150-461: A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services , the distributing organization is also included (though the originating one is not). Datelines are traditionally placed on the first line of the text of the article, before the first sentence. The location appears first, usually starting with
300-625: A federal system (as in Australia, Germany or the United States) or different voting configuration in a unitary system (as in France). In the UK the upper house is appointed by the government as a house of review . One criticism of bicameral systems with two elected chambers is that the upper and lower houses may simply mirror one another. The traditional justification of bicameralism is that an upper chamber acts as
450-459: A legislature , resulting in statutes ; by the executive through decrees and regulations ; or by judges' decisions, which form precedent in common law jurisdictions. An autocrat may exercise those functions within their realm. The creation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution , written or tacit, and the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics , economics , history and society in various ways and also serves as
600-417: A parliamentary system , as with Britain, Italy, Germany, India, and Japan, the executive is known as the cabinet, and composed of members of the legislature. The executive is led by the head of government , whose office holds power under the confidence of the legislature. Because popular elections appoint political parties to govern, the leader of a party can change in between elections. The head of state
750-652: A ruler ') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority , for the government of a Christian organisation or church and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern Orthodox Church , the Oriental Orthodox Churches , and the individual national churches within the Anglican Communion . The way that such church law
900-440: A "common law" developed during the reign of Henry II during the late 12th century, when Henry appointed judges who had the authority to create an institutionalised and unified system of law common to the country. The next major step in the evolution of the common law came when King John was forced by his barons to sign a document limiting his authority to pass laws. This "great charter" or Magna Carta of 1215 also required that
1050-405: A common means of conveying information to citydwellers. In thirteenth-century Florence, criers known as banditori arrived in the market regularly, to announce political news, to convoke public meetings, and to call the populace to arms. In 1307 and 1322–1325, laws were established governing their appointment, conduct, and salary. These laws stipulated how many times a banditoro was to repeat
1200-759: A day. This system became the Imperial Reichspost , administered by Tasso descendants (subsequently known as Thurn-und-Taxis ), who in 1587 received exclusive operating rights from the Emperor. The French postal service and English postal service also began at this time, but did not become comprehensive until the early 1600s. In 1620, the English system linked with Thurn-und-Taxis. These connections underpinned an extensive system of news circulation, with handwritten items bearing dates and places of origin. Centred in Germany,
1350-442: A house of review. This can minimise arbitrariness and injustice in governmental action. To pass legislation, a majority of the members of a legislature must vote for a bill (proposed law) in each house. Normally there will be several readings and amendments proposed by the different political factions. If a country has an entrenched constitution, a special majority for changes to the constitution may be required, making changes to
1500-404: A larger network. A common type of business communication was a simple listing of current prices, the circulation of which quickened the flow of international trade. Businesspeople also wanted to know about events related to shipping, the affairs of other businesses, and political developments. Even after the advent of international newspapers, business owners still valued correspondence highly as
1650-654: A licensing system for the press and banned "seditious opinions". Under the Licensing Act , publication was restricted to approved presses—as exemplified by The London Gazette, which prominently bore the words: "Published By Authority". Parliament allowed the Licensing Act to lapse in 1695, beginning a new era marked by Whig and Tory newspapers. (During this era, the Stamp Act limited newspaper distribution simply by making them expensive to sell and buy.) In France, censorship
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#17328689889351800-418: A mediator of relations between people. Legal systems vary between jurisdictions , with their differences analysed in comparative law . In civil law jurisdictions, a legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates the law. In common law systems, judges may make binding case law through precedent, although on occasion this may be overturned by a higher court or the legislature. Religious law
1950-498: A more emotive and freewheeling format. (Private newsletters containing important intelligence therefore remained in use by people who needed to know.) The first newspapers emerged in Germany in the early 1600s. Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien , from 1605, is recognized as the world's first formalized 'newspaper'; while not a 'newspaper' in the modern sense, the Ancient Roman Acta Diurna served
2100-576: A native African language was the Muigwithania , published in Kikuyu by the Kenyan Central Association. Muigwithania and other newspapers published by indigenous Africans took strong opposition stances, agitating strongly for African independence. Newspapers were censored heavily during the colonial period—as well as after formal independence. Some liberalization and diversification took place in
2250-700: A new era of 24-hour satellite news broadcasting. In 1991, the BBC introduced a competitor, BBC World Service Television . Rupert Murdoch's Australian News Corporation entered the picture with Fox News Channel in the US, Sky News in Britain, and STAR TV in Asia. Combining this new apparatus with the use of embedded reporters , the United States waged the 1991–1992 Gulf War with the assistance of nonstop media coverage . CNN's specialty
2400-455: A news branding such as Eyewitness News ); especially if the segment is recorded and not live. For example, the last bit of a report could sound like: A number of current affairs TV shows have dateline as part of their name. News News is information about current events . This may be provided through many different media : word of mouth , printing , postal systems , broadcasting , electronic communication , or through
2550-411: A news story have occurred long in the past—or are expected to occur in the future. To make the news, an ongoing process must have some "peg", an event in time that anchors it to the present moment. Relatedly, news often addresses aspects of reality which seem unusual, deviant, or out of the ordinary. Hence the famous dictum that "Dog Bites Man" is not news, but "Man Bites Dog" is. Another corollary of
2700-591: A process of reform, at least in terms of economic, if not social and political, rights. A new contract code in 1999 represented a move away from administrative domination. Furthermore, after negotiations lasting fifteen years, in 2001 China joined the World Trade Organization . In general, legal systems can be split between civil law and common law systems. Modern scholars argue that the significance of this distinction has progressively declined. The numerous legal transplants , typical of modern law, result in
2850-568: A proclamation (forty) and where in the city they were to read them. Different declarations sometimes came with additional protocols; announcements regarding the plague were also to be read at the city gates. These proclamations all used a standard format, beginning with an exordium —"The worshipful and most esteemed gentlemen of the Eight of Ward and Security of the city of Florence make it known, notify, and expressly command, to whosoever, of whatever status, rank, quality and condition"—and continuing with
3000-574: A restructuring of the national postal systems, and closely followed by the advent of telephone lines. With the value of international news at a premium, governments, businesses, and news agencies moved aggressively to reduce transmission times. In 1865, Reuters had the scoop on the Lincoln assassination , reporting the news in England twelve days after the event took place. In 1866, an undersea telegraph cable successfully connected Ireland to Newfoundland (and thus
