我喜欢真的

我喜欢真的，这是我这么多年，经历十年，所褪炼的结晶，我可能一直都是这样，在我的骨子里，在我的血液了，都是这样。我喜欢真的。只是在过去的岁月里，由于错误的导向，由于浮尘将我覆上了一层世俗的灰尘，我从不相信什么，但走出来后，我将他掸尽。
什么是真的。我理解的真，原则上的，骨子里的，是定方向的。不会轻易选择，既然选，就走到尽头。难。因为必须割舍。舍才能得。
我否定自己过去的情感，因为我什么都不懂，尽管我选择了自由但是艰难。经历我的人和我经历过的人，只要还有记忆，就应该知道，那时候的我是多么的年轻。却在赤裸裸的袒露在肮脏的社会面前，尽管我为自己自豪，但我也痛斥我周围的亲人，那时的他们，很丑恶。因为这些记恨，我付出了自己全部的快乐。所以，我的世界是空的。我逃离，为了寻找另外一个完全属于我的世界，但我找啊找，找不到，人在另外一个世界，但心还在旧世界。我一直都处在心不在焉的状态，这十年。我被炸的粉碎。总是期望将记忆的碎片拼凑成以前完整的自己。但，碎片越来越少了，新的我重生了。所以，我要回去了。但这时的我已非彼时至我，从内到外，都不一样了。以前的我，心已死。对家人的心已死。所以相信自己有足够的免疫力。心在人不在，人在心不在。人在心在。
信任。
现在，你相信什么? 我相信自己。相信规律。相信万事万物都是可以改变的。

童话的记忆

http://club.pchome.net/thread_1_288_5729509__.html

在这里我突然特别想说一段自己曾经的感情。

我曾经在大学时候,爱过一个老师,他有妻子有一个三岁的女儿。但是我从来都没有

去跟他说明过,我知道这样的爱肯定没有结果,我不能背弃自己的良心去拆散另外一

个家庭。

我是对感情特别专一的人,那段时间只是一心想要去喜欢他,但是克制自己不去做份

外的事情,那个老师对我也很好,我的作业他总是批注的很多,也很喜欢在一起聊

天,在他的办公室里玩飞镖。也会去一起去吃饭,但每次吃饭的时候都会喊上同学一

起。

我都不知道,为什么自己会那么喜欢他,崇敬他,就这样爱了他整整一个大学。也不

觉得这种单恋有多痛苦,不管我有多么傻,直到后来我和现在的老公在一起。

毕业的时候,我让他给我的纪念册上留言。他拿去了整整一个晚上,第二天才还给

我,上面的话让我第一次痛痛快快为了这段大学四年的感情,去天台哭了一场,是席

慕容的一首诗,我现在还记得,说:"不是所有的梦都来得及实现, 不是所有的话都

来得及告诉你, 内疚和悔恨,总要深深地种植在离别後的心中.你是聪慧如兰的姑

娘,我想你亦懂得我的内心,距离总归是美,未来广阔,你有比我更好的未来,更幸

福的归宿。"

老实说我特别感谢这位老师,他一定知道我很喜欢他,但他一直都保持着距离,引导

我往正确的方向去做。

这段往事我从来没有跟他说起过,我只是觉得,这就是我的爱情观,你可以去爱,但

是责任和义务,必须促使你去做一些不违背自己良心的事情,对得起自己,对得起别

人的家庭,就对得起未来。

我不知道紫是怎么想的,我想她一定知道他是有家庭的人,你可以去爱我的丈夫,放

在心里爱,我为此荣耀,因为证明他的优秀,但是既然有家庭,就请你退避三舍。

分床睡莫忘给丈夫“发信号”

http://fashion.people.com.cn/GB/5624214.html

《北京晚报》援引美国媒体报道，由全美房屋建造协会发起的一项调查显示，到2015年，在订制的新房中，有60%将会有两套主卧室。研究人员还表示，在美国，越来越多的夫妇都在他们的新家中设立两个单独的主卧室，目的是为了确保婚姻更加和谐。

　　聪明女人要学会“发信号”，比如半夜通个情爱电话，早餐给他讲一个悬念故事的前半段，制造“距离感”，就可以创造“小别胜新婚”的浪漫。

　 　在国外，有很多全职夫妻都不住在同一个卧室里，因为不同的作息时间不仅影响彼此的休息，时间久了还会破坏感情。比较理想的状态是两个人各自拥有一间卧 室，而且每间卧室都有卫生间。平时各自休息，每周定期在一起，这种居住方式让很多结婚多年的夫妻还都保持着吸引力，对感情的稳固和加深有很大的帮助。

　　主动分床是抵制性冷淡，制造更浪漫性生活的秘方，而有些人因为要照顾宝宝而不得不分床睡。不过，不管是主动还是被动，分床但不能分心，可以制造神秘感，为下一次亲密接触埋下些许期待。

　　分床后，女人千万别忘了给丈夫“发信号”，要制造亲密感，把握好他那种想要而得不到的状态，双方重回恋爱时的“退进游戏”。分床后夫妻可以重新约会，甚至因为难以忍受思念而在半夜感受煎熬，也会给生活增加一些不确定性，带来非常刺激的性爱体验。

　　可以在两个卧室之间设置电话，半夜失眠时可以通个情爱电话，或者委婉地拒绝对方一次性要求，然后在第二天给他一个惊喜。

　 　早晨短暂的见面时间，也是“勾引”老公的最佳时间。早餐时，散落头发、披着睡袍，里面穿着最漂亮的性感内衣，或者干脆什么都不穿，在他眼前一闪而过。一 定要让他看到你的打扮，但是只给他“惊鸿一瞥”的机会，然后在他上班前轻轻耳语告诉他，你今晚的打算，让他在想象和期待中度过一整天。

　　在孩子入睡后，不要总是一头扎到沙发上看电视，或忙于那些永远也做不完的家务。可以为他端上一盘精心制作的小点心，然后小鸟依人般地钻进他的怀里喂他吃夜宵。

　 　总之，分床睡的确有许多好处，不过需要有一个最重要的前提，那就是感情基础深厚。如果夫妻关系冷淡、紧张，分床久了，可使本来就冷淡的夫妻关系更加冷 淡，加大裂痕，造成更深的隔阂，甚至会使第三者乘虚而入。因此，夫妻要把握好分床睡的尺度，不要让暂时的分开成为永久的分离。

《健康时报》 (2007-04-16 第13版)

早晨性爱比晚上好

http://fashion.people.com.cn/GB/5624817.html 你是否认为激情只能在黑暗中迸发？或 是觉得只有晚上才是性爱的“固定时间”？如果是，那你可就有些落伍了，要知道，性爱原本不必有那么多条条框框。当清晨的第一缕阳光照在你的脸上，当你睁开 惺忪的睡眼，慵懒地伸伸懒腰，就可以用亲吻、抚摩“挑逗”你身边的人，继而开始享受完美的“性爱大餐”了。 　　早晨是性欲重合期 　　当你正在“性”头儿上，而你的伴侣却“性”意阑珊时，沮丧和恼火一定会一股脑地袭来。先别忙着怪他/她，要知道，男人和女人的性欲是有时差的。而其最好的重合点，就在早晨。 　　性学家们发现，男性性激素在早晨7点左右，可超出平时20%，特别是在性梦之后，他们的欲望会非常强烈。而对女人来说，经过噩梦的挣扎后，会比任何时候都需要性爱的抚慰，也常常因此“愈脆弱愈疯狂”。 　　对于工作繁忙的白领们来说，早晨性爱不失为一个好办法。忙碌了一天，就算再诱人的性爱也难以让人提起精神，一些夫妻甚至打上了“无性婚姻”的标签。实际上，这只是由于双方太累、压力太大造成的。如果能把性爱调整到早上进行，清晨的阳光会让你们“性”致勃勃起来。 　　性学家们还指出，经过一个晚上的休息和消化，人体变得更轻盈。特别对于那些有腹泻、胃肠疾病的人来说，早晨的性爱运动，会缓解生理上的疼痛。 　　早晨性爱不会影响工作 　　有太多的“教科书”教育我们，做爱是一件神圣的事情，要有浪漫的背景音乐、使人迷醉的蜡烛，1—2个小时不会被打扰……于是，不少人认为，清晨性爱即便再完美，始终是一份“快餐”，难以让人尽兴。 　 　对此，中国中医科学院西苑医院男科副主任医师郭军解释说，清晨性爱对女人来说，难度确实大一些。“因为男性能很快进入高潮，而女性需要足够的前戏。这就 需要男性用更多的技巧帮助女性性唤起。”比如，找准她的敏感部位或采取女上位；而作为女性，也可以先让自己进入性幻想，这样可以减少很多的预热时间。 　　性爱，好比一场运动，之后的疲惫难免让人体力大减。如果把性爱挪到早上进行，会不会影响一天的工作呢？在郭军看来，早晨性爱相当于上了两层楼、跑了50米，基本不会对之后的工作带来影响。“相反，性爱能让人精神更加振奋，反而有利于工作。” 　　性爱中的注意事项 　　当然，清晨性爱也难免带来新的问题，郭军给记者列举了如下注意事项： 　　首先，看好你的孩子。“我曾经听到过这样的事情：夫妻俩正在享受鱼水之欢，这时，刚刚睡醒的孩子推门进来，丈夫顿时就不行了。”可见，一个不受干扰的环境是绝对必要的。 　　其次，千万不要因为性爱而耽误了工作。 　　最后，性爱过后别马上开车。据统计，在大城市交通的高峰时段，由驾驶员负主要责任的交通事故中，大约有40%左右的驾驶员是性事刚刚结束后开车出事的。▲ 《生命时报》 (2007-04-17 第11版)

给老公哥们儿的一封信

给老公哥们儿的一封信

蓝袜子

……老公的哥们儿，希望你们为了我和老公的白头偕老誓言，为了你们和他的友谊地久天长美愿，不要时时想着他，念着他，尤其是在有饭局时，忘了他吧……
http://fashion.people.com.cn/GB/5629124.html

　　老公的哥们儿：

　　你们好！

　　首先感谢你们一直以来对老公的不离不弃！

　　老公既非富豪，又不是达官，上无鸿鹄之志，下无提携之能，却能得尔等一干朋友之记挂惦念，拥护爱戴，实乃三生有幸。作为其老婆，也感到荣幸之至。在此，我要再次感谢你们！

　　写这封信，除了对你们说感谢外，还有个愿望，那就是，希望你们不要时时将他记在心间，对他漠视一些，忽略一些。

　 　老公是如此的普通平凡，少了他一个，地球照样转，世界依然精彩。没有他的参与，你们的聚会肯定能够继续；没有他的参与，你们的饭局同样能够进行。我这么 说，绝对不是因为你们占去了他业余时间的一大半而说的气话。因为，你们对老公的关照，是有目共睹的，我从来没对你们的友谊产生过动摇，也从来不会对你们的 真诚产生怀疑。

　　这个周末，老公本来答应带孩子出游。你们的一个电话，令老公又一次在孩子面前食言。“家里人家里事好说好商量，朋友不能不够意思啊。”老公说。堂堂大男人，一副为难无奈相，我也只好做孩子的工作，让老公卸掉思想包袱，轻松赴你们的约。

　 　我知道，此时的你们，一定又是在酒桌猜拳行令，推杯换盏。豪爽仗义的你们，聚必有宴，宴必有酒，酒必尽兴。感情深，才一口吞嘛！可你们忘了吗？“七 （吃）不害人八不害人九（酒）害人”，因贪杯饮酒过量酿成的惨剧不时在生活中上演。老公每次聚会回家，都醉醺醺，走路颤巍巍，说话前言不搭后语。每每见老 公如此，我心是五味陈杂，喜之，恨之，疼之又忧之。喜的是，老公这么得人缘，恨的是你们给他贪杯的机会，疼的是他酒后的难受样，忧的是他的身体，经受得几 多这样的摧残。

　　俗话说：君子之交淡如水。两天一小聚，三天一大聚，时时见面，时时把酒，或许是友谊的一种形式，但彼此心意相通、相互惦记却不一定时常见面的友谊，才更能经住岁月的洗礼和考验。

　 　所以，老公的哥们儿，希望你们为了我和老公的白头偕老誓言，为了你们和他的友谊地久天长美愿，不要时时想着他，念着他，尤其是在有饭局时，忘了他吧！请 放心，我保证，家常便饭，同样能让他吃饱喝好，心满意足。如此，不仅我和家人会更加感谢你们，而且一定还会为你们节约不少银子！拜托了！

　　军的老婆

　　（雕刻时光）

充分利用婚姻生活的每天2小时

早上为他做早餐，备好午餐后，送他出门，给对方一个吻
晚上一同逛超市，接他回家，共同做饭，聊当天各自的收获，赞美对方，
晚饭后，一人洗碗，一人清洁地面及厨房。
睡前，洗一些衣物。

对于自己的时间，

早上的博客翻译4H30-7h30
上午的EXKI 8H30-12h30
下午的图书馆14H30-18H00
业余辅导 18h30-19H30
阅读 20h30-22H30

