The Law

The Law of the State or of any organized body of men is composed of the rules which the courts, that is, the judicial organs of that body, lay down for the determination of legal rights and duties. The system administered by the courts is 'the Law,' 'the Law' consists of nothing but an aggregate of single laws, and all single laws are commands of the State—is not justifiable. The great gain in its fundamental conceptions which Jurisprudence made during the last century was the recognition of the truth that the Law of a State or other organized body is not an ideal, but something which actually exists. It is also doubtless Law in the State that no one shall be punished for crime except after being found guilty by a jury. To determine, in actual life, what are the rights and duties of the State and of its citizens, the State needs and establishes judicial organs, the judges.