The Torah from the Old Testament is an old body of law. It was written around 1280 BC. It has moral rules such as the Ten Commandments, which tell people what things are not permitted. Sometimes people try to change the law. For example, if prostitution is illegal, they try to make it legal.
In democracies, the people in a country usually choose people called politicians to represent them in a legislature. Examples of legislatures include the Houses of Parliament in London, the Congress in Washington, D.C., the Bundestag in Berlin, the Duma in Moscow and the Assemblée nationale in Paris. Most legislatures have two chambers or houses, a 'lower house' and an 'upper house'. To pass legislation, a majority of Members of Parliament must vote for a bill in each house. The legislature is the branch of government that writes laws, and votes on whether they will be approved.
The judiciary is a group of judges who resolve people's disputes and determine whether people who are charged with crimes are guilty. In some jurisdictions the judge does not find guilt or innocence but instead directs a jury, how to interpret facts from a legal perspective, but the jury determines the facts based on evidence presented to them and finds the guilt or innocences of the charged person. Most countries of common law and civil law systems have a system of appeals courts, up to a supreme authority such as the Supreme Court or the High Court. The highest courts usually have the power to remove laws that are unconstitutional (which go against the constitution).
The executive is the governing center of political authority. In most democratic countries, the executive is elected from people who are in the legislature. This group of elected people is called the cabinet. In France, the US and Russia, the executive branch has a President which exists separately from the legislature.
The executive suggests new laws and deals with other countries. As well, the executive usually controls the military, the police, and the bureaucracy. The executive selects ministers, or secretaries of state to control departments such as the health department or the department of justice.
In many jurisdictions the Head of State does not take part in the day-to-day governance of the jurisdiction and takes a largely ceremonial role. This is the case in many Commonwealth nations where the Head of State, usually a Governor almost exclusively acts "on the advice" of the head of the Executive (e.g. the Prime Minister, First Minister or Premier). The primary legal role of the Head of State in these jurisdictions is to act as a check or balance against the Executive, as the Head of State has the rarely exercised power to dissolve the legislature, call elections and dismiss ministers.
The police enforce the criminal laws by arresting people suspected of breaking the law. Bureaucrats are the government workers and government organizations that do work for the government. Bureaucrats work within a system of rules, and they make their decisions in writing.
Lawyers are people who have learned about laws. Lawyers give people advice about their legal rights and duties and represent people in court. To become a lawyer, a person has to complete a two- or three-year university program at a law school and pass an entrance examination. Lawyers work in law firms, for the government, for companies, or by themselves.
Civil society is the people and groups that are not part of government that try to protect people against human rights abuses and try to protect freedom of speech and other individual rights. Organizations that are part of civil society include political parties, debating clubs, trade unions, human rights organizations, newspapers and charities.
"Corporations are among the organizations that use the legal system to further their goals. Like the others, they use means such as campaign donations and advertising to persuade people that they are right. Corporations also engage in commerce and make new things such as automobiles, vaporisers/e-cigarettes, and Unmanned aerial vehicles (i.e. "drones") that the old laws are not well equipped to deal with. Corporations also makes use of a set of rules and regulations to ensure their employees remain loyal to them (usually presented in a legal contract), and that any disobedience towards these rules are considered uncivilized and therefore given grounds for immediate dismissal.
L. L. Zamenhof
Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof (; , ; – ), credited as L. L. Zamenhof and sometimes as the pseudonymous Dr. Esperanto, was an eye doctor, linguist (who creates a language), and scholar who created the international language Esperanto.
Zamenhof was born in 1859 in the town of Białystok, Poland. At the time, Poland was a part of the Russian Empire. Bialystok contained three major groups: Poles, Belorussians, and Yiddish-speaking Jews. Zamenhof thought that one common language would join these groups and stop fights between them.
His first language was said to be Polish. His parents spoke Russian and Yiddish at home. His father was a German teacher, so Zamenhof learned that language from an early age and spoke the language fluently. Later he learned French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English. He also had an interest in Italian, Spanish and Lithuanian.
Zamenhof decided that the international language must have a simple grammar and be easier to learn than Volapük, an earlier international language. He attempted to create the international language with a grammar that was rich, and complex. The basics of Esperanto were published in 1887. He translated the Hebrew Bible into Esperanto.
His grandson, Louis-Christophe Zaleski-Zamenhof, was an engineer.
He was 14 times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize between 1907 and 1917.
List of countries
This is a list of sovereign states.
Notes
Provinces and territories of Canada
Canada, a country and sovereign state in the northern part of North America, is made up of thirteen administrative divisions: ten provinces and three territories. The different levels of government in Canada are based on the principles of a federation: those of each of the provinces and territories share power with the federal government. The territories' governments have a more limited set of powers versus the federal government than that of the provinces'.
The provinces are in the south of Canada, near the border with the United States. They go from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. The territories are to the north, where fewer people live, close to the Arctic Circle and Arctic Ocean.
Here is a list of the provinces and territories, and their standard abbreviations, with their capitals (the cities where their governments are based) and largest cities. Canada's national capital, where the federal government meets, is Ottawa.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas is a city in the American state of Nevada. There were 640,932 people living in the city in 2015, and more than 2,000,000 people living in the metropolitan area. It is the largest city in Nevada. Las Vegas is also the county seat of Clark County. Carolyn Goodman became the mayor in 2011. Las Vegas and Las Vegans are often stereotypically characterized as fun-loving.
Las Vegas leans to the left. Three of the four congressional districts in Nevada include parts of Las Vegas, and all three congresspeople representing those districts are Democrats from Las Vegas.
Native Americans were the first to reside in the area, specifically the Paiute tribe. It was first called "Las Vegas" (which means "The Meadows" in the Spanish language) by the Spanish. The city is known for its dry weather, as is the rest of southern Nevada. It is surrounded by desert.
The US Army built Fort Baker there in 1864. Las Vegas has natural springs, where people used to stop for water when they were going to Los Angeles or other places in California.