ABSTRACT
Human beings in general are restrained from wrongful aggression upon their neighbours, and constrained to action necessary for the collective welfare of the society to which they belong, by the operation upon their minds of certain forces or influences which may be distinguished as follows. These include extraneous physical force; administrative authority; sacerdotal authority; custom; convention; positive law; the Social Imperative; and public opinion. With the object of ascertaining the means which are available for the control of the conduct of states, there is need to review the various ways in which the conduct of individual men is regulated. General rules are the means by which the conduct of human beings is regulated so far as acts or forbearances of any predetermined class are required at their hands. In the widest meaning, however, in which the word ‘ law ‘ has any definite relation to conduct it always signifies a general rule.