3150-451: A similar purpose circa 131 BC. The new format, which mashed together numerous unrelated and perhaps dubious reports from far-flung locations, created a radically new and jarring experience for its readers. A variety of styles emerged, from single-story tales, to compilations, overviews, and personal and impersonal types of news analysis. News for public consumption was at first tightly controlled by governments. By 1530, England had created
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#17328689889353300-582: A similar role. The English word "news" developed in the 14th century as a special use of the plural form of "new". In Middle English , the equivalent word was newes , like the French nouvelles . Similar developments are found in the Slavic languages – namely cognates from Serbo-Croatian novost (from nov , "new"), Czech and Slovak noviny (from nový , "new"), the Polish nowiny (pronounced noviney ),
3450-454: A source of reliable news that would affect their enterprise. Handwritten newsletters, which could be produced quickly for a limited clientele, also continued into the 1600s. The spread of paper and the printing press from China to Europe preceded a major advance in the transmission of news. With the spread of printing presses and the creation of new markets in the 1500s, news underwent a shift from factual and precise economic reporting, to
3600-543: A statement ( narratio ), a request made upon the listeners ( petitio ), and the penalty to be exacted from those who would not comply ( peroratio ). In addition to major declarations, bandi (announcements) might concern petty crimes, requests for information, and notices about missing slaves. Niccolò Machiavelli was captured by the Medicis in 1513, following a bando calling for his immediate surrender. Some town criers could be paid to include advertising along with news. Under
3750-462: Is legislated , interpreted and at times adjudicated varies widely among these three bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a canon was originally a rule adopted by a church council ; these canons formed the foundation of canon law. The Catholic Church has the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the western world , predating the evolution of modern European civil law and common law systems. The 1983 Code of Canon Law governs
3900-495: Is a code of Jewish law that summarizes some of the Talmud's interpretations. A number of countries are sharia jurisdictions. Israeli law allows litigants to use religious laws only if they choose. Canon law is only in use by members of the Catholic Church , the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion . Canon law ( Ancient Greek : κανών , romanized : kanon , lit. 'a straight measuring rod;
4050-458: Is a system of rules, divided into primary (rules of conduct) and secondary ones (rules addressed to officials to administer primary rules). Secondary rules are further divided into rules of adjudication (to resolve legal disputes), rules of change (allowing laws to be varied) and the rule of recognition (allowing laws to be identified as valid). Two of Hart's students continued the debate: In his book Law's Empire , Ronald Dworkin attacked Hart and
4200-445: Is also not unrelated to gossip , the human practice of sharing information about other humans of mutual interest. A common sensational topic is violence; hence another news dictum, "if it bleeds, it leads". Newsworthiness is defined as a subject having sufficient relevance to the public or a special audience to warrant press attention or coverage. News values seem to be common across cultures. People seem to be interested in news to
4350-472: Is an "authority" to mediate people's interests. Oliver Wendell Holmes defined law as "the prophecies of what the courts will do in fact, and nothing more pretentious." In his Treatise on Law , Thomas Aquinas argues that law is a rational ordering of things, which concern the common good, that is promulgated by whoever is charged with the care of the community. This definition has both positivist and naturalist elements. Definitions of law often raise
4500-706: Is apart from the executive, and symbolically enacts laws and acts as representative of the nation. Examples include the President of Germany (appointed by members of federal and state legislatures ), the Queen of the United Kingdom (an hereditary office ), and the President of Austria (elected by popular vote). The other important model is the presidential system , found in the United States and in Brazil . In presidential systems,
4650-513: Is authority, identifiable purely through social sources and without reference to moral reasoning. In his view, any categorisation of rules beyond their role as authoritative instruments in mediation is best left to sociology , rather than jurisprudence. The history of law links closely to the development of civilization . Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BC, was based on the concept of Ma'at and characterised by tradition, rhetorical speech, social equality and impartiality. By
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4800-557: Is credited with developing one of the most effective imperial surveillance and communications networks in the ancient world. Government-produced news sheets, called tipao , circulated among court officials during the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD). Between 713 and 734, the Kaiyuan Za Bao ("Bulletin of the Court") of the Chinese Tang dynasty published government news; it
4950-436: Is in use in some religious communities and states, and has historically influenced secular law. The scope of law can be divided into two domains: public law concerns government and society, including constitutional law , administrative law , and criminal law ; while private law deals with legal disputes between parties in areas such as contracts , property , torts , delicts and commercial law . This distinction
5100-467: Is law?" There have been several attempts to produce "a universally acceptable definition of law". In 1972, Baron Hampstead suggested that no such definition could be produced. McCoubrey and White said that the question "what is law?" has no simple answer. Glanville Williams said that the meaning of the word "law" depends on the context in which that word is used. He said that, for example, " early customary law " and " municipal law " were contexts where
5250-520: Is simply one input, along with paper (or an electronic server) necessary to prepare a final product for distribution. A news agency supplies this resource "wholesale" and publishers enhance it for retail. Most purveyors of news value impartiality, neutrality, and objectivity , despite the inherent difficulty of reporting without political bias. Perception of these values has changed greatly over time as sensationalized ' tabloid journalism ' has risen in popularity. Michael Schudson has argued that before
5400-537: Is stronger in civil law countries, particularly those with a separate system of administrative courts ; by contrast, the public-private law divide is less pronounced in common law jurisdictions. Law provides a source of scholarly inquiry into legal history , philosophy , economic analysis and sociology . Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness, and justice . The word law , attested in Old English as lagu , comes from
5550-441: Is that law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behaviour. In The Concept of Law , H. L. A. Hart argued that law is a "system of rules"; John Austin said law was "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction"; Ronald Dworkin describes law as an "interpretive concept" to achieve justice in his text titled Law's Empire ; and Joseph Raz argues law
5700-944: Is the Supreme Court ; in Australia, the High Court ; in India, the Supreme Court of India ; in the UK, the Supreme Court ; in Germany, the Bundesverfassungsgericht ; and in France, the Cour de Cassation . For most European countries the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg can overrule national law, when EU law is relevant. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg allows citizens of
5850-585: Is the crisis , to which the network is prepared to shift its total attention if so chosen. CNN news was transmitted via Intelsat communications satellites. CNN, said an executive, would bring a "town crier to the global village". In 1996, the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera emerged as a powerful alternative to the Western media, capitalizing in part on anger in the Arab & Muslim world regarding biased coverage of