我认为这样的生活很好，很平淡。没有孩子起码可以这样。

外圆内方

如同用刀子切割一样，严格分开我们共同的时间和各自的时间。

我们共同的时间其实并不多，可能越是时间久的夫妻，其共同时间则越来越少。最后落得，成功的男人多半在外另辟愉悦的新天地，花天酒地可以满足食欲，寻花问柳可以满足性欲。而家里的妻子多半与孩子相依为命，当然这些所谓的成功男人不会让后方在物质生活上吃苦。

结婚这么多年，我们一直没有处理好周末的共同时间。其实，我们在一起只有两件事是最愉悦的，即食与性。其余，无论是我们谈论任何事情都会争吵。并且，我们无法共同做事，反而，各自独立思考，keep secret于对方的事情，反而可以都做的很好。

恐怕，有一天，食与性可以自食其力的时候，我们就再也不需要对方了。我很难想象我们该如何合作去养育共同的孩子。

既然如此，我宁愿将我们之间的时间严格进行区分。

需共同合作完成的事情，每天也就合计2个小时
1 超市(二，四，六 晚 19h30-20h30)，晚餐(20h30-21h30)
2 晚一套 (22h30-23h)

可我们共同在一起的时间，除去睡觉 23h-7h，
1早 7h30-8h20
2 晚 19H30-23h，
3 周六全天

所以，这期间，你需要将自己放在小房子里的时间，
早上，我要利用7h30-8h20打扫完家地面以外的家务，
晚上，则21h30-22h30 我要在小屋学习一个小时
周六，我要在小屋学习，8H30-13h00 14H00-19h00

====================

婚姻需要用智慧来经营.不要把结婚当成爱情的终点站,而是人生的一个里程碑,
婚后还是要不断地经营你们的爱.
原始的爱就象你们原始的启动资金一样,
要想长盛不衰还要不断地投入新的爱,比如经常地赞美对方,给对方一个吻,为对方做饭,在对方生日、
和任何纪念日、节假日为对方所有精心策划准备的礼物和节目，在对方内心烦恼时给予关心和体贴,
这些都是为你们的爱加分，增值．没有一对夫妻是不吵架的，
但再怎么吵，也不要说一句伤感情的话，就事论事，然后床头吵完床尾合，千万不要冷战．”你对我错相惜缘”，
懂得这个道理，一定能越来越好！祝你们的爱，如陈年老酒，越久越醇

http://www.hncltx.com/xywh/200906/20090630102922.html

专家对注意力不集中、不专心孩子的意见

作者：朱茂 文章来源：本站原创 点击数：799 更新时间：2009-6-30

[现象]
　　孩子上学以来，家长们不断地接到老师的投诉，上课10分钟后，就开始动、说话。或上课走神，听不到。不知上课讲的是什么，不知所留作业；有的孩子虽然看似安安静静地坐在那里做功课，但实际上却在神游四方，心不在焉；作业中掉字、错字、错符号，抄错得数。读书时，错字、丢字很多；考试中，看错题，丢题。
　　孩子回到家，学习时也非常不专心，一会看看电视，一会喝口水，一会又要上厕所，总之不磨蹭上几个小时作业是做不完的。除了特别感兴趣的事，如看电视等外，一有声响就四处顾盼。再就是很难把一件事情做到底。如看不完一本书，玩具玩一会就不玩了，家长喊他听不见；告诉了他某些事情，再问他即不知道。经常不愿意做那些需要持续用脑的事情，比如做家庭作业或做需要长时间集中注意力的事情；经常弄丢学习、生活东西，比如例如玩具，铅笔，书本或其它学习用具；经常忘事，比如上学校时丢三落四，忘记分配的任务；游戏，做事、学习时不注意细节，常犯粗心大意的错误；在完成任务或做功课时常常虎头蛇尾，不能按要求将事情做到底；很难组织好分配给他的任务或活动，比如做值日。
　　这些表现都体现在注意力不集中的问题上。注意力不集中是指难于长时间地把注意力集中于一件事情上，易冲动、易分心、没耐心、追求瞬间满足，缺乏观察的能力和聆听的技巧，无法做一成不变的事。
　　伟大的进化论奠基人达尔文说：“我比一般人略胜一筹就在于我能够注意到那些很容易被别人忽略的事物，也就是我能够仔细地观察事物。”这体现了集中注意力的重要性。

[原因分析]
　　孩子的注意力由注意的集中、注意的速度、注意的分散、注意的分配这几个概念构成。指向性和集中性是注意力的两个特点。指向 性是使人的心理活动有选择地反映一定的事物；集中性则使被选定的事物在人脑中获得最清晰、最完全的反映。孩子注意力不集中，易分心，是所有孩子的共性。年 龄越小，控制注意力的时间越短，心理实验证明：3岁幼儿注意力可维持3～5分钟，4岁孩子10分钟，5～6岁儿童也只有15分钟，7～10岁20分钟左 右，10～12岁25分钟左右，13岁以上30分钟。只有超出了这个范围，才可以认为孩子有问题。因此，对于绝大多数情况，孩子并没有问题，孩子大了会逐步地提高注意力。
　　作为家长，不能仅仅因为老师告 状，或者自己看到孩子的某些现象，就判定孩子有问题。应该说，几乎所以的孩子都会因为注意力不集中而被投诉。当所有的孩子都会接到这样的投诉后，我们就不 能说这是孩子的问题，而是孩子在成长过程中的固有表现。就如同一岁的孩子在学习走路的时候会摔跤一样，我们完全没有理由感到担心。现在的学生从早上六点多起床，可能一直要学到晚上十一点，如此之长的学习，不要说孩子，特别是低年龄的孩子，就是大人都受不了。因此，在这一天的过程中，孩子学习的时候有点分心，家长应该报以更多的宽容才是。为此，当家长接到老师有关注意力方面的投诉，先应该看看造成了怎样的后果。如果孩子的学习成绩没有特别的不好，我们就不要去太在意孩子注意力不能集中的问题。另一方面，要安排好孩子的学习和休息，孩子回到家不能几个小时都在学习否则，效果肯定会不好。
　　当然，我们也不否认，有些孩子的表现超出正常范围的注意力不集中，有这样几种可能引起孩子的注意力不集中：
　　一、发育比较迟缓。注意力等心理活动的基础是神经活动。神经系统成熟的延迟和大脑功能失调，都有可能导致儿童的注意力不集中，表现为上课时爱走神。孩子注意力的集中程度会随着年龄的增长而增长，但每个孩子发育程度不尽相同，有一些孩子快一些，有些孩子慢一些。
　 　二、某些生理疾病。某些脑区功能的缺陷也会造成注意力不集中，这些脑区活动比较弱，就容易引发问题。其中，以儿童多动症也叫注意力缺陷障碍（ADD）为 最典型，它是儿童时期的常见病。这些孩子几乎片刻不停，忙忙碌碌，被各种事物所吸引，虽然他们也有兴趣爱好，但对感兴趣之事也无法集中注意力。大约有 1/3的儿童多动症患者病情会延续到成年，并且会带来后遗症，如性格问题等。像这类孩子就具有注意力分散度较大的气质特点，应该及早到医院给予治疗。
　　此外，饮食过度精细，并且大量的零食中含有色素和食品添加剂，使孩子体内维生素和微量元素缺乏或偏食，导致儿童贫血、营养不良，使得这些孩子上课走神。

　　三、没有养成好的习惯。培养孩子的注意力，应该在学龄前就开始。孩子在幼儿园的时候就没有养成良好的时间观念，写作业的时间就是写作业的时间，不能和看电视并行。一些孩子边写作业边看电视，孩子写作业就顾不上看电视，看电视就顾不上写作业，最终导致孩子在干一件事的时候老想着另外一件事情，注意力永远集中不起来。一些家长对学龄前学的孩子，忽视了孩子注意力的培养，致使这些孩子上小学后，很难适应正规学习。表现在上课不专心，做作业不认真，严重影响学习成绩的提高。
　　还有一些家庭对孩子呵护过度，当家长溺 爱过度，任何事情都帮孩子代劳。久而久之，就会使孩子产生严重的依赖心理，什么事也不用自己去做，只要持续用脑的事，他都会懒得做，逐渐变为一个懒惰的 人。而懒惰的人没有意志力，也就不可能集中精力。而一个注意品质好的人，很大的成分是需要意志力的配合才能集中精力。像科学家在做实验、在计算时，就必须 要全力集中，还要配合以坚强的意志力。所以，呵护过分的孩子没有意志力，也就难于培养出持久的注意力。
　　四、对所要精力集中的事情没有兴趣。比如，孩子对老师讲课没有兴趣，脑子里总是在想自己想做作的事情，就会注意力不集中。没有兴趣的原因一是没有得到老师的肯定；二是老师经常批评；三是一种更为普遍的情况，就是老师讲的内容孩子都已经听懂了，孩子就会分散精力；四是老师讲的东西听不懂；无视不顾孩子的喜好，不仅限制、阻止孩子诸如看课外书、玩游戏、做手工、户外活动，还一味地按照家长的好恶，强迫孩子从事自己不喜欢、没有兴趣做的事情。如果一个小孩子愿意做某一件事情，而家长却禁止他去做，就很可能会使孩子的注意力不集中。
　　五、对孩子不切合实际的要求。美国儿童教育学者日前发表了一份研究报告显示，玩具过多容易影响孩子的智力发育。英国牛津大学教育心理学教授凯茜?茜尔娃历时数年，对3000名年龄在3—5岁之间的孩子进行了跟踪调查发现，那些玩具较少的孩子，由于父母与他们一起阅读、唱歌和游戏的时间更多，要比那些家境优越、玩具成山的同龄小朋友智力水平高。儿童教育工作者的奥汉?伊斯梅尔也发现，他10个月大的儿子卡梅伦在圣诞节收到了大量玩具礼物后，却变得不会玩儿了。“他不停地拿起一个玩具，摆弄两分钟就放下，再拿起另一个，没过多久又失去了兴趣，最后往往是拿起一只拖鞋之类的东西来玩，而以前他每个玩具能玩上十几分钟。”
　　这种特征也会导致孩子在被安排太多课程后，也会出现注意力不集中的问题。现在孩子参加的课外训练班过多，其实多数都是家长的意愿。殊不知这样的做法也恰恰是形成注意不集中的因素。孩子的天性是玩，您把他课余的时间都占满，他怎么办，只好在训练的课堂上自己想办法玩了。久而久之，注意不集中的习惯也就形成了。况且当课程太多的时候，孩子都无法保证上课的时间。当一个孩子一周甚至连一次培训时间都无法保证时，即使到了学习班，也难以集中精力，更不要说提高成绩。
　 　六、心理卫生不健康。也就是一些非智力因素也可以使儿童出现上课走神和学习困难。当个体沉溺于某些事情或意识范围狭窄时，比如，看电视、玩游戏过多。注 意范围亦有相应缩小，因而引起对其他事物的注意力下降，比如，上网、游戏成瘾性。电视节目的特点就是画面生动活泼，孩子习惯了热闹，到了幼儿园或者学校就不习惯静静地听老师的话。电视虽然也能增进孩子的知识，但是对于孩子来说完全是被动的学习，没有对答，没有互动，不利于创造思维的培养，语言也容易发展迟滞。美国的科学家经过研究，发现小时候看电视越多的孩子到了上学时，注意力不集中的比例越大，甚至感觉是电视的刺激强度过大而重新布局了大脑。所以，美国建议两岁内的婴儿不要看电视。
　　心理卫生不健康会影响到：志向、兴趣、毅力等方面。这一类孩子表现为情绪不稳定，焦虑，恐惧及行为和品行问题。如厌学、逃学、说谎、偷窃等；甚至严重的精神疾病上课也容易走神。
　　七、环境对孩子的注意力也很重要，家长首先要自己安静，不要做分散孩子注意力的事，如看电视、大声议论或哈哈大笑等。有的家长总是担心孩子不能自觉，所以他们总喜欢在孩子做功课时对孩子问这问那。“做几道了？还有几道？”看起来似乎是关心了孩子，殊不知这样不时地干扰孩子，弄得孩子无法集中注意力，思考问题的思路也是总被打断。
　　此外，当人们心理压力过大、高度紧张、焦虑困倦、睡眠不足、疲乏或抑郁时，注意力往往难于集中。

