Law is defined as a body of rules of conduct of binding legal force and effect,

prescribed, recognized and enforced by controlling authority. The law is a set of

rules, enforceable by the courts, which regulate the government of the state and
govern the relationship between the state and its citizens and between one citizen
and another. The Oxford dictionary's definition of law as the enforceable body of
rules that governs any society. Sir John Salmond defines law as the body of
principles recognized and applied by the State in the administration of justice.
Law consists of the rules that are recognized and can be acted on by the courts. In
the book of The Province of Jurisprudence, John Austin describes law as a command
set by the State to the individuals and enforced by sanctions (punishments). The
sanctions are wide and include imprisonment, fines, damages, injunctions and degree
of specific performance. It should include written law, unwritten law-English law
(Common law and rules of equity), custom or usage having the force of law in
Federation and Islamic law.

Private law is concerned with matters that affects the rights and duties of
individuals among themselves. It governs relationships between individuals such as
contracts and the law of obligations. It is also known as civil law and is intended
to give compensation to the persons injured, to enable property to be recovered
from wrong doers and to enforce obligations (contracts, torts and trusts). The
state��s involvement in this area of law is confined to providing a civilised
method of resolving the dispute that has arisen. Public law is basically the law
which governs the relationship between individual and the state. It may be further
divided into two categories constitutional law and criminal law. Constitutional law
lays down the rights of the individuals in the State. It deals with questions such
the composition and procedures of parliament, the functioning of central and local
government and the rights of citizens. It also covers areas dealing with state and
federal powers. While criminal law refers to certain kinds of wrongdoing pose such
a serious threat to the good order of society that they are considered crimes
against the whole community. The criminal law makes such anti-social behaviour an
offence against the state and offenders are liable to punishment. The state accepts
responsibility for the detection, prosecution and punishment of offenders.

Contract are based on agreements whilst torts are not; they are based on legal
obligations. The law of contract determines when a promise or a set of promise is
legally enforceable whereas a tort is civil wrong and is a breach of a general duty
involves the failure to adhere to what is named in a contract (and not agreed
between the parties). The essential elements in a contract are offer, acceptance,
capacity to contract, intention to enter into legal relations and consideration.
The essential elements of a tort are that there must be an act or omission done
intentionally or negligently, and there must be resultant damage which is not
remote. It aims to compensate the victims for any injuries or damages suffered by
the unreasonable acts of others. In tort, the rights and obligations are created by
the courts applying common law, which has, on the basis of previous authority
fallen into three distinct categories which are negligence, nuisance and trespass.
In contract, the rights and obligations are created by the acts of agreement
between the parties to the contractual arrangement.