Name- Jagdish Trivedi

Class/Section- B.A.LLB (B)

Student ID- 19010222

Sociology II -Mid Term Assignment

● Society has devised and accepted law as a set of rules to be abided and
followed for its proper maintenance. But law is often misunderstood as just
the commands given by the authorities for establishing, maintaining and
continuing their control over people. People mistakenly consider the flaws
of government to be equivalent as the drawbacks of law; just like the
government is recognized as a single entity, similarly law is misunderstood
as being a single entity which attenuates the value of law in society. This
article would be a humble attempt to explain the actual meaning of law and
its existence in unison with other aspects and domain of life. To recognize
the importance law plays in the society, we must first understand the origin
of law and the reason for its acceptance.

Law in its easiest sense can be understood as set of rules or guidelines that are
framed and issued by any kind of authority instructing the people of a particular
territory to conduct in a directed way. In almost every society, law is initially born
out of common beliefs and do’s and don’ts that are mutually decided by the
members of society, and for further framing of laws they either chose the authority
from amongst themselves or the strongest out of them takes the charge. In the
ancient India, religion played the role of law where people were instructed to
perform rightly in the name of god and the guidelines issued then were made from
religious texts such as Vedas and Upanishads (The Bar Council of India, 2020).
This type of institutions of law was common in most of the ancient societies, but
with time and development of reason people began to challenge the rationality and
utility of the archaic laws. This prompted the evolution of law in unison with
societal evolution and social change. (Younkins, 2019)

Law does not operate in isolation. It operates along with various disciplines
creating different domains of law. Though all laws are important but some laws
might be more intrinsic and inherent to the society. The most basic categorisation
of law can be done on the basis of their origin i.e. laws that are absolutely
necessary to exist in an ideal society; these are morally and ethically needed in a
society and strengthen the pillar of humanity. These are called “Natural Laws”
(CHAPPELOW, 2019).
As society has evolved from the Stone Age to the Information Age, the State has
been trying to regulate different aspects and domain of human activities. These
laws are framed by men and such framed laws may or may not be morally right,
these are called as “Man-made Laws” or “Positive Laws”.

The Positive Law has many subsets; these subsets basically depend on the domain
of law involved. Another kind of categorisation or subset we can observe is of
“Civil Laws” and “Criminal Laws”.

Civil laws are the laws that involve a conduct against any individual which can
either be person or corporation whereas criminal laws involves conduct done
against society or a group as a whole (Duignan,2020). Civil law further includes
various types of laws such as Tort Law, Contract Law, Property Law and
Corporate Law. These laws actually involve a right in person am, which essentially
means that they involve a right, action or claim against a particular individual or
legal entity.

 Tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting
in legal liability for the person who commits a tortuous act. It can include
the intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, financial losses,
injuries, invasion of privacy and many other things.

 Contract law provides legality to agreements between parties, helps them in

setting the terms of contracts and provides a scope for redressal in cases of
breach of contract.

 Property law deals with cases involving disputes of property deeds,

tenancy, and rightful possession of property.

 Business law or corporate law deals with prerequisites needed for business
start-ups, process for formation and continuance of business, laws relating to
joint ventures and other transactional services. Thus, Business Laws are
aimed at increasing the ease of doing business in an economy.

Criminal law is probably the cornerstone of a civilised society. It encompasses

both misdemeanour and felony crimes. Misdemeanour involves petty crimes
ranging from a mere assault and battery to a general theft whereas Felony crimes
are more serious crimes such as murder, rape, robberies etc. Criminal Law has a
high rate and probability of being enforced and is aimed at maintaining law and
order in the society. (Enjuris, 2019)
There are few laws that do not fall under these major heads of civil and criminal
such as Family Law which provides resolution of disputes in family such as
divorce, marriages, adoption, custody of children and most importantly inheritance.
This law aims at providing for security and stability to the institution of marriage
and family which in turn provides stability to the society.

However, some laws have a soft nature and are seldom enforced; most notable
example among them would be Public International Law. Public International Law
is the law where the states are the subjects as well as objects. Thus, it prescribes
rights and duties of states and aims for global peace and prosperity. Yet, due to
state sovereignty issues, lack of a central legislature for international law and an
International executive authority, this law is very difficult to enforce.

So far, we have categorized the laws under heads which helps the layman to
understand the scope of a particular law and likewise it provides a person the
platform to seek to in case of any problem; with simplification of such different
laws in different categories, it becomes easy for a person to know which law would
help him to address his unique problem. So, now with the elaboration of the basics
of law i.e. its definition, types and different functions is understood, to have a
clarification of law as not being a single entity, true nature of law and its
contribution to social goods should be studied separately first.