6000-486: Is the legal systems in communist states such as the former Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China . Academic opinion is divided on whether it is a separate system from civil law, given major deviations based on Marxist–Leninist ideology, such as subordinating the judiciary to the executive ruling party. There are distinguished methods of legal reasoning (applying the law) and methods of interpreting (construing)
6150-563: Is to make laws, since they are acts of the general will ; nor whether the prince is above the law, since he is a member of the State; nor whether the law can be unjust, since no one is unjust to himself; nor how we can be both free and subject to the laws, since they are but registers of our wills. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract , II, 6. The philosophy of law is commonly known as jurisprudence. Normative jurisprudence asks "what should law be?", while analytic jurisprudence asks "what
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6300-683: The Manusmriti (c. 100–300 AD) were foundational treatises in India, and comprise texts considered authoritative legal guidance. Manu's central philosophy was tolerance and pluralism , and was cited across Southeast Asia. During the Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent , sharia was established by the Muslim sultanates and empires, most notably Mughal Empire 's Fatawa-e-Alamgiri , compiled by emperor Aurangzeb and various scholars of Islam. In India,
6450-454: The "is" and what "ought to be" problem. Bentham and Austin argued for law's positivism ; that real law is entirely separate from "morality". Kant was also criticised by Friedrich Nietzsche , who rejected the principle of equality, and believed that law emanates from the will to power , and cannot be labeled as "moral" or "immoral". In 1934, the Austrian philosopher Hans Kelsen continued
6600-671: The Bulgarian novini and Russian novosti – and likewise in the Celtic languages : the Welsh newyddion (from newydd ) and the Cornish nowodhow (from nowydh ). Jessica Garretson Finch is credited with coining the phrase "current events" while teaching at Barnard College in the 1890s. As its name implies, "news" typically connotes the presentation of new information. The newness of news gives it an uncertain quality which distinguishes it from
6750-497: The Codex Hammurabi . The most intact copy of these stelae was discovered in the 19th century by British Assyriologists , and has since been fully transliterated and translated into various languages, including English, Italian, German, and French. The Old Testament dates back to 1280 BC and takes the form of moral imperatives as recommendations for a good society. The small Greek city-state, ancient Athens , from about
6900-591: The Council of Europe member states to bring cases relating to human rights issues before it. Some countries allow their highest judicial authority to overrule legislation they determine to be unconstitutional . For example, in Brown v. Board of Education , the United States Supreme Court nullified many state statutes that had established racially segregated schools, finding such statutes to be incompatible with
7050-478: The Early Middle Ages , Roman law was rediscovered around the 11th century when medieval legal scholars began to research Roman codes and adapt their concepts to the canon law , giving birth to the jus commune . Latin legal maxims (called brocards ) were compiled for guidance. In medieval England, royal courts developed a body of precedent which later became the common law . A Europe-wide Law Merchant
7200-511: The Edo period was even more effective, with average speeds of 125–150 km/day and express speed of 200 km/day. This system was initially used only by the government, taking private communications only at exorbitant prices. Private services emerged and in 1668 established their own nakama (guild). They became even faster, and created an effective optical telegraphy system using flags by day and lanterns and mirrors by night. In Europe, during
7350-559: The English Court of Common Pleas had five. This powerful and tight-knit judiciary gave rise to a systematised process of developing common law. As time went on, many felt that the common law was overly systematised and inflexible, and increasing numbers of citizens petitioned the King to override the common law. On the King's behalf, the Lord Chancellor started giving judgments to do what
7500-1218: The Enlightenment . Then, in the 19th century, both France, with the Code Civil , and Germany, with the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch , modernised their legal codes. Both these codes heavily influenced not only the law systems of the countries in continental Europe but also the Japanese and Korean legal traditions. Today, countries that have civil law systems range from Russia and Turkey to most of Central and Latin America . In common law legal systems, decisions by courts are explicitly acknowledged as "law" on equal footing with legislative statutes and executive regulations . The "doctrine of precedent", or stare decisis (Latin for "to stand by decisions") means that decisions by higher courts bind lower courts to assure that similar cases reach similar results. In contrast , in civil law systems, legislative statutes are typically more detailed, and judicial decisions are shorter and less detailed because
7650-551: The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . A judiciary is theoretically bound by the constitution, just as all other government bodies are. In most countries judges may only interpret the constitution and all other laws. But in common law countries, where matters are not constitutional, the judiciary may also create law under the doctrine of precedent . The UK, Finland and New Zealand assert
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#17328689889357800-645: The French , but mostly the German Civil Code. This partly reflected Germany's status as a rising power in the late 19th century. Similarly, traditional Chinese law gave way to westernisation towards the final years of the Qing Dynasty in the form of six private law codes based mainly on the Japanese model of German law. Today Taiwanese law retains the closest affinity to the codifications from that period, because of
7950-527: The Hindu legal tradition, along with Islamic law, were both supplanted by common law when India became part of the British Empire . Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Hong Kong also adopted the common law system. The Eastern Asia legal tradition reflects a unique blend of secular and religious influences. Japan was the first country to begin modernising its legal system along Western lines, by importing parts of
8100-525: The Holy Roman Empire , Emperor Maximillian I in 1490 authorized two brothers from the Italian Tasso family, Francesco and Janetto, to create a network of courier stations linked by riders. They began with a communications line between Innsbruck and Mechelen and grew from there. In 1505 this network expanded to Spain, new governed by Maximilian's son Philip . These riders could travel 180 kilometers in
8250-654: The Latin Church sui juris . The Eastern Catholic Churches, which developed different disciplines and practices, are governed by the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches . The canon law of the Catholic Church influenced the common law during the medieval period through its preservation of Roman law doctrine such as the presumption of innocence . Roman Catholic canon law is a fully developed legal system, with all
8400-474: The Old Norse word lǫg . The singular form lag meant ' something laid or fixed ' while its plural meant ' law ' . But what, after all, is a law? [...] When I say that the object of laws is always general, I mean that law considers subjects en masse and actions in the abstract, and never a particular person or action. [...] On this view, we at once see that it can no longer be asked whose business it
8550-668: The Ottoman Empire , official messages were regularly distributed at mosques, by traveling holy men, and by secular criers. These criers were sent to read official announcements in marketplaces, highways, and other well-traveled places, sometimes issuing commands and penalties for disobedience. The spread of news has always been linked to the communications networks in place to disseminate it. Thus, political, religious, and commercial interests have historically controlled, expanded, and monitored communications channels by which news could spread. Postal services have long been closely entwined with
