Law is the set of rules that a society or government develops to deal with crime, business agreements and social relationships. It’s also a discipline and profession in which people work with the laws of society in order to defend rights, represent clients in court or give punishments and decisions.

Law shapes politics, economics, history and society in many ways. It’s an important part of the way we live in society and it can even shape our personal life. For example, it’s against the law to send obscene or threatening emails. But what exactly is the meaning of law?

In the sciences, a law is an indisputable fact that describes how things like apples and Earths interact. This type of law explains why things happen but does not describe how they happen (for example, the strength of gravity between two objects depends on their masses and the distance between them).

The concept of law in humanities is more complex. In the context of sociology, Max Weber developed the theory of legal systems, which is a fundamental component of the study of law. Weber’s idea was that the structure of a legal system is determined by the power relationships within a nation-state, with those who have political and military power commanding the law-making and enforcement mechanisms.

The law-making and enforcement structures are different from one nation to the next, as they depend on which group has political power. Some legal systems are based on religion, such as Jewish Halakha and Islamic Sharia, with Christian canon law continuing in church communities. Other legal systems are based on further human elaboration, such as interpretation, Qiyas (reasoning by analogy), Ijma and precedent. Aviation law is a prime example, with national civil aviation laws aligned with recommendations or mandatory standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation or ICAO.