Applicable law

What we are going to discuss in this branch of law is to answer to these question: what are our rights and duties? And in facing the problems how can we settle our disputes in a civilized and logical way?
Here there is another main division: substantive and procedural law. Substantive law is a part of applicable law and in fact essence of it which defines rights and obligations. For instance consider 18 years old boy whose father is dead and he has a mother, an aunt, a girlfriend, a car and a house; he is Persian and lives in Tehran. In order to be a little familiar with the concept of substantive law I want to ask you a few questions: how much will he inherit? Will his aunt heir anything? Should he remain in custody of his mother? Dose his girlfriend have any right to ask him for money? What if his girlfriend becomes his wife? Does he have to be able to afford her clothes, foods, house, etc.?Or even a servant for her? What if he unintentionally kills someone? Is he qualified to be a member of parliament, mayor or president? Can he vote in any elections? These and millions of questions can arise about a single person in a society which should be responded by substantive law; in fact every matter that is qualified to be a subject of law Is a beehive with a millions of potential sectors; every sector in facing with another sector of a subject of law can arise a lot of question; it may sound a little abstract! Consider that boy and girl in our previous case as two beehives with characters which have already explained: let's know something about our imaginary girl: she is 16 years old, she has a father and grandfather, in her father's house she has an exclusive servant, etc.
Everybody has a lot of relations with a lot of humans, things or even abstract rights called intellectual properties; in each case we should examine a lot of other situations and relations to respond a single legal question that can be the same in other sciences with different elements. For example in responding our earlier question about servant, by these elements in girl's life and based on our current law we should say yes.
What I'm trying to say is this: in all substantive divisions of applicable law whether domestic or international such as tort, property, contract, criminal, public international law, etc. we are trying to locate a place for rights and duties and define them.
In procedural law we define ways to show how a person whose right is violated or claims whose right has been violated should return to his or her previous location in the plan of rights and duties; in order to understand better consider this case: A's leg is broken unintentionally when B was riding a bicycle; in this case that is a case of tort law, A's right (health)is violated, B refuses to pay for his curing costs thus A has no resort unless public forces; he wants to go to the court, but what should he do there? How should he start to sue? How should he handle in the middle of it and how should he finish it? We use rules to do our jobs regularly, assume what would happen if we didn't have rules in courts? In our case B can deny hurting A, to getting his right back what can A do? Is testifying acceptable in this case? What kind of evidence can help him? Is it possible to torture B to get confession from him? Is it possible for judge to be a member of family of one of them? Can court sentence even if B refuses to come to court? For starting to sue who should pay? Although by these questions you may think we are defining rights and duties so we are in substantive division of applicable law, but you should not forgot that these rules are not in position of locating rights and obligations, they are just trying to show how we can again achieve our rights.
In simplest language procedural law is established to help suitor, litigant and society (by prosecutor's deputy) to save their rights.
By this little introduction we can enter applicable law and this would be our future discussions plan: first we will start with civil matters and its procedure, then we will continue with commercial law, afterwards criminal law and its procedure, then public law and private international law; then we will leave our country to see what is going on in the world by examine public international law, and at the end we would consider human as a human being in respect of human law. Please follow us to give us enough strength and hope to move forward. Bye bye….

Critical law

• As I've already confess in law faculties in Iran students almost are thought nothing about critical law, but by chance I've been student of a great professor who thought us at least about existence of these materials that I would appreciate it forever.
  Also I had a research about history of law which is going to be published soon. So I myself don't know much about critical law, but I'm trying to provide you with what I know.
  · Philosophy of law
  We already know that philosophy discusses about the existence, the nature of phenomenon and such really fundamental discussions. It is said that philosophy is a courageous curiosity and search but without any response about basic causes and ultimate definitions of existence… . And we also know that what 'additional philosophy' is: a philosophy that discusses about the cause of existence of a science; for instance in law, why should we have law? What we are going to achieve by law? Etc.
  There are a lot of schools to response these questions, such as natural law, positive law and philosophers who write about jurisprudence like Kant, Hegel, Sartre, Bentham, Montesquieu, etc. In each school they try to justify why we should have law, how law should do its function, what are its aims, etc. by their own justifications.
  In short by philosophy of law we would understand that law's main goals are freedom, regulatory and justice in a society; so according to these findings we must drew up our rules (law) in applicable law to lead us to these ends.( don't worry I'll discuss later how!)
  · History of law
  In history of law we want to understand what was beyond our current law; in other words how human being has reached this point, from primitive groups, families and tribes to these modern societies; of course they had law, but what was the characteristics of their law; was that uncivilized, cruel and basic or something else?
  The answer would be as long as the history; thus to achieve the response we must have a survey of the history to understand what happened, how legal entities were made up, etc. so history of law is a search about story of law throughout the history.
  · Since I don't know too much about other materials in critical law I just want to have a short introductory and finish this main division.
  Sociology of law discusses about interrelevance between sociology and law, i.e. the attitudes, way of living, beliefs, religions, cultures, etc. have a great impact on the law of that society; thus the response to why we should have this kind of law returns to our society and what our society is made up of.
  Also we examine the effects of literature, economy, etc. on law and vice versa.
  Considering 'family', a lawyer would describe it by legal factors and bind it by legal rules; an economist would describe it as basic sector of supply and demand; a poet or writer would describe it as source of the love; a sociologist would… and we know all of them are right. By critical law we'll understand how should combine these attitudes to recognize better, entities like family, government, crime, etc. and thereby have better law.
  In this division of law we would understand we cannot examine law without considering its people, literature, religion, culture, economy, etc.
  I know I've couldn't explain it well enough, sorry; you know the reason... .

?What do you know about law

Today I'm going to provide you with what I've learned during four years in law faculty in my own language!(of course this is just starting!)

Of course there are a lot of questions we should response during our survey: what is law? Is it an art or a science? What are its purposes? Why should we have law? How does it want to solve human's problems? And such kinds of fundamental questions.

Basic knowledge:

1) Definition of law

We use this term in many senses: we may speak of the law of physics, mathematics, nature or even the law of football. But in its strict sense it is used as means of orienting and organizing human community: the rules for human conduct which have the power of enforcement (sanction), imposed upon people by a state. This is the most important difference between law and morality, i.e. the power of enforcement which we cannot see in moral rules; although, morality has its own sanctions but they cannot come into effect in this world. By this we don't mean they don't have any common grounds, of course there are, however, as soon as moral rules are chosen by law they would be a part of law.

2) Classification

The law is best divided into critical and applicable.
In critical law matters such as philosophy, logic, sociology, history, literature of law and matters like these are discussed. In this part of law we want to understand what is law? Why should study law? What are its aims? What did happen through centuries to law? What is the relation between law and economy, literature, etc.
These materials are universal and almost abstract, in other words with these mental discussions we're just trying to find a basis for studying law and find out what attitudes underline law.
Unfortunately I must confess to the fact that critical law almost has nothing basis in Iran, in law faculty we almost have never taught about these.
Another basic division is applicable law with two main majors in it: international and domestic law.
Applicable law is contains the rules which are concrete and in practice can help lawyers, judges and others in law courts. By these rules we can settle our disputes and objectively see how law works.
Domestic law has various divisions: criminal law, civil law, public law, private law, substantive law, procedural law, municipal law, private international law, etc.
International law also has its own branches: public international law, international humanitarian law, international trade law, international criminal law, etc.

I'm so tired! Next week we'll continue what's going in these divisions!