civil features of that code, constitute the moral law. Example:The Ten Commandments.

3. International Law. The law which regulates the conduct and mutual intercourse of independent states is called international law. It is largely determined and established by treaties. and by principles and doctrines of long and recognized standing.

4. Municipal Law. Municipal law comprises the laws of a particular state or country, the rules of civil conduct, laid down by the supreme authority, commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong. Examples:-Abolition of days of grace in some states; granting married women equal rights with men in holding and transferring property. Municipal laws change and modify other municipal laws or they change the common law.

5. Common Law. The common law is a collection of rules and customs, handed down from former generations, that have been finally adopted and incorporated into the general law of the country as best suited to the needs of its people. It originated in the early history of England, and has received additions from time to time from the decisions of great judges relating to the common affairs of life. It is sometimes called the unwritten law. Common law is constantly being formed by customs and usage.

6. Statute Law. The statute law is the written will of the people, or the acts of a legislature, expressed in the proper form. It constitutes the law of the government, state, county, city, or town passing same. Examples:-Acts passed by Congress, by any State Legislature, by any Board of Aldermen, by County Commissioners.

7. Commercial Law, or the Law Merchant. The body of commercial usages or rules recognized by civilized nations as relating to the rights of persons engaged in trade, is said to be "the system of law which the Courts of England and the United States. apply to mercantile contracts. It is a branch of the Common Law, inferior in importance to no other, and in many respects quite distinct from any other. The principal objects embraced within it are the law of shipping (which includes the law of

marine insurance), the law of negotiable bills of exchange and promissory notes, and the law of sales."

3. Importance of Commercial Law. The importance of Commercial Law can hardly be overestimated from the standpoint of a business or a professional man who daily is brought in contact with the transaction of business. No man can be expected to know all the law, although the legal maxim, "Ignorance of the law excuses no one," applies to all. Mr. Justice Story says: "As every man is presumed to know the law and to act upon the rights which it confers, when he knows the facts it is a culpable negligence in him to do an act, or make a contract, and then set up his ignorance as a defense." A business man must know the law or suffer the consequences. He should know his legal rights that he may protect himself fully, and also that he may escape the consequence of doing what he has no right to do under the mistaken idea that he is transacting business in a proper and legal

manner.

4. RECAPITULATION

A law is a rule of action.

Laws have been handed down to us as a part of the system known as the common law, or they are passed as statutes by Congress and the State Legislatures.

In general, the laws of a state have no operation beyond its boundaries. The rules of human action revealed and discoverable by the light of reason constitute natural law.

The moral law comprises those rules laid down for the guidance of moral conduct.

International law is the law of nations. It regulates the mutual intercourse of independent states.

Municipal law is the law in force in a particular state or jurisdiction. The common law is a collection of rules and customs handed down from former generations and adopted as well suited to the needs of the people.

Statute law is the written will or the acts of legislatures expressed in the form of positive rules as law.

Commercial law consists of the usages and rules adopted and long used in commercial transactions.

What is law? What is its object? What is the source of our laws? What is the territorial boundary of a law? Why is law necessary?

Name the different kinds of law. What is natural law? Moral law? International law? Common law? Statute law? Give example of each.

What is commercial law? What are some of the subjects to which it relates? Why is a knowledge of commercial law important? Explain the legal maxim "Ignorance of the law excuses no one." Why should not ignorance of a law excuse a wrongdoer?

6. Property. Property, in a general sense, is what one owns to the exclusion of others. The artist takes a canvas of little value, paints and oils, and by the strokes of genius produces a masterpiece. This picture that he has created is property. It is his exclusively. He has the right to do with it what he chooses so long as he does not interfere with the rights of others. It has value because it will satisfy the desire of others, it will be sought by them. The early settler pre-empts or takes up a claim of government lands. He acquires an exclusive right to this property. It is his to do with as he chooses. It is a thing of value-he may sell or exchange or use it for any of the purposes for which land is ordinarily used. Property, therefore, includes everything that may be owned; it is an exclusive right to a transferable thing of value. Property, in an abstract sense, means ownership, title, estate, right; in a concrete sense, it means the thing owned.

7. Development. The first laws enacted, or handed down, were rules for the suppression of violence and the settling of quarrels. In its progress and development the community soon recognized the right of the individual to certain property, things necessary to sustaining and protecting life, such as the rude implements of agriculture and those used in the chase and in warfare. Lastly, it recognized the right of the individual to the use and occupancy of a portion of the land. Two classes of property came to be recognized, personal property and real property.

1. Personal Property. Personal property includes all property that may readily accompany the person and is easily moved from place to place. Examples of personal property are stocks, bonds, notes, moneys, horses, cattle, furniture, implements, etc.

2. Real Property. Real property includes all property, that is of a fixed nature, generally defined as immovable; as, land, including all that is firmly attached thereto, not only the surface with the growing timber and buildings thereon, but mineral deposits beneath. Land, in contemplation of law, extends from the center of the earth upward indefinitely to the sky.

3. Mixed Property. Mixed property includes such property as in its nature partakes of the characteristics of both personal and real; as, leasehold interests.

8. Changes. Through the agency of man property is frequently changed back and forth from one class to the other. Thus, growing timber is classed as real; if cut down and manufactured into lumber, it is classed as personal; but if the lumber is used in constructing fences or buildings, it again becomes real property. Many such examples exist.

9. Ownership. It frequently happens in the affairs of business that both the title and the possession of a chattel are not in the same person. If the title and possession are together, it illustrates a thing, or chose, in possession. If the title is in one person and the possession with another, the person having title is said to have a chose in action; that is, he may have an action or suit at law to recover his property or the value thereof. A chose