oral law
Uncodified legal tradition
Oral law is religious law transmitted by word of mouth rather than written down, passed from generation to generation through teaching and memorization.
The term appears most often in Jewish tradition, where it refers to interpretations and elaborations of the written Torah, eventually codified in the Talmud.
The oral law governs aspects of daily life not explicitly addressed in scripture.
- memorizedStored in recall
- MishnahCodified Jewish oral law
- unwrittenNot set down formally
- TalmudRabbinic law compilation
- MidrashRabbinic biblical commentary tradition
Torah · Sunnah · Hadith · rabbinic · handed-down · Pharisees · transmission · yeshiva · study hall · teachings · binding · precedent · scrolls · commentary · sages · elders · interpretation · custom
oral lawlegislation
Official enactment of statutes
civil code · penal code · constitutional law · statute · ordinance
oral lawcivil code
Codified private law system
legal code · codex · constitution · case law