Legal Framework: Objective, Subjective, Natural, and Positive Law
Objective and Subjective Law
Objective law encompasses all state standards across different legal branches. Subjective law refers to the individual rights granted to each person, defined as the legal power to pursue legally protected interests.
Natural Law and Positive Law
Positive law is the legal system of a state at any given time. Natural law is a set of universally valid rules derived from human reason and the nature of things, aiming to establish a just social order.
Legal Standards: Types and Classes
The Concept of Rule of Law
A legal rule is an intelligent mandate to order society. It requires, prohibits, or recommends behavior for citizens and public authorities. Rules must be promulgated and published to be known by all. Citizens apply rules directly by adjusting their conduct, while officials and judges enforce them in resolving conflicts.
Characteristics of the Rule of Law
- Coercibility: Legal norms are mandatory and must be respected.
- Generality: Rules apply to all citizens, not specific individuals.
- Abstraction: Rules govern types of cases, not individual instances.
Kinds of Legal Rules
- Mandatory and Prohibitive Standards: These are non-derogable; citizens cannot agree to exclude their application.
- Operative Standards: These are proposed laws for citizens if they have not regulated their relations.
The Law and Its Branches
Public Law and Private Law
Ulpian, a Roman jurist, divided law into public and private. Public law concerns the state’s utility, while private law concerns individual interests. Public law rules are mandatory, while private law rules are operative, allowing individuals to establish regulations through contracts. Public law governs relationships involving the state, while private law regulates relationships between individuals. However, the state also submits to private law in its relations with citizens.
Branches of Public Law
- Constitutional Law: Studies the Constitution.
- Administrative Law: Studies public management, regulations, services, urban planning, eminent domain, and administration property.
- Criminal Law: Studies crime and punishment, classifying offenses that affect legally protected rights.
- Tax Law: Studies the State Budget, taxes, contributions, fees, and public debt.
- Procedural Law: Studies the organization of courts and processes in civil, criminal, administrative, and labor jurisdictions.
- International Law: Studies international and diplomatic relations, treaties, and organizations.
Branches of Private Law
- Civil Law: Regulates relationships between citizens, with some areas becoming autonomous disciplines.
- Business Law: Studies merchants, production, trade, commercial societies, contracts, banks, and securities markets.
- Labor Law: Studies employment contracts, worker rights, working hours, salaries, dismissals, unions, and labor agreements.
- Private International Law: Studies personal, economic, and trade relations between subjects of different countries, determining applicable law and jurisdiction.