Law new refers to laws passed by legislatures or governments in a country or state that change existing policies or introduce new ones. The process of creating a law starts with a policy idea, which can come from any number of sources, including a senator’s constituents, an organization calling for a new law, or a state official. Once this idea is settled upon, it is drafted into legislation known as a bill. This drafting is a complex process that involves the review of legal experts, as well as debate between and amongst elected officials, reflecting democratic principles of representation and accountability.

After a bill has been drafted, it can be amended at any point in the legislative process, and then is put to a vote. If it receives a majority vote in both houses of the legislature, it becomes a law, and is then codified into the State’s official book of laws, known as the New York Consolidated Laws. This process is also important for the federal government, where bills are drafted by Congressional committees and voted on by the entire House or Senate.

Some forms of law are more specific, such as property law, which governs ownership and possession. Real property, or real estate, includes land and any things attached to it, such as a home or car, while personal property refers to anything that can be moved from one place to another. Ownership of personal property is governed by contracts, including rental agreements, licences, covenants, easements and statutory systems for land registration. Intangible rights to property are regulated by the laws of intellectual property, company law and trusts.

Other forms of law are broader, governing social and moral values. Philosophers have disagreed over the extent to which a society is governed by natural or moral law, with utilitarian theory holding that law consists of commands backed by the threat of sanctions from a sovereign, while Thomistic natural law theory, first revived in the 1960s by Germain Grisez in an interpretative article on St Thomas Aquinas’s work on natural law, holds that a society based on virtues and rights reflects innate laws of nature.