[错误对策]
　　一、错误的认识。当我们听到老师告状，或者发现孩子某些现象时，没有判定是否属于正常范围就开始着手纠正。家长总 以为自己的孩子比其他孩子更不正常，其实，在低年级，如果没有被投诉上课注意力不集中的孩子恐怕才是不正常。事实上，过分强化孩子的注意力，也会导致孩子 创造力的下降。 因为，当一个人专心做一件事情时，聚精会神，而对周围的人和事会听而不闻、视而不见，这就很难捕捉信息，抓住机会，这种人的思想也不可能活跃。我们知道普 通人和成功者的重要区别就是创造力的差别，过分纠正注意力不能集中的问题，不利于创造能力的培养。我们在面对注意力不集中的问题，我们首先应该考虑这是否 造成了什么严重的后果。对于很多低年级的孩子，学习成绩不错，可上课就是爱讲话，这并没有什么了不得。孩子考试成绩起起伏伏，这本来是正常现象，不要轻易与孩子上课注意力不集中挂上钩。
　　二、没有搞清楚原因就开始纠正。当孩子学习成绩不好的时候，不要轻易下结论说是孩子注意力不集中所导致的。很多情况是孩子出现了学习障碍，这是指孩子的基本学习能力即听、说、读、写、算的基本学习能力出现了落后，这些落后可以导致注意力问题，但并不必然导致注意力问题。一些家长面对孩子的问题，采取严加管教的方式：不好好完成作业，就不准吃饭，不准睡觉，不准看电视，不准……有的父母索 性坐在孩子旁边加以监督，甚至采用体罚手段。然而，事实上，这些措施收效甚微。我们应该首先判断孩子注意力不能集中是否属于气质性的，很多情况是因为孩子 对让他所作的事情没有兴趣才导致注意力不集中。特别是对低年级的孩子，他所学的课程，对他来说往往觉得太简单，很容易导致精力不集中。90分和100分没 有多少差别，并不能说明孩子之间的差别，不应该成为重复学习那些已经学过知识的理由。
　　三、家长的批评和抱怨强化的孩子的弱点。比如孩子注意力不集中，家长逢人便说，这孩子，什么都好，就是注意力不太集中。久而久之，造成了孩子的认同心理，他就会认为自己就是个注意力不集中的孩子，更加难以改变。其实，家长要尽量弱化孩子的这些特点，引导孩子慢慢纠正而不是一味地强化。
　　四、过早给孩子请家教。现在还有不少小学生的家长自己每天都把一天的功课给孩子讲一遍，或者给孩子请家教，以为可以帮助孩子提高成绩。如果一年四季都自己给补或有家教指导，让孩子认为有了依靠，他就不需要上课不听，反正回家有人给他讲。
　　五、停止活动性强的训练，如跳舞、体操等，而改为参加书法、围棋等需要集中注意力的训练。这是治标不治本的做法。体育锻炼提高机体能力，可以加速成熟。
　　六、给孩子太多的任务。有的家长给孩子安排了太多的任务，特别是当孩子提前完成任务后，又不断的增加任务。孩子对学习感 到厌倦，写作业的时候就会分心。又比如，让孩子在旅游途中，每天按要求细致观察某件事或物，然后口头作文，家长将孩子口述的记录下来，做一些修改后，念给 他听，并且表扬鼓励他。孩子出去玩，有自己的目的，这些目的也许不是家长所期望的目的，如果家长期望孩子能够通过旅游学到一些新的知识，那么，我们首先要 设法让孩子觉得家长的要求是有趣的。但如果把家长的目的参杂在一起，孩子更加心神不定。
　　七、把焦点放在了孩子做作业的姿势上。对于低年级的孩子，做作业的姿势存在着很大问题，这包括身体的外邪，握笔的偏差等，错误的姿势的确会导致孩子学习的时候过于用力和紧张，但是，我们也要注意到，孩子之所以姿势不对，除了没有训练外，还有一个很重要的原因就是身体发育不成熟，部分肌肉的力量不够，才会导致姿势的偏差，如果过多强调姿势的纠正，反而会导致孩子更加的疲劳。其实，很多的错误姿势，会随着孩子年龄的增长会自动消失的。

[对策]
　　我们首先要区分孩子属于正常情况还是属于不正常的情况。区分不能总是听老师的汇报，当孩子学习成绩差的时候，老师总是会强调孩子自身的原因。即使学习成绩好的孩子，如果影响到了课堂纪律，老师也会告状。也不能靠简单的观察，一些家长在 接到投诉后，也会在公开课或家里做一些观察，如果这样的观察只是针对自己的孩子，那是没有意义的。对低年级的孩子来说，注意力不能集中是所有孩子的问题， 如果我们在观察自己孩子的同时，再去观察别人的孩子，我们就会发现，可能其他孩子都会有同样的问题，只是表现的时间不一样，有的时候这个孩子有注意力不集 中的现象，有的时候是那个孩子有同样的表现。
　 　与此同时，我们还要观察孩子在做不同事物的时候注意力的表现，一方面要根据前面所提到的不同年龄集中精力的时间，另一方面还要看孩子在自己喜欢做的事情 上是否能够注意力集中，比如，孩子玩游戏的时候，是否能够像其他孩子那样，一玩也玩很长时间。我们特别要注意孩子所玩的内容，如果孩子玩一个游戏不能坚持 很久就换另一个游戏，就说明他确实注意力不集中。尽管我们说不能的年龄集中精力的程度不同，但良好的注意力还是需要经过培养才能形成。针对注意力不集中的 情况，我们应该先判断孩子是不是得了多动症。对一个小学生来说，在课堂上很难集中5分钟以上的注意力时，才有可能是注意力——多动障碍。注意力——多动障碍孩子一般具有如下表现：
　　1．上课集中注意力时间短，经常东张西望，做小动作；
　　2．不听从老师的指令，不能遵守课堂纪律；
　　3．上课经常离开自己的座位，不能专心做作业；
　　4．写作业很慢，别人一个小时就能完成的作业，他们要拖到3—4个小时；
　　5．行为较为冲动，不能推迟需要的满足；
　　6．较为幼稚，爱与比自己小的孩子一起玩；
　　7．不爱阅读文字书，经常爱看漫话书，显得与自己年龄不符；
　　8．集体活动中不能像别人一样遵守规则，不能等待；
　　9．作业质量不稳定，有时很好，有时则很差；
　　10．常爱具体的数学题，而不爱解决与听、说、读、写、记有关的作业。

是多动症，要按照多动症的方法去治疗。如果不是，我们可以采取如下措施：
　　第一，要安排好孩子的学习和休息的时间。既然孩子的注意力不能 长期集中，那就要安排好孩子的时间，让孩子学习一会，休息一会或玩一会，这样的安排好像是学习的时间少了，但其实是学习的效率提高了。当我们给孩子进行了 合理的作息安排后，我们就可以要求孩子，孩子要能动能静，在学习的时候，注意力高度集中，如果不能集中，甚至可以采取严厉的惩罚措施。该玩时，痛快地玩，该静时能很快静下来，时间安排要有规律，孩子每天要有一、两次较长的“安静”时间，这时全家要配合地进入“安静”状态，家长可以和孩子一同玩“静”的游戏，如搭积木、画画、折纸、走迷宫等。对于孩子好的表现要及时表扬。以便逐渐在孩子的生物钟里形成一个安静时段，并逐渐有意识地延长这个时段。
　　如果我们不是这样，孩子长时间学习，导致最后不能注意力集中，就会出现边学习边玩的现象，一旦这种现象出现，家长又没有有效的方法制止，孩子就会养成很不好的学习习惯，导致孩子很低的学习效率。
　　还有一种情况需要特别注意的是，有些家长采取比较严厉的手段对付孩子注意力不能集中的问题，比如孩子在回家写作业的时候，长期陪着孩子做作业，表面上可以取得比较良好的效果，孩子做作业能够比较长时间的坚持，但孩子在学校的学习状况就变得一团糟。
　　那么，究竟要怎样安排孩子的学习时间，这没有定论，因为孩子和孩子之间存在着一定的差别，我们可以根据前面不同年龄的孩子注意力可以集中的时间再加上十分钟作为孩子的学习时间，然后再安排十到二十分钟的休息，低年级的孩子长一点，高年级的孩子短一点。
　 　第二，加强体育锻炼，提高反应力。现在的孩子很多都缺乏体育锻炼，我们前面提到，注意力不集中和发育有关。体育锻炼不仅提高身体素质，更重要的是有利于 孩子各项能力的培养的。因为在大运动中，孩子的各部肌肉、神经和感官都要相互配合，才能完成想要做的动作，也就是协调能力和平衡能力要好。如孩子跳绳时， 眼要看，手要摇绳，脚要准备什么时候跳起来，这些的配合都要经过大脑的指挥才行。精细动作比如在折纸时，孩子的眼睛和手都要配合起来，才能折好纸。这就叫“感觉统合”。
　　感觉统合协调的人，大脑的指挥能力很强，控制各部肌肉、神经的能力很强。这样的孩子不论在运动时，还是在长时间静止时，都是有极强的自控力。而“感觉统合失调”的孩子， 他的大脑的指挥能力和控制能力就很差。除了做事和运动时显得笨手笨脚外，就是在坐着时，也难于长时间地坚持，他会感觉到腰酸背疼，全身难受，只有动来动去 才觉得能够舒服一些。而在这个过程中，他的精神有很大部分去注意自己的难受，而不能去参与该做的事情当中，也就是注意力不集中。
　　要培养自己的意志力，强化自我约束、控制能力，时刻提醒自己要专心致志，要学会同分散注意的干扰作斗争。许多学习内容比较抽象，学习过程也比较单调，往往不能直接引起学生的兴趣。因此，在维持注意的过程中，常常要付出一定的意志代价，要求我们自觉克服来自自身和外界的干扰。按照竞技体育的要求，对孩子进行训练，可以极大地提高孩子的意志力。
　　有的家长看 到孩子非常好动，就认为体育锻炼已经没有必要，这是对体育锻炼的错误认识。体育与孩子的游戏活动最大的不同是体育锻炼是有特定的目的，而这个特定的目的需 要高度集中。比如，孩子在进行跆拳道比赛中，不能集中精力就意味着挨打。体育锻炼中这种高强度的集中精力训练是其他项目难以达到的。特别是对于那些好动、 具有攻击型的孩子，往往注意力不容易集中，高强度的体育锻炼不仅可以克服孩子好动、攻击型，而可以大大提高注意力。
　 　第三，提高孩子的极限能力。每个孩子注意力各有不同，测量孩子的注意力可以用一个极限能力的概念来衡量。也就是专心做某件事情的最长时间。家长可以通过 幼儿在一段时间内专心做一件事，如绘画、练琴、练书法等，不断提高孩子极限能力。也许孩子一开始只能坚持十分钟，那么，提高到十一分钟就是我们第二天的目 标。这个过程中有一定的强制性，通过这种强化训练，孩子的注意力会迅速提高。训练最好有固定的时间和固定的地点，以便形成一种心理活动的定向。一些孩子在 刚开始学习某样东西的时候，由于有兴趣，就会比较专著，可学着学着，兴趣下降，注意力也就下降。这时候，我们不要轻易改变孩子每天的持续时间，可以让孩子在可以接受的某个固定长的时间下，坚持一段时间。很多情况下，家长以孩子吵闹或没有兴趣为由，随意减少孩子的学习时间，这不利于孩子注意力的提高。
　　注意力纠正的原则，是要训练孩子在 听的时候，要“听到——听清——听全——听懂——记住”，而不能“充耳不闻”、“心不在焉”；同样，在看的时候，也要“看到——看清——看全——看懂—— 记住”，不能“视而不见”、“熟视无睹”。而且纠正的过程要连续进行，或者每天几十分钟，坚持三个月；或者利用假期每天进行一、两个小时，坚持3、40 天，就可以大幅度改变原来的不良习惯。
　　第四，要培养孩子的兴趣。有了浓厚的兴趣，才能在大脑皮层形成兴奋中心，使注意力高度集中。兴趣和成才关系密切，大量事实都充分地证实了这一点。诺贝尔奖得主丁肇中博士，是举世闻名的科学家。他的治学观点就是：兴趣重于天才。他12岁前还没有上过学，他的父母就给他讲那些伟大的科学家如爱因斯坦、牛顿等的故事，使他对科学产生了兴趣。他成功了。
　 　孩子喜欢的事情、从未见过、听过的事物，都能以独特的魅力吸引孩子的注意。兴趣是观察、专心的动力，给孩子一定的目的和任务，因为儿童喜欢东瞧西望，目 的性不强，抓不住要领，因而得不到收获。因此，家长应有意向孩子提出一些要求和目的，比如，玩游戏的时候，要进多少关；观察事物时，引导孩子抓住本质，从浅入深。不要一会儿叫做这事，一会儿又叫做那事。家长不要整天把孩子关在房间里学习，要鼓励他们从事各种活动，让他们在活动中发觉和发展自己的能力及兴趣，并借以培养自己的注意力。
　　如果是因为老师所讲得课都听懂了，那么，我们不妨让孩子学习一些其它东西，也可以让孩子超前学一些东西。这个时候，家长要切忌对孩子的过度要求。比如，每次都要接近100分，或者不允许偶尔有成绩落后的时候。因为孩子没有达到要求，就对孩子严加指责，这只能让孩子丧失对学习的兴趣。
　　第五，要明确做事的目标。心理学家指出，动机在学习中是很关键的一个因素，如果学习缺少良好的学习动机，可能造成在学习过程中难以具有高度集中的注意力和稳定愉快的情绪，这就给完成学习任 务带来一定的困难。古今中外凡有成就的人，大多对自己所从事的事业专心致志，甚至到了痴迷的程度。比尔?盖茨童年曾痴迷计算机，数学家陈景润童年痴迷看 书、做题，昆虫学家法布尔在童年观察昆虫习性，从早到晚伏在大石头旁看蚂蚁搬家。正是这种长久的专注，才使他们有了日后的成功。
　　为此，我们不能为了注意力集中而集中，应该更多地关心孩子学习的兴趣，孩子对目标的达成，而不是是否精力集中。如果孩子达成了目标，对孩子上课不听讲、做小动作的行为应该给予宽容。需要特别指出的是，在目标的制定上需要合理。孩子考了90分，没有考100分，就说孩子注意力不集中，这就属于过渡的要求，不恰当的联想。因此对孩子的严厉要求，反而可能导致副作用。
　　第六，要从生活习惯方面，培养孩子良好的行为习惯。一切从对小事的处理开始。比如，
　　做事前先确立明确的目标，鲁迅曾告诫：“与其每天想一百件事，不如每天做一件事。”每天要养成执行计划的习惯，不能做事做一半；
　　同一时间内只做一件事，在学习中停止无关的活动，不要一边做作业一边吃零食、一边看电视；
　　要求具体、认真，如擦桌子、椅子腿等旮旯处，可以训练孩子的注意力、细致和耐心。
　　要求孩子准时就寝、起床；
　　按时饮食，15分钟饭吃完，不吃完，饭收走，到了吃饭的时间如果不吃饭，家长应停止“供给”吃饭中间的全部零食；
　　玩具用过就还原；
　　改进读书方法，限时、限量，促进视觉及大脑高速运转。
　　做事要认真做好，否则重来；
　　要注重品质形成中具有本质意义的举足轻重的“小事 ”，关键在于“及时”、“彻底”。
　 　第七，培养阅读能力。读书的目的就是理解书的精神实质，记住书的主要内容，要做到这些，就必须集中注意力，特别是在深入思考书中所讲内容的深刻含义时， 必须聚精会神，高度集中注意力。所以说在阅读过程中集中注意力是理解和记忆的前提条件。那种随意乱翻，心不在焉的读书是没有什么收获的。
　　阅读教材或有关参考资料，精读其它书籍时，要想获得好的学习效果，就必须集中注意力，而且把读书与训练注意力结合起来。许多著名的学者都很注意这方面的自我训练。如有的人在读书时，就经常在一些重要内容旁边写上注意，特别注意等。也有的用划符号或用“！”“？”以及“☆”作记号以引起注意。
　 　第八，限制孩子们的玩具。至于孩子们到底应该拥有多少件玩具，专家们的意见还不统一，但许多人认为对学龄前儿童来说，两打（24件）就足够了。但这其中 不包括图书。研究发现，阅读对提高儿童的认知能力和自信心有很大帮助，与此相反，电脑和电子游戏会对孩子造成不良影响，因为它们剥夺了他们的创造力和想象 力，而这些正是孩子们最宝贵的天性。
　　第九，丰富孩子的生活。学习是脑力劳动，要消耗大量的脑内氧气，若望子成龙心切，整天强迫孩子长时间从事单调的学习活动，必然造成孩子大脑疲劳而精神分散。因此，合理制定孩子的作息时间，让孩子明确什么时候可以尽情地玩，什么时候必须专心完成学习任务，养成劳逸结合的好习惯。
　　第十，家长也可认真看书学习，以模范行为让孩子效仿。要让孩子安心学习，家长首先自己安下心来，可以读读书，看看报，做一些不出声，不惹孩子发生兴趣的事。为孩子创造一个安静、学习气氛良好的空间，远比坐在孩子身边加以监督有效得多。在孩子学习时，不要过度关心地叨唠，问这问那，更不要在孩子学习的房间接待客人，干扰孩子，使他无法集中注意力。 　

