, but law can be classified in multifarious ways.

OBJECTIVES

At the end of this Unit, you will know in details the following:-

• Each one of these classified laws
• That there is no single universal mode of classifying law
• That it is important to classify law into different subjects

MAIN CONTENT

Private Law and Public Law:

Private Law comprises those laws that serve to regulate the conduct of persons in their interpersonal dealings, conferring status, rights and obligations on individuals or corporate persons. It includes such diverse areas as the law of contract, property law, tort, family law and succession, commercial law, equity and trust, etc. Thus, private  law is that branch of the law of a country, which governs the relationship of citizens among themselves.

Public Law, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with the smooth running of the machinery of State and, consequently, caters for cases where the interest of society is directly involved or the smooth interaction between governmental agencies and organs of the State is threatened. Subjects like Constitutional law, Administrative law, Criminal law, Revenue law, etc., fall within the purview of public law. Thus,  public law is the branch of a country’s law, which governs the relationship between the State and the citizens hence the name public law.

Civil Law and Criminal Law:

Civil Law is primarily concerned with competing private interests and obligations and abounds mostly in our unwritten or judge-made laws. It is often invoked by private persons, although the State or its organs may, in appropriate cases, initiate or defend such actions as juristic persons. Civil actions are commenced in accordance with the relevant rules of civil procedure, the object being to obtain relief either by way of damages or injunction. Thus, civil law has several meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In this context, it means the law, which defines the rights and duties of persons to one another and provides a system whereby an individual who is injured by the wrongful act of another can be compensated for the damage, which he has suffered. Examples of civil laws are law of contract, torts, land law, family law.

Conversely, Criminal law is the branch of law which seeks to protect the interest of the public at large by punishing certain conducts which are believed to be harmful to the society to permit such conducts to exist or continue. Punishment is imposed generally by means of imprisonment or fine or both. Thus, the main object of criminal law is to punish wrong doers thereby seeking to protect the collect interests of the citizenry against the detrimental conduct of its constituent members.

Civil Law and Common Law:

Civil Law has its origin in the Roman, having evolved from the commentaries of European scholars on the Justinian code. The law under this system has always been flexible and persuasive, seeking a well-ordered society through rules that expressed a sense of justice. Under the Civil Law system, a higher legal status is given to the code (statutes). A code is believed to be its own guide to the interpretation of its provision. The Civil Law employs inquisitorial procedure.

Common Law, on the other hand, describes the law that was developed by the English courts from the Common Customs and practices in England. Unlike the civil law system, which formulates guiding rules in general terms, the primary concern of common law is the resolution of particular disputes.

Thus, common law is used in this context to describe the English legal traditions while civil law is used to describe Roman law or Roman-legal tradition.

Substantive law and Procedural Law:

Substantive law comprises the rules of law and those legal principles that define the existence and extent of a right or liability in a particular branch of law. It is concerned with the creation, definition and limitation of obligations.

However, in relation to legal proceedings law can be broadly divided into substantive law and adjectival law. Substantive law embraces such subjects like Law of Contract, Torts, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, etc. which are concerned with statement of rights, duties and liabilities of individuals.

On the other hand, Procedural Law involves the rules by which an action may be brought and disposed of. It prescribes the method for enforcing the rights and duties  and obtaining redress for wrongful invasion of those rights as well as the enforcement of obligations or duties. Thus, as the name implies, it deals with the methods of initiating proceedings to enforce a certain right or duty and how the litigation or prosecution is conducted.

Written Law and Unwritten Law:

Law may either be written or unwritten. The word written here has a technical meaning. It means a rule of law that has been formally enacted into a Legislation or Statute by the legislatures. Such laws before their enactment are usually subjected to rigorous debates and serious scrutiny through several stages before they are enacted and signed into law by the Chief Executive of the State.

The unwritten law could be explained from two different perspectives. Firstly, it may mean any principle or rule of behaviour that is not written down at all as in the case of Customary Law and Conventions. Secondly, it could also mean any un-enacted law even if the principles are reduced into writing as in Case laws.

Municipal Law and International Law:

The classification of laws into Municipal and International underscores the territorial limitation of laws. Usually, the laws of a sovereign State do not operate outside its boundaries. So, municipal laws are such laws emanating from a particular country and having the force of law within its territory.

International law, on the other hand, is the law that binds respective States and regulates their mutual co-existence and relationship. The sources of international law include international customary practices, Treaties, Bilateral agreements and Conventions. While individuals or juristic persons are the main subjects of municipal laws, international law deals primarily with States.

CONCLUSION

We have discussed in full, the classification of law. However, classification may acquire a momentous of its own and come to dictate the way in which the law is applied. Hence, it is important to know that to classify law into different subject carries with it a danger. Thus, lawyers may rigidly classify their clients’ claim in terms of a particular subject and fall to see that there might be a successful argument in other branches of law that may be put to the court.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

State the differences between the various classifications of law.

  SUMMARY

Classification should be the lawyer’s servant not his master. Lawyers should be able to reason flexibly from the facts to the classifications and then back to the facts until all the legal issues are properly analyzed and researched from all possible angles.

  TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Enumerate the various classes of laws.

  REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

John Ohireime Asein, (1998) – Introduction to Nigerian Legal System, Ibadan, Sam Bookman Publishers.

Okonkwo, C. O. ed., (1980) – Introduction to Nigerian Law, London, Sweet and Maxwell.

Sanni, A. O., ed., (1999) – Introduction to Nigerian Legal Method, Ile-Ife, Kuntel Publishing House.

Wade, H. W. R., (1971) – Administrative Law, Oxford University Press.