Page 147 - DK Children's Encyclopedia

Law SEE ALSO

▸ ▸ Changing world
pp.50–51

Laws are official rules for people to follow. The ▸ ▸ Codes pp.66–67
government writes laws for the whole country. Some ▸ ▸ Governments
laws stop people from doing bad things (crimes), such as p.123

stealing. These are called criminal laws. Other laws try to ▸ ▸ Trade p.257
improve life, such as making sure people are paid a fair ▸ ▸ Work p.274
▸ ▸ World p.275
amount of money for doing work.

Defendant Judge
Law court The defendant is the The judge controls the
court, and may give the
If someone doesn’t follow person who is said to have defendant a punishment,
committed the crime.
the law, they can be punished. such as imprisonment, if
A criminal law court is where they did the crime.
it is decided if someone has
committed a crime, and if Witness
they should be punished. A witness is
someone who
This process is called a trial. knows something
Defense about the crime.
Defense lawyers try to stop They tell the court
the defendant from being what they know.
punished by arguing for them.
Prosecution
Prosecuting lawyers try
to make the judge and jury
believe that the defendant
did the crime.

In the UK,
it is against
the law to
deliberately disturb Jury
someone by A group of usually 12
ordinary people hear
knocking on their about the crime and
front door. Public decide if the defendant
Ordinary people are did it.
allowed into courts to see
what decisions are made.
Police First laws Hammurabi’s laws
The police make sure people Police cars travel One of the earliest sets
follow laws. They capture people at high speeds to of laws was drawn up
by King Hammurabi of
who might have broken catch criminals. Babylon, who ruled
laws. This is called from 1792 to 1749 bce.
putting someone There are 282 laws
about the family,
under arrest. trade, and wages.

Police car
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