智慧人生 (推荐网站)

http://www.sophia.net.cn/Article/Folder11/Folder11-7/2008122/12987.Html

集中精力做好一件事

的确，有些事情也很重要，不过还是不能一次同时解决。只有按照合理的次序，才能有条不紊。心急吃不了热豆腐。想一口吃个胖子的想法是不切合实际的。

　　"泛而杂"在事业发展中是一个致命的弱点。一个人的精力是有限的，把有限的精力分散在几件事情上并不是明智的选择。

　　集中精力做一件事情的人，在这件事情上可以比其他任何人都做得出色。所谓"术业有专攻"，只有"专"才能"精"。那些出类拔萃的成功人士往往都把某一个明确的目标当作他们努力的主要推动力，而且奋斗目标越鲜明、越具体，越有益于成功。

　 　公元前300多年，雅典有个叫台摩斯顿的人，年轻时立志做一个演说家。于是，四处拜师，学习演说术。为了练好演说，他建造了一间地下室，每天在那里练嗓音；为了迫使自己不能外出郊游，一心训练，他把头发剪一半留一半；为了克服口吃、发音困难的缺陷，他口中衔着石子朗诵长诗；为了矫正身体某些不适当的动 作，他坐在利剑下；为了修正自己的面部表情，他对着镜子演讲。经过苦练，他终于成为当时"最伟大的演说家"。

　　剃刀或斧头的刀刃虽然薄如纸片，然而，正是它们在披荆斩棘，起着决定性的开路先锋的作用。在生活中，能够克服艰难险阻，最后顺利到达成功巅峰的人，也必是那些能够在某一领域集中精力、学有所长，因而有着刀刃般锐利锋芒的人。

　　正如拿破仑在回答别人问他打胜仗的原因时所说的："就是在某一点上集中最大优势兵力。也可以说是集中兵力，各个击破。"真是英雄所见略同--这也正是毛泽东军事思想中的重要部分。可见，集中精力对于成功的重要性。

　　集中精力，不仅对于人生理想这样的"战略"抉择有着重要意义，而且对于日常工作中的每一次"战斗"也同样具有很大价值。

　 　我们发现，许多人工作不可谓不努力，甚至经常加班加点，但收效甚微。这可能就是因为在工作中没能集中精力，也就是我们常说的没有用心。在进行工作时，应 该集中精力于当前正在处理的事情。如果注意力分散，头脑不是在考虑当前的事情，而是想着其他事情的话，工作效率就会大打折扣。即使事情再多，也要一件一件 地进行，做完一件事情就了结一件事情。全神贯注于正在做的事情，集中精力处理完毕后，再把注意力转向其他事情，着手进行下一项工作。要想提高效率，就必须 集中精力，全神贯注，就必须"用心"。

　　有一天，一只小猴子下山来。它走到一块玉米地里，看见玉米结得又大又多，非常高兴，就掰了一个，扛着往前走。小猴子扛着玉米，走到一棵桃树下。它看见满树的桃子又大又红，非常高兴，就扔了玉米去摘桃子。

　　小猴子捧着几个桃子，走到一片瓜地里。它看见满地的西瓜又大又圆，非常高兴，就扔了桃子去摘西瓜。

　　小猴子抱着一个大西瓜往回走。走着走着，看见一只小兔蹦蹦跳跳的，真可爱。它非常高兴，就扔了西瓜去追小兔。

　　小兔跑进树林子，不见了。小猴子只好空着手回家去。

　　其实，我们生活中的有些人正如这只猴子。总是心绪不宁，焦躁不安，干什么都不能静下心来。不能集中精力做好手头的工作，结果不是耽误了时间，就是错过了机会，到最后完不成确定的任务，得到两手空空的结果。

　　有位科学家说过："如果把一英亩草地所具有的全部能量聚集在蒸汽机的活塞杆上，那么它所产生的动力足以推动世界上所有的磨粉机和蒸汽机。但是，由于这种能量是分散存在的，所以从现实的角度来说，它基本上毫无价值可言。"

　 　做事情必须专心致志，只有把自己的注意力和精力集中在已经确定的目标上，并且贯穿到为实现目标采取的行动上，才能保证成功。因此，一个人在做一件事情 时，不能同时想着另一件事情，而应该把注意力集中在此时此刻所发生的事上。要清楚头脑中那些分散注意力、产生压力的想法，排除分散注意力的一些人和事的干 扰，使你的思维完全集中到当前的工作状态。

　　成功人士都能认识到集中精力的重要性。

　　法国著名侦探小说作家乔 治·西默农在写作的时候，就把自己完全和外界隔绝开来，不接电话，不见来访的客人，不看报纸，不看来信。也许他的方式是常人难以理解和做到的，但结果就是 他能在相同的时间内完成常人花十倍时间也难以完成的任务。他之所以成为成功人士，不是因为他有比我们更高的天赋，而是因为他做事情比我们更加专注，更善于 利用时间和管理时间。

　　在所有时间管理的原则中，最基本的一条莫过于要专心致志。那些在时间管理上有严重问题的人，大都因为他们想 同时做太多的事情。的确，有些事情也很重要，不过还是不能一次同时解决。只有按照合理的次序，才能做到有条不紊。心急吃不了热豆腐，想一口吃个胖子的想法 是不切合实际的。

　　同时要做几件事，这种急功近利的做法是不可取的。当你集中精力于眼前的工作时，你就会发现你将获益匪浅--你的工作压力会减轻，做事不再毛毛躁躁、风风火火，变得条理清晰。

　　如今，做事是否集中精力，已成为衡量一个人职业品质的标准之一。一些企业文化提倡"爱岗、敬业"，倡导"干一行、专一行"，而我们在工作中能够做到集中精力，全身心地投入，便是敬业最基本的体现，而这对于我们自己也是非常重要的。

學會處理分散精力和有干擾的情況

http://www.jiyifa.com/qianneng/zhuyili/17269.html

即使我們一心想避免分心，但仍會遇到一些情況來打斷我們的注意力，使我們脫離思考的正常軌跡。以下幾種方法可以避免由於這些情況造成的不良後果。

1. 井井有條。做什麼事情都井井有條的人不容易分心，也不容易因為被打斷而亂了手腳。我們的大腦裏有各種資訊，排列的越整齊，就越能形成牢固的記憶。
   
2. 保持記憶裏集中的狀態。你在做事情的時候很清楚這件事情的重要性，這就是你能集中注意力的關鍵。當你在做一件事情的時候，你要一心一意的投入。這件事情沒 有完成以前不要去想下一件事情做什麼。一旦你全身心的投入，一切外界的干擾都不會對你產生很大的影響。你也會因此對自己的工作效率更滿意，成功率也會更 高。
3. 避免一些很明顯的干擾。比如，不要一邊工作一邊和家人或同時交談。關掉收音機和音樂。有些年輕人說他們可以一邊聽搖滾樂一邊溫習功課，他們很顯然不是最好的學生。這一點他們自己最清楚，這當然不是好的學習方法。
4. 成為電話的主人。我們工作的一個很大的干擾是來自於電話。我們都不能對於電話鈴聲置之不理，繼續工作。如果你正全神貫注的工作，可以使用自動回應。如果這 一方法不能實施，讓電話再響個一兩次再接。你有時間寫完你正在寫的句子。而不會打斷你的思路。你也可以先做一下記錄，記下自己正在想的問題。 本文来自：www.jiyifa.com
5. 避免無關的事情。不要突然去想另外一個問題。人們在談話的過程中通常會談到與主題無關的內容。在這種情況下，他們通常會問，我剛才講到哪了？我說那件事情 之前說過什麼？我是怎麼講到這的？與主要話題無關的事情影響了整個談話的邏輯，影響了談話者的思想的清晰讀。應該養成始終關注主要話題的好習慣。

free books online

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Update management techcenter

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Update management

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How to Study Law

http://profj.us/studylaw/

How to Study Law

There are 2 phases of legal education:

1. foundation - learning the basic rules and laws.
2. Continuing Legal Education (aka CLE) - no matter what level of legal education, novice, intermediate, or expert, you need to continue your legal education through seminars, books, courses, the internet, etc. For example obtaining National Paralegal Certificate status (click here)

There are 2 dimensions of legal education:
1. Learn the content or RULES of the law. This is called the "Substantive Law" since it deals with the substance of the law.
2. Learn legal skills, eg. interviewing clients, legal research, surfing the "net" for the law, MSWord, legal pleading, and documents, etc.

Rules to follow in learning the law"

First read this on "Study Skills" - developed by Vivian Sinou - Dean, Distance & Mediated Learning - Foothill College - Los Altos Hills, CA

Second, Read -"Reading like a Lawyer" - by Prof. Ruth McKinney - Clinical Professor of Law and director of the Writing and Learning Resources Center at the University of North Carolina Law School.

1. Suspend what you know about the law
a. this allows you to absorb what is "new" to you about the law
b. also, you will then be able to learn that which conflicts with your prior knowledge & experience about the law.

2. Know the goals & context of every assignment
a. how does the assignment fit into what I have learned?
b. carefully listen and take notes
c. ask about the professor's expectations on each assignment
d. ask classmates about their understanding of the purpose and context of the assignment.

3. Design a study plan
a. make a list of everything you need to do
b. add 50% to the time you initially think you need to study a subject, class, couse
c. create your own study area free from distractions.
d. do a self assessment of your study habits and establish a program to correct any weaknesses:

Here is a lits of some study weaknesses:
1. minimal study efforts
2. you learn best by listening, but not by studying the subject
3. do not like to study
4. cannot concentrate
5. study with TV or radio on
6. get bored and cannot keep motivated
7. don't seem to understand the subject material
8. cannot read or skim read or cannot understand what you read.
9. dont look up words you do not understand
10. cram for exams or projects/procrastinate
11. dont study consistently
12. can't memorize or forget things you study
13. can't take good notes

4. Improve your grammar/spelling/composition/writing skills (click here for excellent grammar and writing skills program on the internet)
a. take personal responsability
b. read more, and be more aware
c. use the grammar program on the internet (see above)
d. improve your spelling - look up words in a dictionary (click here for a good internet dictionary) if you don't know the exact spelling, then click on the circle which says "approximate" and then type in your best guess of the spelling for the word. also check out law words with a law dictionary.
e. take english classes, English 21/28, and English 101.
f. practice writing
g. engage in study groups with your fellow/sister students. * note: I have found that students who pair up do very well in their studies, since they have a study partner to colloborate with, and who helps with understanding, motivation, and all the other essentials necessary to learn the complex subject matter of the law.

