Meaning of law in general

o Law (in its widest and most comprehensive sense) means any rule of action or any
system of uniformity.
o Law determines not only the activities or men as rational beings but also the movements
or motions of all objects of creation, whether animate or inanimate.

General divisions of law

o Law (in the strict legal sense) which is promulgated and enforced by the state
 Known as the state law
o Law (in the non-legal sense) which is not promulgated and enforced by the state
 Includes divine law, natural law, moral law and physical law

Subjects of law
o State law, divine law, natural law and moral law are comprised in the definition of law as
a rule of action. They apply to men as rational beings only.
o While physical law operates on all things (including men w/o regard to the latter’s use of
their will power and intelligence). Law only figuratively speaking.

Divine law
o Law of religion and faith which concerns itself with the concept of sin (as contrasted with
crime) and salvation.
1. Source:
 Formally promulgated by God
 Revealed or divulged to mankind by means of direct revelation
 Old testament – divine law is embodied in the 10 Commandments; these laws
were formally given by God through Moses
 To the Mohammedans, divine law is embodied in the Muslim Quoran
2. Sanction:
 Lies in the assurance of certain rewards and punishments in the present life or in
the life to come.
Natural law
o The divine inspiration in man of the sense of justice, fairness and righteousness, not by
divine revelation or formal promulgation, but by internal dictates of reason alone.
1. Binding force:
 Ever present and binding on all men everywhere and at all times
 Every man has a basic understanding of right and wrong based on an
understanding of the fundamental standard or criterion of good and evil.
 Thus, man knows whether an act is evil or bad or good based on the dictates of his
moral nature.
 2. Compared to divine law
 Natural law is said to be impressed in man as the core of his higher self at the very
moment of being or, perhaps, even before that.
3. Place in state law
 Natural law has been regarded as the reasonable basis of state law.

Moral law
o Totality of the norms of good and right conduct growing out of the collective sense of
right and wrong of every community.
1. Determination of what is right and wrong
 It was beneficial during the early stage of existence of human beings to determine
what is right and wrong
 Doing what is correct and obedience was demanded by the group
2. Sanction
 There is no definite legal sanction (punishment imposed by law) for violation of
purely moral law
3. Binding force
 Moral law is not absolute because it varies with the changing times, conditions or
convictions of the people.
4. Place in the state law
 Moral law, to a great extent, influences or shapes state law.

Physical law
o The uniformities of actions and orders of sequence which are the physical phenomena we
sense and feel
1. Order or regularity in nature
 A law of physical science, being addressed to objects which have no power to
disobey is in reality nothing more than an order or regularity in nature by which
certain results follow certain causes
2. Called law only by analogy

State law
o Law that is promulgated and enforced by the state
1. Other terms used
 Positive law, municipal law, civil law, imperative law
 Law that we refer to when we speak of law in connection with obligations and
contracts, marriage, the administration of justice, conduct of elections and the
entire governmental process itself.
2. Binding force
 Only state law is enforced by the state w/ the aid of its physical force if necessary
 3. Concern of state law
 State law does not concern itself with violations of other rules of action unless
they also constitute violations of its commands.

Concepts of (state) law.

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