8700-608: The Quran has some law, and it acts as a source of further law through interpretation, Qiyas (reasoning by analogy), Ijma (consensus) and precedent . This is mainly contained in a body of law and jurisprudence known as Sharia and Fiqh respectively. Another example is the Torah or Old Testament , in the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. This contains the basic code of Jewish law, which some Israeli communities choose to use. The Halakha
8850-647: The Reuters news agency—specializing in news from the continent. In 1863, William Saunders and Edward Spender formed the Central Press agency, later called the Press Association , to handle domestic news. Just before insulated telegraph line crossed the English Channel in 1851, Reuter won the right to transmit stock exchange prices between Paris and London. He maneuvered Reuters into a dominant global position with
9000-460: The Taika Reform and again during the Kamakura period from 1183 to 1333. The system depended on hikyaku , runners, and regularly spaced relay stations. By this method, news could travel between Kyoto and Kamakura in 5–7 days. Special horse-mounted messengers could move information at the speed of 170 kilometers per day. The Japanese shogunates were less tolerant than the Chinese government of news circulation. The postal system established during
9150-626: The absolutist theory of Thomas Hobbes ' Leviathan . Sun Yat-sen 's Five Power Constitution for the Republic of China took the separation of powers further by having two additional branches of government—a Control Yuan for auditing oversight and an Examination Yuan to manage the employment of public officials. Max Weber and others reshaped thinking on the extension of state. Modern military, policing and bureaucratic power over ordinary citizens' daily lives pose special problems for accountability that earlier writers such as Locke or Montesquieu could not have foreseen. The custom and practice of
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#17328689889359300-473: The city in which the reporter has written or dispatched the report. City names are usually printed in uppercase, though this can vary from one publication to another. The political division and/or nation the city is in may follow, but they may be dropped if the city name is widely recognizable due to its size or political importance (a national capital , for instance). The date of the report comes after, followed by an em dash surrounded by spaces, and then
9450-400: The stock markets . Yet, as in the case other newspapers, the incorporation of advertising into the newspaper led to justified reservations about accepting newspaper information at face value. Economic newspapers also became promoters of economic ideologies, such as Keynesianism in the mid-1900s. Newspapers came to sub-Saharan Africa via colonization. The first English-language newspaper in
9600-597: The "basic pattern of legal reasoning is reasoning by example"—that is, reasoning by comparing outcomes in cases resolving similar legal questions. In a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding procedural efforts taken by a debt collection company to avoid errors, Justice Sotomayor cautioned that "legal reasoning is not a mechanical or strictly linear process". Jurimetrics is the formal application of quantitative methods, especially probability and statistics , to legal questions. The use of statistical methods in court cases and law review articles has grown massively in importance in
9750-424: The 1790s through the 1850s. The world's first written news may have originated in eighth century BCE China , where reports gathered by officials were eventually compiled as the Spring and Autumn Annals . The annals, whose compilation is attributed to Confucius , were available to a sizeable reading public and dealt with common news themes—though they straddle the line between news and history. The Han dynasty
9900-435: The 1800s and after retained the commercial orientation characteristic of the private newsletters of the Renaissance. Economically oriented newspapers published new types of data enabled the advent of statistics , especially economic statistics which could inform sophisticated investment decisions. These newspapers, too, became available for larger sections of society, not just elites, keen on investing some of their savings in
10050-682: The 1800s. American newspapers got many of their stories by copying reports from each other. Thus by offering free postage to newspapers wishing to exchange copies, the Postal Service Act subsidized a rapidly growing news network through which different stories could percolate. Newspapers thrived during the colonization of the West , fueled by high literacy and a newspaper-loving culture. By 1880, San Francisco rivaled New York in number of different newspapers and in printed newspaper copies per capita. Boosters of new towns felt that newspapers covering local events brought legitimacy, recognition, and community. The 1830s American, wrote Alexis de Tocqueville ,
10200-454: The 1990s. Newspapers were slow to spread to the Arab world , which had a stronger tradition of oral communication , and mistrust of the European approach to news reporting. By the end of the eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire's leaders in Istanbul monitored the European press, but its contents were not disseminated for mass consumption. Some of the first written news in modern North Africa arose in Egypt under Muhammad Ali , who developed
10350-424: The 22nd century BC, the ancient Sumerian ruler Ur-Nammu had formulated the first law code , which consisted of casuistic statements ("if … then ..."). Around 1760 BC, King Hammurabi further developed Babylonian law , by codifying and inscribing it in stone. Hammurabi placed several copies of his law code throughout the kingdom of Babylon as stelae , for the entire public to see; this became known as
10500-411: The 6th century, which were rediscovered by 11th century Italy. Roman law in the days of the Roman Republic and Empire was heavily procedural, and lacked a professional legal class. Instead a lay magistrate , iudex , was chosen to adjudicate. Decisions were not published in any systematic way, so any case law that developed was disguised and almost unrecognised. Each case was to be decided afresh from
10650-431: The 8th century BC was the first society to be based on broad inclusion of its citizenry, excluding women and enslaved people . However, Athens had no legal science or single word for "law", relying instead on the three-way distinction between divine law ( thémis ), human decree ( nomos ) and custom ( díkē ). Yet Ancient Greek law contained major constitutional innovations in the development of democracy . Roman law
10800-516: The British news agencies. BBC radio marketed itself as a news by and for social elites, and hired only broadcasters who spoke with upper-class accents. The BBC gained importance in the May 1926 general strike, during which newspapers were closed and the radio served as the only source of news for an uncertain public. (To the displeasure of many listeners, the BBC took an unambiguously pro-government stance against
10950-511: The European nations prepared for war. The war provided an opportunity to expand radio and take advantage of its new potential. The BBC reported on Allied invasion of Normandy on 8:00 a.m. of the morning it took place, and including a clip from German radio coverage of the same event. Listeners followed along with developments throughout the day. The U.S. set up its Office of War Information which by 1942 sent programming across South America,
11100-504: The French government's optical telegraph network. In 1840 he began using pigeons for communications to Paris, London, and Brussels. Havas began to use the electric telegraph when it became available. One of Havas's proteges, Bernhard Wolff , founded Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau in Berlin in 1849. Another Havas disciple, Paul Reuter , began collecting news from Germany and France in 1849, and in 1851 immigrated to London, where he established
11250-633: The Greek forum and the Roman baths. Starting in England , coffeehouses served as important sites for the spread of news, even after telecommunications became widely available. The history of the coffee houses is traced from Arab countries, which was introduced in England in the 16th century. In the Muslim world, people have gathered and exchanged news at mosques and other social places. Travelers on pilgrimages to Mecca traditionally stay at caravanserais , roadside inns, along
