A citizen is a person who has the rights and responsibilities of a member of a nation or political community. Typically, citizenship is granted by the people of a nation through a written constitution and laws that follow it. Citizenship may be gained by birth, the nationality of parents, or through naturalization (the process of becoming a citizen). The duties and responsibilities of citizenship can vary from one place to another. For example, in the United States, citizens get to vote and hold government offices, but they are also required to pay taxes. Citizenship can be revoked for some criminal acts, such as fraud or terrorism.
Law is a system of rules that governs how people may live, work and interact with each other. It can be influenced by a written or unwritten constitution and the values encoded in it. The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in many ways.
The law has four main purposes: establishing standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberty and rights. It is important that citizens understand and respect the law because, without it, there can be no free society. It is a fundamental principle of civil society that everyone, regardless of wealth or status, is subject to the law.
People who do not have the rights and responsibilities of citizens are known as legal aliens. They may be allowed to stay in a country for extended periods of time, and may have protection from its courts. People who live in a country for a short period of time and are not citizens are typically called tourists.
Laws are a complex area that encompasses many different fields, such as law and economics, environmental science and law, and linguistics. For example, labor law is the study of the tripartite industrial relationship between workers, employers and trade unions; patent law deals with inventors’ rights to their inventions; and evidence law deals with which materials can be used in court cases. Moreover, law can be a changing field that is constantly evolving. For instance, scientific laws are usually based on theories that can be tested and proved through experimentation. These are different from laymen’s laws, which are based on beliefs and opinions that cannot be tested or proven. For example, a belief that apples fall down from trees due to the force of gravity is not a scientific law until an apple is dropped and the forces are measured.