5.Organize your learning
a. set up 3 ring binders for each subject, and put your materials, and work product (assignments, legal pleadings, and legal work) in order, and divide your binders with divider pages, each labeled appropriately.
b. on your computer (if you have one), organize you law subjects, and files so that you can find your work. you can also do this with your computer disks. (for instance have a subdirectory, under your c:/ root directory, call it law or school, then under that have subdirectories for each class like, law 10, law 11, etc. and under each subject you can then have subdirectories for assignments, tests, subject matter, etc. this will help to organize each class, and each subject area you study.

6. Learn to live with the "amiguity" of the law
a. law is sometimes very fixed and definite, and other times not at all.
b. law sometimes can "punish" and be very punitive, and other times it can be very "fair" and "equitable". try to learn which subjects, and legal fields are more "punitive", and which ones are more "fair and equitable".
c. for every general rule, there is an exception. learn the general rules, learn the exceptions, and try to understand the legal rationale or theory behind each rule, and exception. try to understand the overall general public polcy, or "political" or "philosophical" rationale used by the courts or the legislature in making legal rules and deciding legal cases.
d. be "realistic" about the law and how it is applied.
e. know the equation:
if "X" is present, then conclusion is "A", but if "Y", then conclusion is "B", but if "Z" then...."
f. learn the commonalties of law, the patterns, and the "legal thinking" process used by courts and the legislature in making and deciding law cases. This you learn by just studying a lot of cases and code sections, and by becoming a "legal student" or "student of the law".
g. develop checklists of the law and subject matters of the law. like what are the elements of a "tort" or a "contract", etc.

7. Develop Note taking skills
a. some weaknesses to overcome are:

1. slow writers
2. dont like taking notes
3. dont know what is important, take down "too many" or "too few" notes
4. dont think that note taking is necessary or important
5. cant seem to organize your notes very well.

8. Studying Rules
a. read your materials carefully
b. if you cannot understand the facts of a case, try diagramming who the parties are, and what they are doing in the case.
c. write questions for yourself in the margins of your notes or books, and try answering your own questions.
d. ask other students, or the teacher questions you have about your materials.
e. practice your legal arguments you have learned, practice on others making your legal arguments, and legal arguments you have learned in cases, or discuss legal cases which you do not understand, or which do not make much legal sense to you with others, your family members, and friends, and see what their opinions are of the cases and legal rules.
f. make summaries of the legal rules your learn.

9. Feeback
a. evaluate your exam results, discuss with other students or your professor.
b. learn from your mistakes made on exams or on assignments
c. compare your work with the "model answers" given, or with other student's work.
d. ask other students to review your work product
e. develop a "thicker skin" to criticism of your work, but demand "objective" criticism, and not just petty criticism of "minor or small details".
f. be accountable for your mistakes, and demand "accountability" along with "fair and equitable, and even-handed" grading or feedback of your work.
g. look for feeback from teachers and fellow/sister students of your legal work product.

10 Don't pretend you know when you don't"
a. be honest, know when you do not really understand, and be willing to ask, or to correct your work to improve or make it better.

11. Don't say you don't understand something, when you really do"
a. try to be self-supporting, and realize you know a lot more than you might give yourself credit for. Many times students are the "harshest critics" of their own work, or knowledge. Test out your knowledge with others, with the class, or in class, and with your friends, and family members. Be proud of your profession, of your status as a "law or paralegal student" and practice your skills until they become "excellent". Do not expect "perfection" , but do strive to become "better" each go around.

12. Don't be proud, Write down instructions"
a. learn to write down how to do something, like the internet, or word processing. Do not be afraid to say "There is something I do not understand about this or that". be willing to learn, also be willing to teach other students things that you have learned in exchange for being taught by other students. The best way to learn sometimes is to teach it to some one else.

13. Set your priorities
a. be willing to say no to others, your friends and family members. Studying law is very complex, difficult, frustrating, and time consuming. The same goes for learning to use the computer, word processing, the internet, email, sending attachments, and on and on. You must take the time and dedicate yourself to learning. remember it takes time.

14. Be patient with yourself, with your instructors, with you fellow/sister students, and with the computer.
a. Rome was not built in a day. Your basic skills and knowledge grows with each step you take. You must learn to be more patient with yourself, your fellow/sister students, with your instructors, and with the computer. * a special note on computers. remember many times is it the operator, and not the machine which is making the mistake. computer, by an large, work most of the times, try a few times, if the computer does not work, change to another computer, but do not wait for ever, the computers many times do not work correctly either, and you must know when it is you who is making the mistake, or it is the computer. don't be too patient, but also be patient enough. there is a wisdom knowing when you must be more patient, and when you should be impatient.

Good luck, and any problems contact Prof. Jordan, call him on his cell phone at 818/415-2015 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 818/415-2015 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email him at abogado@pacbell.net

** above materials excerpted from West Business Law, 6th Edition.

updated: 1-29-06
Prof. J

Law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law

Law

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Law (disambiguation) and Legal (disambiguation).

Lady Justice is the symbol of the judiciary.^[1][2] Justice is depicted as a goddess equipped with three symbols of the rule of law: a sword symbolising the court's coercive power; scales representing an objective standard by which competing claims are weighed; and a blindfold indicating that justice is (or should be) meted out objectively, without fear or favor, regardless of identity, money, power, or weakness.^[3]

Law^[4] is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions.^[5] Laws can shape or reflect politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people.

Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets. Property law defines rights and obligations related to the transfer and title of personal (often referred to as chattel) and real property. Trust law applies to assets held for investment and financial security, while tort law allows claims for compensation if a person's rights or property are harmed.

If the harm is criminalised in a statute, criminal law offers means by which the state can prosecute the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for the creation of law, the protection of human rights and the election of political representatives. Administrative law is used to review the decisions of government agencies, while international law governs affairs between sovereign nation states in activities ranging from trade to environmental regulation or military action. Writing in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared, "The rule of law is better than the rule of any individual."^[6]

Legal systems elaborate rights and responsibilities in a variety of ways. A general distinction can be made between civil law jurisdictions, which codify their laws, and common law systems, where judge made law is not consolidated. In some countries, religion informs the law. Law provides a rich source of scholarly inquiry, into legal history, philosophy, economic analysis or sociology. Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness and justice. "In its majestic equality", said the author Anatole France in 1894, "the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."^[7]

In a typical democracy, the central institutions for interpreting and creating law are the three main branches of government, namely an impartial judiciary, a democratic legislature, and an accountable executive. To implement and enforce the law and provide services to the public, a government's bureaucracy, the military and police are vital. While all these organs of the state are creatures created and bound by law, an independent legal profession and a vibrant civil society inform and support their progress.

Contents [hide] 1 Legal subjects 1.1 International law 1.2 Constitutional and administrative law 1.3 Criminal law 1.4 Contract law 1.5 Tort law 1.6 Property law 1.7 Equity and trusts 1.8 Further disciplines 2 Legal systems 2.1 Civil law 2.2 Common law and equity 2.3 Religious law 3 Legal theory 3.1 History of law 3.2 Philosophy of law 3.3 Economic analysis of law 3.4 Sociology of law 4 Legal institutions 4.1 Judiciary 4.2 Legislature 4.3 Executive 4.4 Military and police 4.5 Bureaucracy 4.6 Legal profession 4.7 Civil society 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Legal subjects

All legal systems deal with the same basic issues, but each country categorises and identifies its legal subjects in different ways. A common distinction is that between "public law" (a term related closely to the state, and including constitutional, administrative and criminal law), and "private law" (which covers contract, tort and property).^[8] In civil law systems, contract and tort fall under a general law of obligations, while trusts law is dealt with under statutory regimes or international conventions. International, constitutional and administrative law, criminal law, contract, tort, property law and trusts are regarded as the "traditional core subjects",^[9] although there are many further disciplines which may be of greater practical importance.

[edit] International law

Main articles: Public international law, Conflict of laws, and European Union law

Providing a constitution for public international law, the United Nations system was agreed during World War II

International law can refer to three things: public international law, private international law or conflict of laws and the law of supranational organisations.

• Public international law concerns relationships between sovereign nations. The sources for public international law development are custom, practice and treaties between sovereign nations, such as the Geneva Conventions. Public international law can be formed by international organisations, such as the United Nations (which was established after the failure of the League of Nations to prevent the Second World War),^[10] the International Labour Organisation, the World Trade Organisation, or the International Monetary Fund. Public international law has a special status as law because there is no international police force, and courts (e.g. the International Court of Justice as the primary UN judicial organ) lack the capacity to penalise disobedience.^[11] However, a few bodies, such as the WTO, have effective systems of binding arbitration and dispute resolution backed up by trade sanctions.^[12]

• Conflict of laws (or "private international law" in civil law countries) concerns which jurisdiction a legal dispute between private parties should be heard in and which jurisdiction's law should be applied. Today, businesses are increasingly capable of shifting capital and labour supply chains across borders, as well as trading with overseas businesses, making the question of which country has jurisdiction even more pressing. Increasing numbers of businesses opt for commercial arbitration under the New York Convention 1958.^[13]

• European Union law is the first and, so far, only example of a supranational legal framework. Given the trend of increasing global economic integration, many regional agreements—especially the Union of South American Nations—are on track to follow the same model. In the EU, sovereign nations have gathered their authority in a system of courts and political institutions. These institutions are allowed the ability to enforce legal norms both against or for member states and citizens in a manner which is not possible through public international law.^[14] As the European Court of Justice said in the 1960s, European Union law constitutes "a new legal order of international law" for the mutual social and economic benefit of the member states.^[15]

[edit] Constitutional and administrative law

Main articles: Constitutional law and Administrative law

The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, whose principles still have constitutional value

Constitutional and administrative law govern the affairs of the state. Constitutional law concerns both the relationships between the executive, legislature and judiciary and the human rights or civil liberties of individuals against the state. Most jurisdictions, like the United States and France, have a single codified constitution, with a Bill of Rights. A few, like the United Kingdom, have no such document. A "constitution" is simply those laws which constitute the body politic, from statute, case law and convention. A case named Entick v Carrington^[16] illustrates a constitutional principle deriving from the common law. Mr Entick's house was searched and ransacked by Sheriff Carrington. When Mr Entick complained in court, Sheriff Carrington argued that a warrant from a Government minister, the Earl of Halifax, was valid authority. However, there was no written statutory provision or court authority. The leading judge, Lord Camden, stated that,

The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole ... If no excuse can be found or produced, the silence of the books is an authority against the defendant, and the plaintiff must have judgment.^[17]

The fundamental constitutional principle, inspired by John Locke, holds that the individual can do anything but that which is forbidden by law, and the state may do nothing but that which is authorised by law.^[18][19] Administrative law is the chief method for people to hold state bodies to account. People can apply for judicial review of actions or decisions by local councils, public services or government ministries, to ensure that they comply with the law. The first specialist administrative court was the Conseil d'État set up in 1799, as Napoleon assumed power in France.^[20]

[edit] Criminal law

Main article: Criminal law

Criminal law, also known as penal law, pertains to crimes and punishment.^[21] It thus regulates the definition of and penalties for offences found to have a sufficiently deleterious social impact but, in itself, makes no moral judgement on an offender nor imposes restrictions on society that physically prevents people from committing a crime in the first place.^[22] Investigating, apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law of criminal procedure.^[23] The paradigm case of a crime lies in the proof, beyond reasonable doubt, that a person is guilty of two things. First, the accused must commit an act which is deemed by society to be criminal, or actus reus (guilty act).^[24] Second, the accused must have the requisite malicious intent to do a criminal act, or mens rea (guilty mind). However for so called "strict liability" crimes, an actus reus is enough.^[25] Criminal systems of the civil law tradition distinguish between intention in the broad sense (dolus directus and dolus eventualis), and negligence. Negligence does not carry criminal responsibility unless a particular crime provides for its punishment.^[26][27]

A depiction of a 1600s criminal trial, for witchcraft in Salem

Examples of crimes include murder, assault, fraud and theft. In exceptional circumstances defences can apply to specific acts, such as killing in self defence, or pleading insanity. Another example is in the 19th century English case of R v Dudley and Stephens, which tested a defence of "necessity". The Mignonette, sailing from Southampton to Sydney, sank. Three crew members and Richard Parker, a 17 year old cabin boy, were stranded on a raft. They were starving and the cabin boy was close to death. Driven to extreme hunger, the crew killed and ate the cabin boy. The crew survived and were rescued, but put on trial for murder. They argued it was necessary to kill the cabin boy to preserve their own lives. Lord Coleridge, expressing immense disapproval, ruled, "to preserve one's life is generally speaking a duty, but it may be the plainest and the highest duty to sacrifice it." The men were sentenced to hang, but public opinion was overwhelmingly supportive of the crew's right to preserve their own lives. In the end, the Crown commuted their sentences to six months in jail.^[28]