11400-616: The Gulf War. Al Jazeera hired many news workers conveniently laid off by BBC Arabic Television , which closed in April 1996. It used Arabsat to broadcast. The early internet, known as ARPANET , was controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense and used mostly by academics. It became available to a wider public with the release of the Netscape browser in 1994. At first, news websites were mostly archives of print publications. An early online newspaper
11550-438: The King's entourage of judges hold their courts and judgments at "a certain place" rather than dispensing autocratic justice in unpredictable places about the country. A concentrated and elite group of judges acquired a dominant role in law-making under this system, and compared to its European counterparts the English judiciary became highly centralised. In 1297, for instance, while the highest court in France had fifty-one judges,
11700-514: The Middle Ages, elites relied on runners to transmit news over long distances. At 33 kilometres per day, a runner would take two months to bring a message across the Hanseatic League from Bruges to Riga. In the early modern period , increased cross-border interaction created a rising need for information which was met by concise handwritten newssheets. The driving force of this new development
11850-532: The Middle East, and East Asia. Radio Luxembourg , a centrally located high-power station on the continent, was seized by Germany , and then by the United States —which created fake news programs appearing as though they were created by Germany. Targeting American troops in the Pacific, the Japanese government broadcast the " Zero Hour " program, which included news from the U.S. to make the soldiers homesick. But by
12000-588: The Press–Radio Bureau and eschew advertising; this agreement soon collapsed and radio stations began reporting their own news (with advertising). As in Britain, American news radio avoided "controversial" topics as per norms established by the National Association of Broadcasters . By 1939, 58% of Americans surveyed by Fortune considered radio news more accurate than newspapers, and 70% chose radio as their main news source. Radio expanded rapidly across
12150-502: The Quran as its constitution , and is governed on the basis of Islamic law. Iran has also witnessed a reiteration of Islamic law into its legal system after 1979. During the last few decades, one of the fundamental features of the movement of Islamic resurgence has been the call to restore the Sharia, which has generated a vast amount of literature and affected world politics . Socialist law
12300-563: The Red China News Agency, in 1931; its primary responsibilities were the Red China newspaper and the internal Reference News . In 1937, the Party renamed the agency Xinhua , New China. Xinhua became the official news agency of the People's Republic of China in 1949. These agencies touted their ability to distill events into "minute globules of news", 20–30 word summaries which conveyed
12450-1213: The Sharia: the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt may invalidate such laws, and in Iran the Guardian Council ensures the compatibility of the legislation with the "criteria of Islam". Prominent examples of legislatures are the Houses of Parliament in London, the Congress in Washington, D.C., the Bundestag in Berlin, the Duma in Moscow, the Parlamento Italiano in Rome and the Assemblée nationale in Paris. By
12600-430: The U.S. , the two systems were merged . In developing the common law, academic writings have always played an important part, both to collect overarching principles from dispersed case law and to argue for change. William Blackstone , from around 1760, was the first scholar to collect, describe, and teach the common law. But merely in describing, scholars who sought explanations and underlying structures slowly changed
12750-561: The Western Union network) cutting trans-Atlantic transmission time from days to hours. The transatlantic cable allowed fast exchange of information about the London and New York stock exchanges, as well as the New York, Chicago, and Liverpool commodity exchanges—for the price of $ 5–10, in gold, per word. Transmitting On 11 May 1857, a young British telegraph operator in Delhi signaled home to alert
12900-567: The adjudicator is only writing to decide the single case, rather than to set out reasoning that will guide future courts. Common law originated from England and has been inherited by almost every country once tied to the British Empire (except Malta, Scotland , the U.S. state of Louisiana , and the Canadian province of Quebec ). In medieval England during the Norman conquest , the law varied shire-to-shire based on disparate tribal customs. The concept of
13050-518: The area was The Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser , established in 1801, and followed by The Royal Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer in 1822 and the Liberia Herald in 1826. A number of nineteenth-century African newspapers were established by missionaries. These newspapers by and large promoted the colonial governments and served the interests of European settlers by relaying news from Europe. The first newspaper published in
13200-600: The article. A typical newspaper dateline might read: The same story, if pulled from the United Press International wire, might appear with the UPI identifier as: Datelines can take on some unusual forms. When reporters collaborate on a story, two different locations might be listed. UPI and the Associated Press omit a dateline "when a story has been assembled from sources in widely separate areas." In other cases,
13350-576: The auspices of military, religious, and banking authorities. Sponsorship flavored the contents of each series, which were circulated under many different names. Subscribers included clerics, diplomatic staff, and noble families. By the last quarter of the seventeenth century, long passages from avvisi were finding their way into published monthlies such as the Mercure de France and, in northern Italy, Pallade veneta . Postal services enabled merchants and monarchs to stay abreast of important information. For
13500-561: The authorities of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 . The rebels proceeded to disrupt the British telegraph network, which was rebuilt with more redundancies. In 1902–1903, Britain and the U.S. completed the circumtelegraphy of the planet with transpacific cables from Canada to Fiji and New Zealand (British Empire), and from the US to Hawaii and the occupied Philippines. U.S. reassertions of the Monroe Doctrine notwithstanding, Latin America
13650-780: The big three wire services opened relations with Vestnik , the news agency of Czarist Russia, to their group, though they maintained their own reporters in Moscow. During and after the Russian Revolution , the outside agencies maintained a working relationship with the Petrograd Telegraph Agency, renamed the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) and eventually the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) . The Chinese Communist Party created its news agency,
13800-492: The city and sometimes the county for less well-known locations. A typical dateline in a British newspaper might read: In Australia, datelines generally include the city and the abbreviation for the state or territory. An example dateline from an Australian news article might read: In Japan, datelines often include the city and sometimes the prefecture. A Japanese newspaper dateline might look like: In many European countries, such as France and Germany, datelines typically include
13950-449: The city name, often in uppercase, and the date. For example: The concept of a dateline has been adapted to television . Reporters on news programs might have their location mentioned in an introduction from the news anchor : A field reporter might also end his stories by combining the location from where he filed the report with a "lockout" (the last thing a reporter says in the report, and includes his name and station ID, in addition to
14100-768: The colonial sphere of its mother country. Reuters and the Australian national news service had an agreement to exchange news only with each other. Due to the high cost of maintaining infrastructure, political goodwill, and global reach, newcomers found it virtually impossible to challenge the big three European agencies or the American Associated Press. In 1890 Reuters (in partnership with the Press Association, England's major news agency for domestic stories) expanded into "soft" news stories for public consumption, about topics such as sports and "human interest". In 1904,
