Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/36

* LAW. 24 LAW. presumption that no law is intended to be retro- active unless the legislature has expressly or by necessary implication so ordained. The Consti- tution of the Liiited States, and many of our State constitutions, forbid the making of ej- pust facto laws (q.v.) or laws impairing the obligation of contract. See CoNisTlTiTlONAL Law. IxTERi'RETATioN. The application of law in- volves its interpretation (q.v.). This is necessary not only in the case of written law, but also in the case of custom or unwritten law. Such law, indee<l, exists only in its interiirclation. i.e. the persistent judicial interpretation is the law. This is the case notably with our 'coniniou law.' Kinds of Law : Classification. All law may be divided into two classes: substantive law and adjective or remedial law. Substantive law de- fines the normal relations of social life; adjective or remedial law defines and deals with abnormal conditions, with violations of the legal order. Substantive law is divided and subdivided accord- ing to the character of the relations with which it has to do. Public law is concerned with the State and with government, and with relations to which the State is a party; pri- vate law, with private persons and the rela- tions between them. Public law is subdivided, as has already been noted, into international, consti- tutional, and administralive law. Private law cla.ssifics persons (natural and artificial or juris- tic) according to their legal capacity, and it deals with things as the objects of ])rivatc right. The principal groups of private relations arc property, family, and succession. In the field of property law we distinguish the law of things, the law of debts or obligations (contracts and quasi-contracts), and the law of monopolies (copyrights, patents, etc.). Family law includes the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and wanl. (The law of master and servant once belonged in the law of the house- hold : with changed social relations it has passed into the law of contractual obligations.) The law of succession has to do with what may be called a normal disturbance of property rela- tioris; it provides for the continuance and read- justment of the property relations to which a de- ceased person was a party. When this readjust- ment is elTccted in accordance with the will of the decedent, we speak of testamentary succes- sion; when it is ellcctcd by the law in the ab- sence of any validly expressed will of his, we speak of intestate succession : in so far as it ia effected by the law in spite of his will, we speak of necessary sticcession (law of statutory shares). In the civil law the ilistinction between immov- ables and nirvables is confined to the law of things. In the English law the distinction be- tween real and personal property runs through the law of family (as far as |iroperty relations are concerned) and the law of succession, and divides each into distinct parts or branches. Adjective or remedial law. which deals with abnormal con<lilions. provides for the reestahlish- ment of the normal order, when this is possible; for the indenuiification of the persons who have sufTcred injury; ami for the punishment, in per- son or in purse, of the individuals by whose fault the normal order has been disturbed. Remedial law includes not merely the processes of punish- ment and redress — administrative procedure, criminal and civil procedtire — but also the body of rules which define and classify offenses and provide penalties. It thus includes the law of crimes and the law of torts ((j.v.). Some writers treat the law of crimes and that of torts as sub- stantive law. placing the former in pidjlic, the latter in private law; but these branches of the law ilo not deal with normal relations, nor does criminal law deal merely with violations of the political order; it proviilcs sanctions which ex- tend over every part of the private law. Inter- national law has its remedial as well as its sub- stantive side; it consists of the law of peace and the law of war. While the distinctinh between substantive and remedial law is both logical and convenient, it is formal rather than essential. Substantive and remedial law attain the same end in dill'erent ways. Social r(dalions arc ordered by fixing the limits of permissible action; and these may be fixed as well as by stating what no one may do and by pimishing the doer as by staling what one may do and protecting the doer. Historically the former method is the older; rights are felt before they are fornnilated, and they are gradu- ally defined by the successive rejnilse of dilVer- ent invasii>ns. Even in modern law there are rights that are recognized in remedial law, but have not yet obtained sui)stantivo expression. For example, the individual has a right over his own person wlucii is analogous to (although by no means identical with) ownership of a thing; and this right, although recognized in the ])ro- hibition and ])tuiishment of homicide, assault, illegal imprisonment, etc., is nowhere defined in substant ive law. Grades of Law. In every State we find legal rules of greater or more general authority and legal rules of inferior or more restricted author- ity. Where law-making power is delegated to (or has never i^eeii wholly taken from) the c.xecu tive, it is customary to speak of the rtiles laid down by the executive as orders, regulations, or rules. Municipalities have also a restricted power of legislation; and the acts of their legis- lative bodies are commonly termed ordinances. Where a limited power of making rules is granted to a private association, we call its rules by-laws. ithin their respective fields, executive orders, ordinances, and by-laws, although not commonly termed laws, are as truly laws as the acts of a national or State legislature. The nmnber of classes or grades of law is in- creased in federal States by the coexistence of I law-making power in the nation and in its com- ponent parts. If in considering the different j grades of law which exist in the Ignited States j we include unwritten law, we obtain the follow- ing scries : l: Federal Law. A. Constiliitinruil. (1) The Constitution of the LTnited States, and th amendments thereto. (2) The eustiun of til Constitution, as settled by the acts and forbea^ ances of the Executive and of Congress. (3) Th interpretation of the Constitution by the Feders^ courts. B. Ordinary. ( 1 ) Acts of Congress. { 2] Treaties. (3) Executive orders and regulation^ (4) Interpretation of acts of Congress, treatie and executive regulations by the Federal courts.] II. State Law. A. Coiistilutional. (1) State constitutions and the amendments thereto (2) The interpretation of the State constitution by the State courts. B. Ordliwri/. { 1 ) Acts the State Legislatures. (2) Decisions of the Fed eral courts in matters not governed by Federfl