Criminal law offences are viewed as offences against not just individual victims, but the community as well.^[22] The state, usually with the help of police, takes the lead in prosecution, which is why in common law countries cases are cited as "The People v ..." or "R (for Rex or Regina) v ..." Also, lay juries are often used to determine the guilt of defendants on points of fact: juries cannot change legal rules. Some developed countries still condone capital punishment for criminal activity, but the normal punishment for a crime will be imprisonment, fines, state supervision (such as probation), or community service. Modern criminal law has been affected considerably by the social sciences, especially with respect to sentencing, legal research, legislation, and rehabilitation.^[29] On the international field, 111 countries are members of the International Criminal Court, which was established to try people for crimes against humanity.^[30]

[edit] Contract law

Main article: Contract

The famous Carbolic Smoke Ball advertisement to cure influenza was held to be a unilateral contract

Contract law concerns enforceable promises, and can be summed up in the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be kept).^[31] In common law jurisdictions, three key elements to the creation of a contract are necessary: offer and acceptance, consideration and the intention to create legal relations. In Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company a medical firm advertised that its new wonder drug, the smokeball, would cure people's flu, and if it did not, the buyers would get £100. Many people sued for their £100 when the drug did not work. Fearing bankruptcy, Carbolic argued the advert was not to be taken as a serious, legally binding offer. It was an invitation to treat, mere puff, a gimmick. But the court of appeal held that to a reasonable man Carbolic had made a serious offer. People had given good consideration for it by going to the "distinct inconvenience" of using a faulty product. "Read the advertisement how you will, and twist it about as you will", said Lord Justice Lindley, "here is a distinct promise expressed in language which is perfectly unmistakable".^[32]

"Consideration" indicates the fact that all parties to a contract have exchanged something of value. Some common law systems, including Australia, are moving away from the idea of consideration as a requirement. The idea of estoppel or culpa in contrahendo, can be used to create obligations during pre-contractual negotiations.^[33] In civil law jurisdictions, consideration is not required for a contract to be binding.^[34] In France, an ordinary contract is said to form simply on the basis of a "meeting of the minds" or a "concurrence of wills". Germany has a special approach to contracts, which ties into property law. Their 'abstraction principle' (Abstraktionsprinzip) means that the personal obligation of contract forms separately from the title of property being conferred. When contracts are invalidated for some reason (e.g. a car buyer is so drunk that he lacks legal capacity to contract)^[35] the contractual obligation to pay can be invalidated separately from the proprietary title of the car. Unjust enrichment law, rather than contract law, is then used to restore title to the rightful owner.^[36]

[edit] Tort law

Main article: Tort

The "McLibel" two were involved in the longest running case in UK history for publishing a pamphlet criticising McDonald's restaurants.

Torts, sometimes called delicts, are civil wrongs. To have acted tortiously, one must have breached a duty to another person, or infringed some pre-existing legal right. A simple example might be accidentally hitting someone with a cricket ball.^[37] Under the law of negligence, the most common form of tort, the injured party could potentially claim compensation for his injuries from the party responsible. The principles of negligence are illustrated by Donoghue v Stevenson.^[38] A friend of Mrs Donoghue ordered an opaque bottle of ginger beer (intended for the consumption of Mrs Donoghue) in a café in Paisley. Having consumed half of it, Mrs Donoghue poured the remainder into a tumbler. The decomposing remains of a snail floated out. She claimed to have suffered from shock, fell ill with gastroenteritis and sued the manufacturer for carelessly allowing the drink to be contaminated. The House of Lords decided that the manufacturer was liable for Mrs Donoghue's illness. Lord Atkin took a distinctly moral approach, and said,

The liability for negligence ... is no doubt based upon a general public sentiment of moral wrongdoing for which the offender must pay ... The rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law, you must not injure your neighbour; and the lawyer's question, Who is my neighbour? receives a restricted reply. You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour.^[39]

This became the basis for the four principles of negligence; (1) Mr Stevenson owed Mrs Donoghue a duty of care to provide safe drinks (2) he breached his duty of care (3) the harm would not have occurred but for his breach and (4) his act was the proximate cause, or not too remote a consequence, of her harm.^[38] Another example of tort might be a neighbour making excessively loud noises with machinery on his property.^[40] Under a nuisance claim the noise could be stopped. Torts can also involve intentional acts, such as assault, battery or trespass. A better known tort is defamation, which occurs, for example, when a newspaper makes unsupportable allegations that damage a politician's reputation.^[41] More infamous are economic torts, which form the basis of labour law in some countries by making trade unions liable for strikes,^[42] when statute does not provide immunity.^[43]

[edit] Property law

Main article: Property law

A painting of the South Sea Bubble, one of the world's first ever speculations and crashes, led to strict regulation on share trading.^[44]

Property law governs valuable things that people call 'theirs'. Real property, sometimes called 'real estate' refers to ownership of land and things attached to it.^[45] Personal property, refers to everything else; movable objects, such as computers, cars, jewelry, and sandwiches, or intangible rights, such as stocks and shares. A right in rem is a right to a specific piece of property, contrasting to a right in personam which allows compensation for a loss, but not a particular thing back. Land law forms the basis for most kinds of property law, and is the most complex. It concerns mortgages, rental agreements, licences, covenants, easements and the statutory systems for land registration. Regulations on the use of personal property fall under intellectual property, company law, trusts and commercial law. An example of a basic case of most property law is Armory v Delamirie.^[46] A chimney sweep's boy found a jewel encrusted with precious stones. He took it to a goldsmith to have it valued. The goldsmith's apprentice looked at it, sneakily removed the stones, told the boy it was worth three halfpence and that he would buy it. The boy said he would prefer the jewel back, so the apprentice gave it to him, but without the stones. The boy sued the goldsmith for his apprentice's attempt to cheat him. Lord Chief Justice Pratt ruled that even though the boy could not be said to own the jewel, he should be considered the rightful keeper ("finders keeper") until the original owner is found. In fact the apprentice and the boy both had a right of possession in the jewel (a technical concept, meaning evidence that something could belong to someone), but the boy's possessory interest was considered better, because it could be shown to be first in time. Possession may be nine tenths of the law, but not all.

This case is used to support the view of property in common law jurisdictions, that the person who can show the best claim to a piece of property, against any contesting party, is the owner.^[47] By contrast, the classic civil law approach to property, propounded by Friedrich Carl von Savigny, is that it is a right good against the world. Obligations, like contracts and torts are conceptualised as rights good between individuals.^[48] The idea of property raises many further philosophical and political issues. Locke argued that our "lives, liberties and estates" are our property because we own our bodies and mix our labour with our surroundings.^[49]

[edit] Equity and trusts

Main articles: Equity (law) and Trust law

The Court of Chancery, London, early 19th century

Equity is a body of rules that developed in England separately from the "common law". The common law was administered by judges. The Lord Chancellor on the other hand, as the King's keeper of conscience, could overrule the judge made law if he thought it equitable to do so.^[50] This meant equity came to operate more through principles than rigid rules. For instance, whereas neither the common law nor civil law systems allow people to split the ownership from the control of one piece of property, equity allows this through an arrangement known as a 'trust'. 'Trustees' control property, whereas the 'beneficial' (or 'equitable') ownership of trust property is held by people known as 'beneficiaries'. Trustees owe duties to their beneficiaries to take good care of the entrusted property.^[51] In the early case of Keech v Sandford^[52] a child had inherited the lease on a market in Romford, London. Mr Sandford was entrusted to look after this property until the child matured. But before then, the lease expired. The landlord had (apparently) told Mr Sandford that he did not want the child to have the renewed lease. Yet the landlord was happy (apparently) to give Mr Sandford the opportunity of the lease instead. Mr Sandford took it. When the child (now Mr Keech) grew up, he sued Mr Sandford for the profit that he had been making by getting the market's lease. Mr Sandford was meant to be trusted, but he put himself in a position of conflict of interest. The Lord Chancellor, Lord King, agreed and ordered Mr Sandford should disgorge his profits. He wrote,

I very well see, if a trustee, on the refusal to renew, might have a lease to himself few trust-estates would be renewed ... This may seem very hard, that the trustee is the only person of all mankind who might not have the lease; but it is very proper that the rule should be strictly pursued and not at all relaxed.

Of course, Lord King LC was worried that trustees might exploit opportunities to use trust property for themselves instead of looking after it. Business speculators using trusts had just recently caused a stock market crash. Strict duties for trustees made their way into company law and were applied to directors and chief executive officers. Another example of a trustee's duty might be to invest property wisely or sell it.^[53] This is especially the case for pension funds, the most important form of trust, where investors are trustees for people's savings until retirement. But trusts can also be set up for charitable purposes, famous examples being the British Museum or the Rockefeller Foundation.

[edit] Further disciplines

Law spreads far beyond the core subjects into virtually every area of life. Three categories are presented for convenience, though the subjects intertwine and overlap.

Law and society

A trade union protest by UNISON while on strike

• Labour law is the study of a tripartite industrial relationship between worker, employer and trade union. This involves collective bargaining regulation, and the right to strike. Individual employment law refers to workplace rights, such as job security, health and safety or a minimum wage.
• Human rights, civil rights and human rights law are important fields to guarantee everyone basic freedoms and entitlements. These are laid down in codes such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights (which founded the European Court of Human Rights) and the U.S. Bill of Rights. The Treaty of Lisbon makes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union legally binding in all member states except Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – Poland and the United Kingdom.^[54]
• Civil procedure and criminal procedure concern the rules that courts must follow as a trial and appeals proceed. Both concern a citizen's right to a fair trial or hearing.
• Evidence law involves which materials are admissible in courts for a case to be built.
• Immigration law and nationality law concern the rights of foreigners to live and work in a nation-state that is not their own and to acquire or lose citizenship. Both also involve the right of asylum and the problem of stateless individuals.
• Social security law refers to the rights people have to social insurance, such as jobseekers' allowances or housing benefits.
• Family law covers marriage and divorce proceedings, the rights of children and rights to property and money in the event of separation.

Law and commerce

• Company law sprang from the law of trusts, on the principle of separating ownership of property and control.^[55] The law of the modern company began with the Joint Stock Companies Act 1856, passed in the United Kingdom, which provided investors with a simple registration procedure to gain limited liability under the separate legal personality of the corporation.
• Commercial law covers complex contract and property law. The law of agency, insurance law, bills of exchange, insolvency and bankruptcy law and sales law are all important, and trace back to the mediæval Lex Mercatoria. The UK Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the US Uniform Commercial Code are examples of codified common law commercial principles.
• Admiralty law and the Law of the Sea lay a basic framework for free trade and commerce across the world's oceans and seas, where outside of a country's zone of control. Shipping companies operate through ordinary principles of commercial law, generalised for a global market. Admiralty law also encompasses specialised issues such as salvage, maritime liens, and injuries to passengers.
• Intellectual property law aims at safeguarding creators and other producers of intellectual goods and services. These are legal rights (copyrights, trademarks, patents, and related rights) which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, literary and artistic fields.^[56]
• Restitution deals with the recovery of someone else's gain, rather than compensation for one's own loss.
• Unjust enrichment When someone has been unjustly enriched (or there is an "absence of basis" for a transaction) at another's expense, this event generates the right to restitution to reverse that gain.

Law and regulation

The New York Stock Exchange trading floor after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, before tougher banking regulation was introduced

• Tax law involves regulations that concern value added tax, corporate tax, income tax.
• Banking law and financial regulation set minimum standards on the amounts of capital banks must hold, and rules about best practice for investment. This is to insure against the risk of economic crises, such as the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
• Regulation deals with the provision of public services and utilities. Water law is one example. Especially since privatisation became popular and took management of services away from public law, private companies doing the jobs previously controlled by government have been bound by varying degrees of social responsibility. Energy, gas, telecomms and water are regulated industries in most OECD countries.
• Competition law, known in the U.S. as antitrust law, is an evolving field that traces as far back as Roman decrees against price fixing and the English restraint of trade doctrine. Modern competition law derives from the U.S. anti-cartel and anti-monopoly statutes (the Sherman Act and Clayton Act) of the turn of the 20th century. It is used to control businesses who attempt to use their economic influence to distort market prices at the expense of consumer welfare.
• Consumer law could include anything from regulations on unfair contractual terms and clauses to directives on airline baggage insurance.
• Environmental law is increasingly important, especially in light of the Kyoto Protocol and the potential danger of climate change. Environmental protection also serves to penalise polluters within domestic legal systems.

[edit] Legal systems

Main article: Legal systems of the world

In general, legal systems can be split between civil law and common law systems.^[57] The term "civil law" referring to a legal system should not be confused with "civil law" as a group of legal subjects distinct from criminal or public law. A third type of legal system— accepted by some countries without separation of church and state—is religious law, based on scriptures. The specific system that a country is ruled by is often determined by its history, connections with other countries, or its adherence to international standards. The sources that jurisdictions adopt as authoritatively binding are the defining features of any legal system. Yet classification is a matter of form rather than substance, since similar rules often prevail.