14250-735: The continent, from 30 stations in 1920 to a thousand in the 1930s. This operation was financed mostly with advertising and public relations money. The Soviet Union began a major international broadcasting operation in 1929, with stations in German, English and French. The Nazi Party made use of the radio in its rise to power in Germany, with much of its propaganda focused on attacking the Soviet Bolsheviks. The British and Italian foreign radio services competed for influence in North Africa. All four of these broadcast services grew increasingly vitriolic as
14400-575: The defining features of any legal system. Civil law is the legal system used in most countries around the world today. In civil law the sources recognised as authoritative are, primarily, legislation —especially codifications in constitutions or statutes passed by government—and custom . Codifications date back millennia, with one early example being the Babylonian Codex Hammurabi . Modern civil law systems essentially derive from legal codes issued by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in
14550-590: The diffusion of written documents is in Egypt, where Pharaohs used couriers for the diffusion of their decrees in the territory of the State (2400 BC). Julius Caesar regularly publicized his heroic deeds in Gaul, and upon becoming dictator of Rome began publishing government announcements called Acta Diurna . These were carved in metal or stone and posted in public places. In medieval England, parliamentary declarations were delivered to sheriffs for public display and reading at
14700-480: The end of the war, Britain had the largest radio network in the world, broadcasting internationally in 43 different languages. Its scope would eventually be surpassed (by 1955) by the worldwide Voice of America programs, produced by the United States Information Agency . In Britain and the United States, television news watching rose dramatically in the 1950s and by the 1960s supplanted radio as
14850-459: The era of World War I and the concomitant rise of propaganda , journalists were not aware of the concept of bias in reporting , let alone actively correcting for it. News is also sometimes said to portray the truth , but this relationship is elusive and qualified. Paradoxically, another property commonly attributed to news is sensationalism , the disproportionate focus on, and exaggeration of, emotive stories for public consumption. This news
15000-461: The essence of new developments. Unlike newspapers, and contrary to the sentiments of some of their reporters, the agencies sought to keep their reports simple and factual. The wire services brought forth the "inverted pyramid" model of news copy, in which key facts appear at the start of the text, and more and more details are included as it goes along. The sparse telegraphic writing style spilled over into newspapers, which often reprinted stories from
15150-429: The exact location may be unknown or intentionally imprecise, such as when profiling a riverboat plying its route, when covering military operations while on a ship at sea or following an invasion force, or when covering a press conference aboard an airplane. Datelines are used globally with some variations depending on the country's journalistic standards and practices. In the United Kingdom, datelines often include
15300-406: The executive acts as both head of state and head of government, and has power to appoint an unelected cabinet. Under a presidential system, the executive branch is separate from the legislature to which it is not accountable. Although the role of the executive varies from country to country, usually it will propose the majority of legislation, and propose government agenda. In presidential systems,
15450-498: The extent which it has a big impact, describes conflicts, happens nearby, involves well-known people, and deviates from the norms of everyday happenings. War is a common news topic, partly because it involves unknown events that could pose personal danger. Evidence suggests that cultures around the world have found a place for people to share stories about interesting new information. Among Zulus , Mongolians , Polynesians , and American Southerners , anthropologists have documented
15600-488: The famous question, "What hath God wrought?", it transmitted the news that Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen had been chosen by the Whig nominating party.) Telegraph networks enabled a new centralization of the news, in the hands of wire services concentrated in major cities. The modern form of these originated with Charles-Louis Havas , who founded Bureau Havas (later Agence France-Presse ) in Paris. Havas began in 1832, using
15750-870: The golden age of Roman law and aimed to restore it to the peak it had reached three centuries before." The Justinian Code remained in force in the East until the fall of the Byzantine Empire . Western Europe, meanwhile, relied on a mix of the Theodosian Code and Germanic customary law until the Justinian Code was rediscovered in the 11th century, which scholars at the University of Bologna used to interpret their own laws. Civil law codifications based closely on Roman law, alongside some influences from religious laws such as canon law , continued to spread throughout Europe until
15900-524: The idea of the rule of law because he did not accept the primacy of abstract normative principles over concrete political positions and decisions. Therefore, Schmitt advocated a jurisprudence of the exception ( state of emergency ), which denied that legal norms could encompass all of the political experience. Later in the 20th century, H. L. A. Hart attacked Austin for his simplifications and Kelsen for his fiction in The Concept of Law . Hart argued law
16050-428: The ideal of parliamentary sovereignty , whereby the unelected judiciary may not overturn law passed by a democratic legislature. In communist states , such as China, the courts are often regarded as parts of the executive, or subservient to the legislature; governmental institutions and actors exert thus various forms of influence on the judiciary. In Muslim countries, courts often examine whether state laws adhere to
16200-564: The last few decades. It is a real unity of them all in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with every man, in such manner as if every man should say to every man: I authorise and give up my right of governing myself to this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition; that thou givest up, thy right to him, and authorise all his actions in like manner. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan , XVII The main institutions of law in industrialised countries are independent courts , representative parliaments, an accountable executive,
16350-446: The law more difficult. A government usually leads the process, which can be formed from Members of Parliament (e.g. the UK or Germany). However, in a presidential system, the government is usually formed by an executive and his or her appointed cabinet officials (e.g. the United States or Brazil). The executive in a legal system serves as the centre of political authority of the State . In
16500-686: The law. The former are legal syllogism , which holds sway in civil law legal systems, analogy , which is present in common law legal systems, especially in the US, and argumentative theories that occur in both systems. The latter are different rules (directives) of legal interpretation such as directives of linguistic interpretation, teleological interpretation or systemic interpretation as well as more specific rules, for instance, golden rule or mischief rule . There are also many other arguments and cannons of interpretation which altogether make statutory interpretation possible. Law professor and former United States Attorney General Edward H. Levi noted that
16650-577: The laws of the State, which mirrors the (theoretical) unimportance of judges' decisions for future cases in civil law systems today. From 529 to 534 AD the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I codified and consolidated Roman law up until that point, so that what remained was one-twentieth of the mass of legal texts from before. This became known as the Corpus Juris Civilis . As one legal historian wrote, "Justinian consciously looked back to
16800-426: The legal profession is an important part of people's access to justice , whilst civil society is a term used to refer to the social institutions, communities and partnerships that form law's political basis. A judiciary is a number of judges mediating disputes to determine outcome. Most countries have systems of appeal courts, with an apex court as the ultimate judicial authority. In the United States, this authority
