FAMILY LAW, CRIMINAL LAW and LABOUR LAW
Family law deals with issues related to a family and it includes the issues related to:
Marriage, Legitimacy of marriage, Adoption, Issues of divorce, maintenance, child support parental responsibility. Family laws and norms vary from country to country and in many countries the difference is also on the basis of religion. It basically deals with all the issues of a family respectively.
International law
International law is the law governing the conduct of nations with each other. International law is constituted by the principles and norms which govern the behavior and conduct of nations. International law further consists of:
Public international law - It governs the relationship between countries and international entities. It includes treaty law, law of sea, international criminal law and the international humanitarian law.
Private international law - It deals with conflict between private persons and not states and further looks into the aspect as to which jurisdiction would have the authority in case of such disputes.
Criminal law
Criminal law describes those acts and conducts which are harmful and can cause injury to a person or any other conduct which threatens to endanger the safety of the public at large. It is criminal law which specifies as to what conduct is criminal in nature and what is the punishment to be imparted for such crimes. For any activity to be labeled as a crime it must have certain essential elements of crime. Actus Reus and Men Rea being two such elements which are to be necessarily present in an activity to be labeled it as a criminal activity. The enforcement of criminal law in all countries rests with the state. The punishment for each crime varies from state to state. But the basic objectives in the enforcement of criminal law which are same worldwide are the principles of retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation and restitution.
Common law is not the statutory law it is the law developed by judges through decisions in cases. In this system equal importance is given to the statute and case laws. If there is any kind of ambiguity with regard to the intention of the statute or if there is no law in a particular instance then in such cases the courts look into previous case laws and decide the matter at hand on the basis of such case precedents. If an issue similar to the one at hand has been answered by the courts in the past then the courts are placed under an obligation to take the reasoning of such precedent, but if the issue at hand is different from the one decided before then the courts have the right to formulate a new precedent and such precedent will be binding on future cases. But then all the decisions of the courts are not binding, this again depends on the hierarchy of courts. The decisions of higher court are binding on lower courts but the decisions of the lower courts are not binding on the higher courts, these decisions only have persuasive authority. Thus in countries which follow the common law system the first step is ascertainment of facts, then the applicable statute and case laws are to be located, then the principles and analogies used in such precedents is to be extracted, the decisions of higher courts are also taken and ultimately all these things are taken into account and applied to the facts at hand a final decision is given.
Labour law is the realm of law which specifies the law governing working people and the obligations which are to be fulfilled by the employer in this regard. Industrial revolution further promoted in this cause and the workers stressed on the need for a legislation to govern their work conditions. The labour laws specify the rights and obligations of the labours, the obligations on the part of the employer towards the labours, the working conditions which are to be maintained at the working place by the employer, the wages, the time period of work etc. In other words labour law summarizes the standard employment practices or in other words the minimum socially acceptable conditions of work in a statute and makes it a mandatory obligation for the employer to fulfill such obligations.