[edit] Civil law

Main article: Civil law (legal system)

First page of the 1804 edition of the Napoleonic Code

Civil law is the legal system used in most countries around the world today. In civil law the sources recognised as authoritative are, primarily, legislation—especially codifications in constitutions or statutes passed by government—and custom.^[58] Codifications date back millennia, with one early example being the Babylonian Codex Hammurabi. Modern civil law systems essentially derive from the legal practice of the Roman Empire whose texts were rediscovered in medieval Europe. Roman law in the days of the Roman Republic and Empire was heavily procedural, and lacked a professional legal class.^[59]

Instead a lay person, iudex, was chosen to adjudicate. Precedents were not reported, so any case law that developed was disguised and almost unrecognised.^[60] Each case was to be decided afresh from the laws of the state, which mirrors the (theoretical) unimportance of judges' decisions for future cases in civil law systems today. During the 6th century AD in the Eastern Roman Empire, the Emperor Justinian I codified and consolidated the laws that had existed in Rome, so that what remained was one-twentieth of the mass of legal texts from before.^[61] This became known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. As one legal historian wrote, "Justinian consciously looked back to the golden age of Roman law and aimed to restore it to the peak it had reached three centuries before."^[62] Western Europe, meanwhile, slowly slipped into the Dark Ages, and it was not until the 11th century that scholars in the University of Bologna rediscovered the texts and used them to interpret their own laws.^[63]

Civil law codifications based closely on Roman law, alongside some influences from religious laws such as Canon law continued to spread throughout Europe until the Enlightenment; then, in the 19th century, both France, with the Code Civil, and Germany, with the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, modernised their legal codes. Both these codes influenced heavily not only the law systems of the countries in continental Europe (e.g. Greece), but also the Japanese and Korean legal traditions.^[64][65] Today, countries that have civil law systems range from Russia and China to most of Central and Latin America.^[66] The United States follows the common law system described below.

[edit] Common law and equity

Main article: Common law

King John of England signs Magna Carta

Common law and equity are legal systems where decisions by courts are explicitly acknowledged to be legal sources. The "doctrine of precedent", or stare decisis (Latin for "to stand by decisions") means that decisions by higher courts bind lower courts. Common law systems also rely on statutes, passed by the legislature, but may make less of a systematic attempt to codify their laws than in a "civil law" system.

Common law originated from England and has been inherited by almost every country once tied to the British Empire (except Malta, Scotland, the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the Canadian province of Quebec). In medieval England, the Norman conquest led to a unification of various tribal customs and hence a law "common" to the whole country. The common law developed when the English monarchy had been weakened by the enormous cost of fighting for control over large parts of France. King John had been forced by his barons to sign a document limiting his authority to pass laws. This "great charter" or Magna Carta of 1215 also required that the King's entourage of judges hold their courts and judgments at "a certain place" rather than dispensing autocratic justice in unpredictable places about the country.^[67]

A concentrated and elite group of judges acquired a dominant role in law-making under this system, and compared to its European counterparts the English judiciary became highly centralised. In 1297, for instance, while the highest court in France had fifty-one judges, the English Court of Common Pleas had five.^[68] This powerful and tight-knit judiciary gave rise to a rigid and inflexible system of common law.^[69] As a result, as time went on, increasing numbers of citizens petitioned the King to override the common law, and on the King's behalf the Lord Chancellor gave judgment to do what was equitable in a case. From the time of Sir Thomas More, the first lawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body of equity grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its own Court of Chancery. At first, equity was often criticised as erratic, that it varied according to the length of the Chancellor's foot.^[70]

But over time it developed solid principles, especially under Lord Eldon.^[71] In the 19th century the two systems were fused into one another. In developing the common law and equity, academic authors have always played an important part. William Blackstone, from around 1760, was the first scholar to describe and teach it.^[72] But merely in describing, scholars who sought explanations and underlying structures slowly changed the way the law actually worked.^[73]

[edit] Religious law

Main article: Religious law

Religious law is explicitly based on religious precepts. Examples include the Jewish Halakha and Islamic Sharia—both of which translate as the "path to follow"—while Christian canon law also survives in some church communities. Often the implication of religion for law is unalterability, because the word of God cannot be amended or legislated against by judges or governments. However a thorough and detailed legal system generally requires human elaboration. For instance, the Quran has some law, and it acts as a source of further law through interpretation,^[74] Qiyas (reasoning by analogy), Ijma (consensus) and precedent. This is mainly contained in a body of law and jurisprudence known as Sharia and Fiqh respectively.

Another example is the Torah or Old Testament, in the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. This contains the basic code of Jewish law, which some Israeli communities choose to use. The Halakha is a code of Jewish law which summarises some of the Talmud's interpretations. Nevertheless, Israeli law allows litigants to use religious laws only if they choose. Canon law is only in use by members of the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion.

A trial in the Ottoman Empire, 1879, when religious law applied under the Mecelle.

Until the 18th century, Sharia law was practiced throughout the Muslim world in a non-codified form, with the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code in the 19th century being first attempt at codifying elements of Sharia law. Since the mid-1940s, efforts have been made, in country after country, to bring Sharia law more into line with modern conditions and conceptions.^[75][76] In modern times, the legal systems of many Muslim countries draw upon both civil and common law traditions as well as Islamic law and custom. The constitutions of certain Muslim states, such as Egypt and Afghanistan, recognise Islam as the religion of the state, obliging legislature to adhere to Sharia.^[77]

Saudi Arabia recognises Quran as its constitution, and is governed on the basis of Islamic law.^[78] Iran has also witnessed a reiteration of Islamic law into its legal system after 1979.^[79] During the last few decades, one of the fundamental features of the movement of Islamic resurgence has been the call to restore the Sharia, which has generated a vast amount of literature and affected world politics.^[80]

[edit] Legal theory

[edit] History of law

Main article: Legal history

King Hammurabi is revealed the code of laws by the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash, also revered as the god of justice

The history of law is closely connected to the development of civilization. Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BC, contained a civil code that was probably broken into twelve books. It was based on the concept of Ma'at, characterised by tradition, rhetorical speech, social equality and impartiality.^[81][82] By the 22nd century BC, the ancient Sumerian ruler Ur-Nammu had formulated the first law code, which consisted of casuistic statements ("if ... then ..."). Around 1760 BC, King Hammurabi further developed Babylonian law, by codifying and inscribing it in stone. Hammurabi placed several copies of his law code throughout the kingdom of Babylon as stelae, for the entire public to see; this became known as the Codex Hammurabi. The most intact copy of these stelae was discovered in the 19th century by British Assyriologists, and has since been fully transliterated and translated into various languages, including English, German, and French.^[83]

The Old Testament dates back to 1280 BC, and takes the form of moral imperatives as recommendations for a good society. The small Greek city-state, Ancient Athens, and from about 8th century BC was the first society to be based on broad inclusion of its citizenry; excluding women and the slave class. However, Athens had no legal science, and no word for "law" as an abstract concept.^[84] Yet Ancient Greek law contained major constitutional innovations in the development of democracy.^[85]

Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, but its detailed rules were developed by professional jurists, and were highly sophisticated.^[86][87] Over the centuries between the rise and decline of the Roman Empire, law was adapted to cope with the changing social situations, and underwent major codification during Justinian I.^[88] Although it declined in significance during the Dark Ages, Roman law was rediscovered around the 11th century when mediæval legal scholars began to research Roman codes and adapt their concepts. In mediæval England, the King's judges developed a body of precedent, which later became the common law. A Europe-wide Lex Mercatoria was formed so that merchants could trade with common standards of practice; rather than with the many splintered facets of local laws. The Lex Mercatoria, a precursor to modern commercial law, emphasised the freedom of contract and alienability of property.^[89]

As nationalism grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, Lex Mercatoria was incorporated into countries' local law under new civil codes. The French Napoleonic Code and the German became the most influential. In contrast to English common law, which consists of enormous tomes of case law, codes in small books are easy to export and easy for judges to apply. However, today there are signs that civil and common law are converging.^[90] EU law is codified in treaties, but develops through the precedent laid down by the European Court of Justice.

The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution for a country, containing 444 articles, 12 schedules, numerous amendments and 117,369 words

Ancient India and China represent distinct traditions of law, and have historically had independent schools of legal theory and practice. The Arthashastra, probably compiled around 100 AD (although it contains older material), and the Manusmriti (c. 100–300 AD) were foundational treatises in India, and comprise texts considered authoritative legal guidance.^[91] Manu's central philosophy was tolerance and Pluralism, and was cited across Southeast Asia.^[92] This Hindu tradition, along with Islamic law, was supplanted by the common law when India became part of the British Empire.^[93] Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Hong Kong also adopted the common law. The eastern Asia legal tradition reflects a unique blend of secular and religious influences.^[94]

Japan was the first country to begin modernising its legal system along western lines, by importing bits of the French, but mostly the German Civil Code.^[95] This partly reflected Germany's status as a rising power in the late 19th century. Similarly, traditional Chinese law gave way to westernisation towards the final years of the Ch'ing dynasty in the form of six private law codes based mainly on the Japanese model of German law.^[96] Today Taiwanese law retains the closest affinity to the codifications from that period, because of the split between Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists, who fled there, and Mao Zedong's communists who won control of the mainland in 1949. The current legal infrastructure in the People's Republic of China was heavily influenced by Soviet Socialist law, which essentially inflates administrative law at the expense of private law rights.^[97] Due to rapid industrialisation, today China undergoing a process of reform, at least in terms of economic, if not social and political, rights. A new contract code in 1999 represented a move away from administrative domination.^[98] Furthermore, after negotiations lasting fifteen years, in 2001 China joined the World Trade Organisation.^[99]

[edit] Philosophy of law

Main article: Jurisprudence

But what, after all, is a law? [...] When I say that the object of laws is always general, I mean that law considers subjects en masse and actions in the abstract, and never a particular person or action. [...] On this view, we at once see that it can no longer be asked whose business it is to make laws, since they are acts of the general will; nor whether the prince is above the law, since he is a member of the State; nor whether the law can be unjust, since no one is unjust to himself; nor how we can be both free and subject to the laws, since they are but registers of our wills.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, II, 6.^[100]

The philosophy of law is commonly known as jurisprudence. Normative jurisprudence is essentially political philosophy, and asks "what should law be?", while analytic jurisprudence asks "what is law?". John Austin's utilitarian answer was that law is "commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience".^[101] Natural lawyers on the other side, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, argue that law reflects essentially moral and unchangeable laws of nature. The concept of "natural law" emerged in ancient Greek philosophy concurrently and in entanglement with the notion of justice, and re-entered the mainstream of Western culture through the writings of Thomas Aquinas.

Hugo Grotius, the founder of a purely rationalistic system of natural law, argued that law arises from both a social impulse—as Aristotle had indicated—and reason.^[102] Immanuel Kant believed a moral imperative requires laws "be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature".^[103] Jeremy Bentham and his student Austin, following David Hume, believed that this conflated the "is" and what "ought to be" problem. Bentham and Austin argued for law's positivism; that real law is entirely separate from "morality".^[104] Kant was also criticised by Friedrich Nietzsche, who rejected the principle of equality, and believed that law emanates from the will to power, and cannot be labelled as "moral" or "immoral".^{[105][106][107]}

In 1934, the Austrian philosopher Hans Kelsen continued the positivist tradition in his book the Pure Theory of Law.^[108] Kelsen believed that although law is separate from morality, it is endowed with "normativity"; meaning we ought to obey it. While laws are positive "is" statements (e.g. the fine for reversing on a highway is €500); law tells us what we "should" do. Thus, each legal system can be hypothesised to have a basic norm (Grundnorm) instructing us to obey. Kelsen's major opponent, Carl Schmitt, rejected both positivism and the idea of the rule of law because he did not accept the primacy of abstract normative principles over concrete political positions and decisions.^[109] Therefore, Schmitt advocated a jurisprudence of the exception (state of emergency), which denied that legal norms could encompass of all political experience.^[110]

Bentham's utilitarian theories remained dominant in law until the 20th century

Later in the 20th century, H. L. A. Hart attacked Austin for his simplifications and Kelsen for his fictions in The Concept of Law.^[111] Hart argued law is a system of rules, divided into primary (rules of conduct) and secondary ones (rules addressed to officials to administer primary rules). Secondary rules are further divided into rules of adjudication (to resolve legal disputes), rules of change (allowing laws to be varied) and the rule of recognition (allowing laws to be identified as valid). Two of Hart's students continued the debate: In his book Law's Empire, Ronald Dworkin attacked Hart and the positivists for their refusal to treat law as a moral issue. Dworkin argues that law is an "interpretive concept",^[112] that requires judges to find the best fitting and most just solution to a legal dispute, given their constitutional traditions. Joseph Raz, on the other hand, defended the positivist outlook and criticised Hart's "soft social thesis" approach in The Authority of Law.^[113] Raz argues that law is authority, identifiable purely through social sources and without reference to moral reasoning. In his view, any categorisation of rules beyond their role as authoritative instruments in mediation are best left to sociology, rather than jurisprudence.^[114]

[edit] Economic analysis of law

Main article: Law and economics

In the 18th century Adam Smith presented a philosophical foundation for explaining the relationship between law and economics.^[115] The discipline arose partly out of a critique of trade unions and U.S. antitrust law. The most influential proponents, such as Richard Posner and Oliver Williamson and the so-called Chicago School of economists and lawyers including Milton Friedman and Gary Becker, are generally advocates of deregulation and privatisation, and are hostile to state regulation or what they see as restrictions on the operation of free markets.^[116]

Richard Posner, one of the Chicago School, runs a blog with Bank of Sweden Prize winning economist Gary Becker.^[117]

