List of areas of law

The following is a list of major areas of legal practice and important legal subject-matters.

From, one of the five capital lawyers in Roman Law, Domitius Ulpianus, (170–223) – who differentiated ius publicum versus ius privatum – the European, more exactly the continental law, philosophers and thinkers want(ed) to put each branch of law into this dichotomy: Public and Private Law. “huius studdii duæ sunt positiones: publicum et privatum. Publicum ius est, quod statum rei Romanæ spectat, privatum, quod ad singulorum utilitatem; sunt enim quædam publice utila, quædam privatim". (Public law is that, which concerns Roman state, private law is concerned with the interests of citizens.) In the modern era Charles-Louis Montesquieu (1689–1755) amplified supremely this distinction: International (law of nations), Public (politic law) and Private (civil law) Law, in his major work: (On) The Spirit of the Law (1748). “Considered as inhabitants of so great a planet, which necessarily contains a variety of nations, they have laws relating to their mutual intercourse, which is what we call the law of nations. As members of a society that must be properly supported, they have laws relating to the governors and the governed, and this we distinguish by the name of politic law. They have also another sort of law, as they stand in relation to each other; by which is understood the civil law.”

By area of study and practice

 * Administrative law
 * Admiralty law or maritime law
 * Adoption law
 * Agency law
 * Alcohol law
 * Alternative dispute resolution
 * Animal law
 * Antitrust law (or competition law)
 * Art law (or art and culture law)
 * Aviation law
 * Banking law
 * Bankruptcy law (creditor debtor rights law or insolvency and reorganization law)
 * Bioethics
 * Business law (or commercial law); commercial litigation
 * Business organizations law (or companies law)
 * Canon law
 * Civil law or common law
 * Class action litigation/Mass tort litigation
 * Communications law
 * Computer law
 * Competition law
 * Conflict of law (or private international law)
 * Constitutional law
 * Construction law
 * Consumer law
 * Contract law
 * Copyright law
 * Corporate law (or company law), also corporate compliance law and corporate governance law
 * Criminal law
 * Cryptography law
 * Cultural property law
 * Custom (law)
 * Cyber law
 * Defamation
 * Drug control law
 * Education law
 * Elder law
 * Employment law
 * Energy law
 * Entertainment law
 * Environmental law
 * Family law
 * Financial services regulation law
 * Firearm law
 * Food law
 * Gaming law
 * Health and safety law
 * Health law
 * Housing law
 * Immigration law
 * Insurance law
 * Intellectual property law
 * International law
 * International human rights law
 * International humanitarian law
 * International trade and finance law
 * Internet law
 * Juvenile law
 * Labour law (or Labor law)
 * Landlord–tenant law
 * Litigation
 * Martial law
 * Media law
 * Medical law
 * Military law
 * Mining law
 * Mortgage law
 * Music law
 * Nationality law
 * Obscenity law
 * Parliamentary law
 * Patent law
 * Poverty law
 * Privacy law
 * Procedural law
 * Property law
 * Public health law
 * Public International Law
 * Real estate law
 * Securities law / Capital markets law
 * Space law
 * Sports law
 * Statutory law
 * Tax law
 * Technology law
 * Tort law
 * Trademark law
 * Transport law / Transportation law
 * Trusts & estates law
 * Water law