Parliament of France

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. Laws are made by governments, specifically by their legislatures. The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution and the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics, economics and society in countless ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people.
A general distinction can be made between civil law jurisdictions (including Canon and Socialist law), in which the legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates their laws, and common law systems (including Islamic law), where judge-made binding precedents are accepted. Historically,religious laws played a significant role even in settling of secular matters, which is still the case in some countries, particularly Islamic.