The most prominent economic analyst of law is 1991 Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase, whose first major article, The Nature of the Firm (1937), argued that the reason for the existence of firms (companies, partnerships, etc.) is the existence of transaction costs.^[118] Rational individuals trade through bilateral contracts on open markets until the costs of transactions mean that using corporations to produce things is more cost-effective. His second major article, The Problem of Social Cost (1960), argued that if we lived in a world without transaction costs, people would bargain with one another to create the same allocation of resources, regardless of the way a court might rule in property disputes.^[119]

Coase used the example of a nuisance case named Sturges v Bridgman, where a noisy sweetmaker and a quiet doctor were neighbours and went to court to see who should have to move.^[40] Coase said that regardless of whether the judge ruled that the sweetmaker had to stop using his machinery, or that the doctor had to put up with it, they could strike a mutually beneficial bargain about who moves house that reaches the same outcome of resource distribution. Only the existence of transaction costs may prevent this.^[120] So the law ought to pre-empt what would happen, and be guided by the most efficient solution. The idea is that law and regulation are not as important or effective at helping people as lawyers and government planners believe.^[121] Coase and others like him wanted a change of approach, to put the burden of proof for positive effects on a government that was intervening in the market, by analysing the costs of action.^[122]

[edit] Sociology of law

Main article: Sociology of law

Sociology of law is a diverse field of study that examines the interaction of law with society and overlaps with jurisprudence, economic analysis of law and more specialised subjects such as criminology.^[123] The institutions of social construction and legal frameworks are the relevant areas for the discipline's inquiry. At first, legal theorists were suspicious of the discipline. Kelsen attacked one of its founders, Eugen Ehrlich, who sought to make distinct the differences between positive law, which lawyers learn and apply, and other forms of 'law' or social norms that regulate everyday life, generally preventing conflicts from reaching lawyers and courts.^[124][125]

Max Weber in 1917, Weber began his career as a lawyer, and is regarded as one of the founders of sociology and sociology of law,

Around 1900 Max Weber defined his "scientific" approach to law, identifying the "legal rational form" as a type of domination, not attributable to people but to abstract norms.^[126] Legal rationalism was his term for a body of coherent and calculable law which formed a precondition for modern political developments and the modern bureaucratic state and developed in parallel with the growth of capitalism.^[123]

Another sociologist, Émile Durkheim, wrote in The Division of Labour in Society that as society becomes more complex, the body of civil law concerned primarily with restitution and compensation grows at the expense of criminal laws and penal sanctions.^[127] Other notable early legal sociologists included Hugo Sinzheimer, Theodor Geiger, Georges Gurvitch and Leon Petrażycki in Europe, and William Graham Sumner in the U.S.^[128][129]

[edit] Legal institutions

It is a real unity of them all in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with every man, in such manner as if every man should say to every man: I authorise and give up my right of governing myself to this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition; that thou givest up, thy right to him, and authorise all his actions in like manner.

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, XVII

The main institutions of law in industrialised countries are independent courts, representative parliaments, an accountable executive, the military and police, bureaucratic organisation, the legal profession and civil society itself. John Locke, in his Two Treatises of Government, and Baron de Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws, advocated for a separation of powers between the political, legislature and executive bodies.^[130] Their principle was that no person should be able to usurp all powers of the state, in contrast to the absolutist theory of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan.^[131] Max Weber and others reshaped thinking on the extension of state. Modern military, policing and bureaucratic power over ordinary citizens' daily lives pose special problems for accountability that earlier writers such as Locke or Montesquieu could not have foreseen. The custom and practice of the legal profession is an important part of people's access to justice, whilst civil society is a term used to refer to the social institutions, communities and partnerships that form law's political basis.

[edit] Judiciary

Main article: Judiciary

A judiciary is a number of judges mediating disputes to determine outcome. Most countries have systems of appeal courts, answering up to a supreme legal authority. In the United States, this is the Supreme Court;^[132] in Australia, the High Court; in the UK, the Supreme Court;^[133] in Germany, the Bundesverfassungsgericht; in France, the Cour de Cassation.^[134][135] For most European countries the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg can overrule national law, when EU law is relevant. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg allows citizens of the Council of Europe member states to bring cases relating to human rights issues before it.^[136]

The judges of the International Court of Justice in the Hague

Some countries allow their highest judicial authority to over-rule legislation they determined as unconstitutional. In Roe v Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas law which forbade the granting of assistance to women seeking abortion.^[137] The U.S.'s constitution's fourteenth amendment was interpreted to give Americans a right to privacy, and thus a woman's right to choose abortion.

A judiciary is theoretically bound by the constitution, much as legislative bodies are. In most countries judges may only interpret the constitution and all other laws. But in common law countries, where matters are not constitutional, the judiciary may also create law under the doctrine of precedent. The UK, Finland and New Zealand assert the ideal of parliamentary sovereignty, whereby the unelected judiciary may not overturn law passed by a democratic legislature.^[138] In communist states, such as China, the courts are often regarded as parts of the executive, or subservient to the legislature; governmental institutions and actors exert thus various forms of influence on the judiciary.^[139] In Muslim countries, courts often examine whether state laws adhere to the Sharia: the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt may invalidate such laws,^[140] and in Iran the Guardian Council ensures the compatibility of the legislation with the "criteria of Islam".^[140][141]

[edit] Legislature

Main article: Legislature

The debating chamber of the European Parliament

Prominent examples of legislatures are the Houses of Parliament in London, the Congress in Washington D.C., the Bundestag in Berlin, the Duma in Moscow, the Parlamento Italiano in Rome and the Assemblée nationale in Paris. By the principle of representative government people vote for politicians to carry out their wishes. Although countries like Israel, Greece, Sweden and China are unicameral, most countries are bicameral, meaning they have two separately appointed legislative houses. In the 'lower house' politicians are elected to represent smaller constituencies. The 'upper house' is usually elected to represent states in a federal system (as in Australia, Germany or the United States) or different voting configuration in a unitary system (as in France). In the UK the upper house is appointed by the government as a house of review. One criticism of bicameral systems with two elected chambers is that the upper and lower houses may simply mirror one another. The traditional justification of bicameralism is that an upper chamber acts as a house of review. This can minimise arbitrariness and injustice in governmental action.^[142]

To pass legislation, a majority of Members of Parliament must vote for a bill (proposed law) in each house. Normally there will be several readings and amendments proposed by the different political factions. If a country has an entrenched constitution, a special majority for changes to the constitution will be required, making changes to the law more difficult. A government usually leads the process, which can be formed from Members of Parliament (e.g. the UK or Germany). But in a presidential system, an executive appoints a cabinet to govern from his or her political allies whether or not they are elected (e.g. the United States or Brazil), and the legislature's role is reduced to either ratification or veto.^[143]

[edit] Executive

Main article: Executive (government)

The G20 meetings are composed of representatives of each country's executive branch

The executive in a legal system serve as a government's centre of political authority. In a parliamentary system, as with Britain, Italy, Germany, India, and Japan, the executive is known as the cabinet, and composed of members of the legislature. The executive is chosen by the Prime Minister or Chancellor, whose office holds power under the confidence of the legislature. Because popular elections appoint political parties to govern, the leader of a party can change in between elections. The head of state is apart from the executive, and symbolically enacts laws and acts as representative of the nation. Examples include the German president (appointed by the Parliament); the Queen of the United Kingdom (a hereditary title), and the Austrian president (elected by popular vote). The other important model is the presidential system, found in France, the U.S. and Russia. In presidential systems, the executive acts as both head of state and head of government, and has power to appoint an unelected cabinet. Under a presidential system, the executive branch is separate from the legislature to which is not accountable.^[144][145]

Although the role of the executive varies from country to country, usually it will propose the majority of legislation, and propose government agenda. In presidential systems, the executive often has the power to veto legislation. Most executives in both systems are responsible for foreign relations, the military and police, and the bureaucracy. Ministers or other officials head a country's public offices, such as a foreign ministry or interior ministry. The election of a different executive is therefore capable of revolutionising an entire country's approach to government.

[edit] Military and police

Main articles: Military and Police

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers

While military organizations have existed as long as government itself, the idea of a standing police force is relatively modern concept. Mediæval England's system of traveling criminal courts, or assizes, used show trials and public executions to instill communities with fear to maintain control.^[146] The first modern police were probably those in 17th-century Paris, in the court of Louis XIV,^[147] although the Paris Prefecture of Police claim they were the world's first uniformed policemen.^[148]

Weber famously argued that the state is that which controls the legitimate monopoly of the means of violence.^[149][150] The military and police carry out enforcement at the request of the government or the courts. The term failed state refers to states that cannot implement or enforce policies; their police and military no longer control security and order and society moves into anarchy, the absence of government.^[151]

[edit] Bureaucracy

Main article: Bureaucracy

The United Nations' New York headquarters houses civil servants that serve its 192 member states.

The etymology of "bureaucracy" derives from the French word for "office" (bureau) and the Ancient Greek for word "power" (kratos).^[152] Like the military and police, a legal system's government servants and bodies that make up its bureaucracy carry out the directives of the executive. One of the earliest references to the concept was made by Baron de Grimm, a German author who lived in France. In 1765 he wrote,

The real spirit of the laws in France is that bureaucracy of which the late Monsieur de Gournay used to complain so greatly; here the offices, clerks, secretaries, inspectors and intendants are not appointed to benefit the public interest, indeed the public interest appears to have been established so that offices might exist.^[153]

Cynicism over "officialdom" is still common, and the workings of public servants is typically contrasted to private enterprise motivated by profit.^[154] In fact private companies, especially large ones, also have bureaucracies.^[155] Negative perceptions of "red tape" aside, public services such as schooling, health care, policing or public transport are a crucial state function making public bureaucratic action the locus of government power.^[155] Writing in the early 20th century, Max Weber believed that a definitive feature of a developed state had come to be its bureaucratic support.^[156] Weber wrote that the typical characteristics of modern bureaucracy are that officials define its mission, the scope of work is bound by rules, management is composed of career experts, who manage top down, communicating through writing and binding public servants' discretion with rules.^[157]

[edit] Legal profession

Main article: Legal profession

In civil law systems such as those of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece, there is a distinct category of notary, a legally trained public official, compensated by the parties to a transaction.^[158] This is a 16th-century painting of such a notary by Flemish painter Quentin Massys.

A corollary of the rule of law is the existence of a legal profession sufficiently autonomous to be able to invoke the authority of the independent judiciary; the right to assistance of an advocate in a court proceeding emanates from this corollary—in England the function of barrister or advocate is distinguished from legal counselor (solicitor).^[159] As the European Court of Human Rights has stated, the law should be adequately accessible to everyone and people should be able to foresee how the law affects them.^[160] In order to maintain professionalism, the practice of law is typically overseen by either a government or independent regulating body such as a bar association, bar council or law society. Modern lawyers achieve distinct professional identity through specified legal procedures (e.g. successfully passing a qualifying examination), are required by law to have a special qualification (a legal education earning the student a Bachelor of Laws, a Bachelor of Civil Law or a Juris Doctor degree^[161]), and are constituted in office by legal forms of appointment (being admitted to the bar). Most Muslim countries have developed similar rules about legal education and the legal profession, but some still allow lawyers with training in traditional Islamic law to practice law before personal status law courts.^[162] In China and other developing countries there are not enough law-trained people to staff the existing judicial systems, and, accordingly, formal standards are more relaxed.^[163]

Once accredited, a lawyer will often work in a law firm, in a chambers as a sole practitioner, in a government post or in a private corporation as an internal counsel. In addition a lawyer may become a legal researcher who provides on-demand legal research through a library, a commercial service or through freelance work. Many people trained in law put their skills to use outside the legal field entirely. Significant to the practice of law in the common law tradition is the legal research to determine the current state of the law. This usually entails exploring case-law reports, legal periodicals and legislation. Law practice also involves drafting documents such as court pleadings, persuasive briefs, contracts, or wills and trusts. Negotiation and dispute resolution skills (including ADR techniques) are also important to legal practice, depending on the field.^[164]

[edit] Civil society

Main article: Civil society

A march in Washington D.C. during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in 1963

Classical republican concept of "civil society" dates back to Hobbes and Locke.^[165] Locke saw civil society as people who have "a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them."^[166] German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel distinguished the "state" from "civil society" (burgerliche Gesellschaft) in Elements of the Philosophy of Right.^[167] Hegel believed that civil society and the state were polar opposites, within the scheme of his dialectic theory of history. The modern dipole state–civil society was reproduced in the theories of Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx.^[168][169] Nowadays in post-modern theory civil society is necessarily a source of law, by being the basis from which people form opinions and lobby for what they believe law should be. As Australian barrister and author Geoffrey Robertson QC wrote of international law,

... one of its primary modern sources is found in the responses of ordinary men and women, and of the non-governmental organizations which many of them support, to the human rights abuses they see on the television screen in their living rooms.^[170]

Freedom of speech, freedom of association and many other individual rights allow people to gather, discuss, criticise and hold to account their governments, from which the basis of a deliberative democracy is formed. The more people are involved with, concerned by and capable of changing how political power is exercised over their lives, the more acceptable and legitimate the law becomes to the people. The most familiar institutions of civil society include economic markets, profit-oriented firms, families, trade unions, hospitals, universities, schools, charities, debating clubs, non-governmental organisations, neighbourhoods, churches, and religious associations.^[171]