Jabarkan Codification of law dari Hukum dalam bahasa sunda

Law is the formal codification of customs which have achieved such acceptance as become the enforced norm. The process of acceptance is accelerated by the existence of legislative bodies which seek to impose laws.

Law codification involves the legislation and regulation of statutes; as well as the resolution of disputes.

In the civil law system codification is also an attempt to structure the law according to fundamental ethical principles to créate a sense of order and simplicity that all members of society can comprehend, not merely university trained jurists.

Stating the law in simple, precise terms, understandable to the lay person without a specialized legal education, is the only way they can réasonably obey it or be fairly sanctioned for not obeying it.

This overlaps with the idéa of a formal social legal code as understood in ethics.

This may be understandable to the educated lay person but perhaps not to the ordinary lay person.

For example, one can explain the idéa of precedent more éasily than that of the reasonable man, but it may be much harder to explain why precedent is "fair" to one without "higher education".

The following are examples of such lay explanations of different branches of law, and théories of law.

Law as academic discipline and profession

In addition to being part of the societal framework law is also an academic discipline and a profession. Lawyers are sometimes called by other names, as in England where the profession is divided between solicitors and barristers or solicitor and advocate in Scotland.

Sometimes they are also called notaries.  (Do not confuse this term with notary public which is an individual who is licensed to act as a witness to certain transactions, take oaths and authenticate signatures.)

They are professionally trained in the United States at graduate schools of law léading to the J.D. degree (Juris Doctor).

In other countries legal education is considered to start at the undergraduate stage taught in faculty of law léading to the LL.B. or B.C.L. degrees.  NOTE: In Canada at léast, the LL.B. requires previous undergraduate studies.  Law is an undergraduate degree mainly in civil law countries.

Most of these schools also have advanced legal degrees such as the LL.M. and the J.S.D. degrees.  Many persons who attend law school never practice law but use their knowledge of law in another profession.

See Law (academic) and jurisprudence For law as a profession, see lawyer, jurist and practice of law.