SLC22-W1 / Basic Notions of Law.

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It is always a joy for me whenever I have the opportunity to participate in the Steemit contest weekly and today I will be participating in the crypto academy community contest. Stay tune below.

Just a very brief introduction to what I will be talking about. Let me start by explaining what is law. According to my own understanding, law are set of rules that is been created by an authority in order to make sure rights are protected and order are maintained. In essence, with law, we have what we need to do and what we should not do which helps to properly achieve harmony.

When it comes to law, one of the things I have actually come to discover is that it can take several forms and shapes, we can have what we call the written laws, we have the customary practices and many more. Actually when it comes to law, it depends strongly on the legal system of that particular country. In essence the laws in Nigeria might be different from the law in Spain because the legal system of both of the countries is quite different.

Examples of Objective and Subjective Law

Objective Law.

When we talk about objectives law most especially based on my own understanding from the class, I discovered that they are the rules that are actually created by the governing authority which apply to everyone. It applies to everyone equally irrespective of the position you hold in the society.

• Example 1: A perfect example of objective law are traffic laws as it applies to everyone equally.

• Example 2: The second example of objective law I will like to point out is taxes. Every citizen is required to pay their taxes depending on their income and so It applies to everyone equally.

Subjective Law.

When it comes to subjective law as according to my own understanding and based on what was discussed in the class, they are the rights or let me say privileges rather that one can have access to under the legal system probably because they are a citizen of that country that owns the legal system.

• Example 1: The first example I will give is every citizen's right to freedom of speech.

• Example 2: The second example I will give is every citizen's right to standard health care.

Case Study Analysis

A citizen is driving a vehicle on the road and disregards the traffic light. Seconds later he is stopped by a traffic police officer and this citizen claims that he disregarded the traffic light because he was in a hurry to pick up his son and take him to the hospital because he is feeling unwell.

Based on what you have learned, please state in which part of the case Objective Law and Subjective Law are present.

In the scenario presented:

Objective Laws

I will point out two situations that point out objective laws.

• Traffic Regulation: I will say the traffic law in that case study is a perfect example of objective law like I discussed above. Every driver is expected to respect traffic lights and laws.

• Authority of the Traffic Officer: The other aspect of objective law I noticed is when the officer is stopping the citizen because the driver violated the rule also.

Subjective Law

I will also like to point out two major scenarios of the subjective law based on the case study.

• The Citizen's Right to Protect Life and Health: Well that might look so absurd but that is just the truth. The driver still has the right to protect life and his son's health because he was in a hurry to take his son to the hospital to ensure the safety of his son's life.

• Right to Justification or Defense: The second one is the right to defense. Well if the case reaches the court, I will say the driver has the right to say he actually avoided the traffic lights because of the emergency he was going to attend to.

As I want to try to make a comparison of law and norm. I will try to explain both of them.

Meaning of Law and Example.

Like I said earlier, a law is actually a combination of certain rules and regulations which was established by a governing authority. Laws generally helps to curb individuals and there are examples of law.

• Examples of Law: One perfect example of a law which I will address is the fact that there is this law that expect tenants to pay their rent based on the timeframe set and agreed based on the lease contract. Another example of a law is payment of taxes and respecting the traffic laws.

Meaning of Norm and Example.

Now talking about norm, they are different from laws because they are informal. Norms are informal rules which can come either from beliefs, traditions and many more actually within a community. When it comes to norms, it might not carry the legal penalties as compared to law when violated.

• Example of a Norm: A perfect example of a norm is probably a particular building rule is that none of the tennant must have pets in their house. Of course if you violate this rule, it might not result in legal punishment but might go against society's expectations.

Case Study Analysis

Mr. Juan Perez rents an apartment but his financial situation is getting worse and he has not paid for 3 months. On one occasion, a meeting of apartment owners was held and the owner of the apartment where Mr. Juan Perez lives brought the case to the attention of the owners of the other apartments. They took the opportunity to say that they have received complaints from the neighbors of the building because Mr. Juan Perez has 4 dogs as pets in his apartment, something that is prohibited in the building's rules of coexistence.

Violation of a Law.

The aspect I will say that Mr Juan violated the law is the aspect of him not paying for his house rent for 3 good months. Of course this has violated the lease contract which is established under the rental law. Of course landlords expect tenants to fulfil their financial obligations also.

Violation of a Norm.

Well talking about the Violation of the norm from Mr Juan Perez is the aspect of him having 4 dogs in his apartment which was also against the building laws that go against pets.

There is a whole lot of importance of comparative law that I will need to establish also which I was able to learn from the class previously also.

• Broader Understanding of Legal Systems: This is the first. It helps to give a more broader understanding of legal systems because I now understand much more better how legal systems around the world work ranging from the different types of laws we have like civil law, common law and many more.

• Improving Local Legal Systems: The second one is the aspect of improving the local legal system. I have been able to identify some practices that will help to improve the laws in my country and even start from the company I am working for.

• Resolving International Issues: The third one is that it also helps to resolve a lot of international issues due to a lot of legal disputes that a lot of countries are facing all around the world.

• Promoting Harmonization of Laws: The other important I was able to learn is the aspect of helping to promote harmonisation of laws in every sector of the world. It helps to ensure fairness is achieved also.

• Encouraging Critical Thinking: This will be the last, it helps me to engage in a lot of critical thinking of a lot of legal system. I personally can now observe different legal systems and be able to know whether it is working or not.

I invite @josepha , @newekemini5 and @okere-blessing to drop a very constructive comments on this post and also to participate in this contest.