16950-422: The local paper industry and initiated the limited circulation of news bulletins called jurnals . Beginning in the 1850s and 1860s, the private press began to develop in the multi-religious country of Lebanon. The development of the electrical telegraph , which often travelled along railroad lines, enabled news to travel faster, over longer distances. (Days before Morse's Baltimore–Washington line transmitted
17100-770: The maintenance of political power in a large area. One of the imperial communication channels, called the " Royal Road " traversed the Assyrian Empire and served as a key source of its power. The Roman Empire maintained a vast network of roads, known as cursus publicus , for similar purposes. Visible chains of long-distance signaling, known as optical telegraphy , have also been used throughout history to convey limited types of information. These can have ranged from smoke and fire signals to advanced systems using semaphore codes and telescopes. The latter form of optical telegraph came into use in Japan, Britain, France, and Germany from
17250-625: The market. Specially sanctioned messengers have been recognized in Vietnamese culture , among the Khasi people in India, and in the Fox and Winnebago cultures of the American midwest. The Zulu Kingdom used runners to quickly disseminate news. In West Africa, news can be spread by griots . In most cases, the official spreaders of news have been closely aligned with holders of political power. Town criers were
17400-472: The mid-1940s, efforts have been made, in country after country, to bring Sharia law more into line with modern conditions and conceptions. In modern times, the legal systems of many Muslim countries draw upon both civil and common law traditions as well as Islamic law and custom. The constitutions of certain Muslim states, such as Egypt and Afghanistan, recognise Islam as the religion of the state, obliging legislature to adhere to Sharia. Saudi Arabia recognises
17550-510: The military and police, bureaucratic organisation, the legal profession and civil society itself. John Locke, in his Two Treatises of Government , and Baron de Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws , advocated for a separation of powers between the political, legislature and executive bodies. Their principle was that no person should be able to usurp all powers of the state , in contrast to
17700-404: The more careful investigations of history or other scholarly disciplines. Whereas historians tend to view events as causally related manifestations of underlying processes, news stories tend to describe events in isolation, and to exclude discussion of the relationships between them. News conspicuously describes the world in the present or immediate past, even when the most important aspects of
17850-669: The most influential. In contrast to English common law, which consists of enormous tomes of case law, codes in small books are easy to export and easy for judges to apply. However, today there are signs that civil and common law are converging. EU law is codified in treaties, but develops through de facto precedent laid down by the European Court of Justice . Ancient India and China represent distinct traditions of law, and have historically had independent schools of legal theory and practice. The Arthashastra , probably compiled around 100 AD (although it contains older material), and
18000-573: The motto "Follow the Cable", setting up news outposts across the British Empire in Alexandria (1865), Bombay (1866), Melbourne (1874), Sydney (1874), and Cape Town (1876). In the United States, the Associated Press became a news powerhouse, gaining a lead position through an exclusive arrangement with the Western Union company. The telegraph ushered in a new global communications regime, accompanied by
18150-449: The necessary elements: courts , lawyers , judges, a fully articulated legal code, principles of legal interpretation, and coercive penalties, though it lacks civilly-binding force in most secular jurisdictions. Until the 18th century, Sharia law was practiced throughout the Muslim world in a non-codified form, with the Ottoman Empire 's Mecelle code in the 19th century being a first attempt at codifying elements of Sharia law. Since
18300-573: The network took in news from Russia, the Balkans, Italy, Britain, France, and the Netherlands. The German lawyer Christoph von Scheurl and the Fugger house of Augsburg were prominent hubs in this network. Letters describing historically significant events could gain wide circulation as news reports. Indeed, personal correspondence sometimes acted only as a convenient channel through which news could flow across
18450-402: The newness of news is that, as new technology enables new media to disseminate news more quickly, 'slower' forms of communication may move away from 'news' towards 'analysis'. According to some theories, "news" is whatever the news industry sells. Journalism, broadly understood along the same lines, is the act or occupation of collecting and providing news. From a commercial perspective, news
18600-538: The notion of justice, and re-entered the mainstream of Western culture through the writings of Thomas Aquinas , notably his Treatise on Law . Hugo Grotius , the founder of a purely rationalistic system of natural law, argued that law arises from both a social impulse—as Aristotle had indicated—and reason. Immanuel Kant believed a moral imperative requires laws "be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature". Jeremy Bentham and his student Austin, following David Hume , believed that this conflated
18750-510: The only news sites capable of hosting images, the San Jose Mercury News and Time magazine, posted photographs of the scene. Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the art of justice. State-enforced laws can be made by
18900-564: The positivist tradition in his book the Pure Theory of Law . Kelsen believed that although law is separate from morality, it is endowed with "normativity", meaning we ought to obey it. While laws are positive "is" statements (e.g. the fine for reversing on a highway is €500); law tells us what we "should" do. Thus, each legal system can be hypothesised to have a ' basic norm ' ( German : Grundnorm ) instructing us to obey. Kelsen's major opponent, Carl Schmitt , rejected both positivism and
19050-483: The positivists for their refusal to treat law as a moral issue. Dworkin argues that law is an " interpretive concept" that requires judges to find the best fitting and most just solution to a legal dispute, given their Anglo-American constitutional traditions. Joseph Raz , on the other hand, defended the positivist outlook and criticised Hart's "soft social thesis" approach in The Authority of Law . Raz argues that law
19200-463: The practice of questioning travelers for news as a matter of priority. Sufficiently important news would be repeated quickly and often, and could spread by word of mouth over a large geographic area. Even as printing presses came into use in Europe , news for the general public often travelled orally via monks, travelers, town criers , etc. The news is also transmitted in public gathering places, such as
19350-416: The principle of representative government people vote for politicians to carry out their wishes. Although countries like Israel, Greece, Sweden and China are unicameral , most countries are bicameral , meaning they have two separately appointed legislative houses. In the 'lower house' politicians are elected to represent smaller constituencies . The 'upper house' is usually elected to represent states in
19500-583: The public's primary source of news. In the U.S., television was run by the same networks which owned radio: CBS, NBC, and an NBC spin-off called ABC. Edward R. Murrow , who first entered the public ear as a war reporter in London, made the big leap to television to become an iconic newsman on CBS (and later the director of the United States Information Agency). Ted Turner 's creation of the Cable News Network (CNN) in 1980 inaugurated
19650-469: The question of the extent to which law incorporates morality. John Austin 's utilitarian answer was that law is "commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience". Natural lawyers , on the other hand, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau , argue that law reflects essentially moral and unchangeable laws of nature. The concept of "natural law" emerged in ancient Greek philosophy concurrently and in connection with
19800-402: The sharing of many features traditionally considered typical of either common law or civil law. The third type of legal system is religious law, based on scriptures . The specific system that a country is ruled by is often determined by its history, connections with other countries, or its adherence to international standards. The sources that jurisdictions adopt as authoritatively binding are
