International, constitutional and administrative law, felony law, contract, tort, property law and trusts are considered the “traditional core topics”, although there are numerous additional disciplines. In civil law the sources recognised as authoritative are, primarily, legislation—especially codifications in constitutions or statutes handed by government—and customized. Codifications date again millennia, with one early instance being the Babylonian Codex Hammurabi.
For an exposition of social restrictions and their enforcement, see censorship; crime and punishment; and police. For an outline of the legal aspects of struggle and the army, see struggle, law of. Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, however its detailed guidelines were developed by skilled jurists and have been extremely sophisticated. In medieval England, royal courts developed a body Law of precedent which later turned the frequent law. A Europe-wide Law Merchant was fashioned so that retailers may commerce with common requirements of practice somewhat than with the various …