TYPES OF LAWS

• Contract Law: concerned with agreements between two parties that involve an obligation or duty. The elements of a contractual agreement are the offer, acceptance, and consideration between two or more competent parties. Contracts can written, verbal, electronic (email) and either overtly expressed or implied.
  
  
• Tort Law: is the area of the law where a wrongful act by one person against another person or against property occurs. There are two main categories:
  
  
  • Unintentional tort: negligence, malpractice
  • Intentional tort: espionage, defective products
  
  
• Criminal Law: Violations of civil law that are offenses against society as spelled out in the written criminal statute or code (misdemeanors, felonies; being charged with a felony can cause one to lose a professional license).

Notes:

• Law is based on ethics, but NOT the highest ethic.
  
  
• Law is the minimum ethic, written down and enforced; behavior that is not merely desired but mandated.
  
  
• Ethics and law are guides for resolving conflict between people; on a continuum from the mandates of law to ethics to manners. Law is the minimum ethic and, therefore, legal behavior is not necessarily the highest ethic. Laws are proscriptions or prescriptions of extreme behavior.