19950-521: The speed with which news can spread, as well as influenced its content. Throughout history, people have transported new information through oral means. Having developed in China over centuries, newspapers became established in Europe during the early modern period . In the 20th century, radio and television became an important means of transmitting news. Whilst in the 21st, the internet has also begun to play
20100-454: The split between Chiang Kai-shek 's nationalists, who fled there, and Mao Zedong 's communists who won control of the mainland in 1949. The current legal infrastructure in the People's Republic of China was heavily influenced by Soviet Socialist law , which essentially prioritises administrative law at the expense of private law rights. Due to rapid industrialisation, today China is undergoing
20250-436: The strikers). In the US, RCA's Radio Group established its radio network, NBC, in 1926. The Paley family founded CBS soon after. These two networks, which supplied news broadcasts to subsidiaries and affiliates, dominated the airwaves throughout the period of radio's hegemony as a news source. Radio broadcasters in the United States negotiated a similar arrangement with the press in 1933, when they agreed to use only news from
20400-626: The testimony of observers and witnesses to events. News is sometimes called " hard news " to differentiate it from soft media . Subject matters for news reports include war , government , politics , education , health , economy , business , fashion , sport , entertainment , and the environment , as well as quirky or unusual events. Government proclamations, concerning royal ceremonies , laws , taxes , public health , and criminals , have been dubbed news since ancient times. Technological and social developments , often driven by government communication and espionage networks, have increased
20550-614: The way the law actually worked. Religious law is explicitly based on religious precepts. Examples include the Jewish Halakha and Islamic Sharia —both of which translate as the "path to follow". Christian canon law also survives in some church communities. Often the implication of religion for law is unalterability because the word of God cannot be amended or legislated against by judges or governments. Nonetheless, most religious jurisdictions rely on further human elaboration to provide for thorough and detailed legal systems. For instance,
20700-535: The way, and these places have naturally served as hubs for gaining news of the world. In late medieval Britain, reports ("tidings") of major events were a topic of great public interest, as chronicled in Chaucer's 1380 The House of Fame and other works. Before the invention of newspapers in the early 17th century, official government bulletins and edicts were circulated at times in some centralized empires. The first documented use of an organized courier service for
20850-734: The wire with little embellishment. In a 20 September 1918 Pravda editorial, Lenin instructed the Soviet press to cut back on their political rambling and produce many short anticapitalist news items in "telegraph style". As in previous eras, the news agencies provided special services to political and business clients, and these services constituted a significant portion of their operations and income. The wire services maintained close relationships with their respective national governments, which provided both press releases and payments. The acceleration and centralization of economic news facilitated regional economic integration and economic globalization . "It
21000-418: The word "law" had two different and irreconcilable meanings. Thurman Arnold said that it is obvious that it is impossible to define the word "law" and that it is also equally obvious that the struggle to define that word should not ever be abandoned. It is possible to take the view that there is no need to define the word "law" (e.g. "let's forget about generalities and get down to cases "). One definition
21150-425: Was "a very civilized man prepared for a time to face life in the forest, plunging into the wilderness of the New World with his Bible, ax, and newspapers." In France, the Revolution brought forth an abundance of newspapers and a new climate of press freedom, followed by a return to repression under Napoleon. In 1792 the Revolutionaries set up a news ministry called the Bureau d'Esprit . Some newspapers published in
21300-459: Was a battleground of competing telegraphic interests until World War I, after which U.S. interests finally did consolidate their power in the hemisphere. By the turn of the century (i.e., c. 1900 ), Wolff, Havas, and Reuters formed a news cartel, dividing up the global market into three sections, in which each had more-or-less exclusive distribution rights and relationships with national agencies. Each agency's area corresponded roughly to
21450-417: Was equitable in a case. From the time of Sir Thomas More , the first lawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body of equity grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its own Court of Chancery . At first, equity was often criticised as erratic. Over time, courts of equity developed solid principles , especially under Lord Eldon . In the 19th century in England, and in 1937 in
21600-449: Was even more constant. Consequently, many Europeans read newspapers originating from beyond their national borders—especially from the Dutch Republic , where publishers could evade state censorship. The new United States saw a newspaper boom beginning with the Revolutionary era, accelerated by spirited debates over the establishment of a new government, spurred on by subsidies contained in the 1792 Postal Service Act , and continuing into
21750-435: Was formed so that merchants could trade with common standards of practice rather than with the many splintered facets of local laws. The Law Merchant, a precursor to modern commercial law, emphasised the freedom to contract and alienability of property. As nationalism grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Law Merchant was incorporated into countries' local law under new civil codes. The Napoleonic and German Codes became
21900-527: Was handwritten on silk and read by government officials. The court created a Bureau of Official Reports ( Jin Zhouyuan ) to centralize news distribution for the court. Newsletters called ch'ao pao continued to be produced and gained wider public circulation in the following centuries. In 1582 there was the first reference to privately published newssheets in Beijing, during the late Ming dynasty . Japan had effective communications and postal delivery networks at several points in its history, first in 646 with
22050-407: Was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, but its detailed rules were developed by professional jurists and were highly sophisticated. Over the centuries between the rise and decline of the Roman Empire , law was adapted to cope with the changing social situations and underwent major codification under Theodosius II and Justinian I . Although codes were replaced by custom and case law during
22200-475: Was the Electronic Telegraph , published by The Daily Telegraph . A 1994 earthquake in California was one of the first big stories to be reported online in real time. The new availability of web browsing made news sites accessible to more people. On the day of the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995, people flocked to newsgroups and chatrooms to discuss the situation and share information. The Oklahoma City Daily posted news to its site within hours. Two of
22350-459: Was the commercial advantage provided by up-to-date news. In 1556, the government of Venice first published the monthly Notizie scritte , which cost one gazetta . These avvisi were handwritten newsletters and used to convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently to Italian cities (1500–1700)—sharing some characteristics of newspapers though usually not considered true newspapers. Avvisi were sold by subscription under
22500-493: Was the decrease in information costs and the increasing communication speed that stood at the roots of increased market integration, rather than falling transport costs by itself. In order to send goods to another area, merchants needed to know first whether in fact to send off the goods and to what place. Information costs and speed were essential for these decisions." The British Broadcasting Company began transmitting radio news from London in 1922, dependent entirely, by law, on
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