Law as a subject cannot be studied in isolation (Berry, 1994), law can have no
execution unless it is used in addressing a particular subject matter. Law gets it
meaning and actual implication when it is used in together with a sociological
concept. Almost every kind of law that is mentioned above is developed out of
collusion of law and a social aspect. When law is studied together with economics,
or when law is identified keeping in mind the economical query, laws such as
Competition law are found. When law is read along with management or when the
business canvassing is done using legal forums, Corporate law comes to existence.
When legal aspects is found on the side lines of religion then Theocratic laws or
channel laws are to be referred to, for example- marriage of a Hindu couple is
assumed to be concluded with the completion of 7 vows or “pheres” taken
alongside the fire, so in this case law emerges out of a customary sociological
behaviour of every Hindu men. Similarly, when law is studied in relation to
criminology, Criminal law comes to play its role. When legal consideration of
politics is done and validity of politics is identified, explored and communicated in
its legal essence, then Constitutional law is born. Thus, it is explicit that law in
itself is not a subject but a concept which gets its true essence when is read along
with a sociological order.
Social good or common good is fundamentally the good of individuals, which
justifies co-operation. collaboration, and co-ordination shared by human
community (Green, 1983). Here, social good is not to be misunderstood with the
functions of a law. Functions of a law means the dispute it is meant to resolve
through the set of rules and guidelines it encompasses in itself, whereas social
good done by a law means the ability of law to provide justice, peace and
prosperity in the society performing its functions. Every law either directly or
indirectly contributes towards a social good like the following of Environment
laws ensures the availability of clean air, clean water and balanced ecological
system in the society. International law ensures world peace and interdependent
economic and individual growth through international cooperation by codifying
common rules to be accepted worldwide. Administrative laws are able to maintain
bureaucratic efficiency by ensuring regular, continuous and unbiased to be
performed by administrators. Personal religious laws help in maintaining faith of
individuals in legal system and a sense of togetherness by allowing them to follow
their personal customs and rituals without any authoritative interruptions. Tort
laws ensure that every person is able to exercise his rights and freedom without
harming or affecting the rights of other person. Consumer protection law is a
special law that unites the distributed and weak consumers and protects them from
getting exploited by the hands of united and strong producers. Human rights law
saves the exploitation of individuals against authorities and powers and provides
dignity, identity and equality to every human irrespective of his class and social
status. So, it can be easily concluded that every law while performing its function
serves to some social good in society which would not have been achieved if there
were no such varieties of laws but just a single entity.

Imagine a situation where there is just a single law governing authority in

society, that sole body has the power to frame laws, and has the duty to provide
justice. Would it be possible by the same body to hear the case of a labour
whose monthly wage of just a thousand rupees had been denied by his
employer along with a case of gang rape committed on a teenager? Would that
same body be able to cease a going war between two parties and at the same
time settle a dispute between two neighbours over a case of nuisance? It is hard
to imagine a single entity to be able to handle such different varieties of cases
at the same time. In a society where millions of disputes that are different in
their nature arise every day it is impossible for a single entity to reach to every
remote area, and provide solution to cases having such vast differences in the
shortest time. Law caters to variety of domains from defence to public health,
from insolvency to marriages and from international cooperation to individual
 disputes and in every domain different laws perform different functions and
these different functions serve different social goods. This is why societies
comprise of number of legal institutions to exist independently at the same
time allowing people a variety of choice to choose the body for hearing their
problem. As mentioned previously law only gets its true meaning when studied
together with any sociological aspect, and without it law remains mere a
concept without any practical implication. So, understanding law as a single
entity is not only impractical and non-executable but also undermines laws
value in society and attenuates it.

Bibliography
● “Brief History of Law in India « The Bar Council of India.” Bar Council of India,
2020, www.barcouncilofindia.org/about/about-the-legal-profession/legal-education-
in-the-united-kingdom/.
● Edward W. Younkins, Edward W. “THE EVOLUTION OF
LAW.” Quebecoislibre.Org, 2019, www.quebecoislibre.org/000805-11.htm.
● CHAPPELOW, JIM. “Natural Law.” Investopedia, 7 Dec. 2019,
www.investopedia.com/terms/n/natural-law.asp.
● Brian Duignan, Brian. “What Is the Difference Between Criminal Law and Civil
Law?” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-
difference-between-criminal-law-and-civil-law.
● Editors, Enjuris. “Areas of Legal Practice: Different Types of
Law.” Www.Enjuris.Com, 2019, www.enjuris.com/students/types-of-law-
careers.html.
● Berry, Bonnie. “The Isolation of Crime, Law, and Deviance from the Core of
Sociology.” The American Sociologist, vol. 25, no. 2, 1994, pp. 5–20. 
● Green, Leslie. “Law, Co-Ordination and the Common Good.” Oxford Journal of
Legal Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, 1983, pp. 299–324. 
● Deflem, Mathieu. Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholarly Tradition. Cambridge
University Press, 2008.