In the sense used in philosophy and the social sciences, a convention is commonly seen as a set of widely agreed or accepted rules or customs. Certain types of rules or customs may become law, and regulatory legislation may be introduced to formalise or enforce the convention (eg. laws which determine which side of the road vehicles must be driven). In a social context, a convention may retain the character of an "unwritten" law of custom (eg. the manner in which people greet each other, such as by shaking each other's hands). These five broad types of question are called analytical or logical, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic respectively. ... The social sciences are a group of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... Look up Agreement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary An agreement may be an agreement in beliefs, rules, practices (policies), or conduct. ... Look up rule on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Custom has a number of meanings: A custom is a common practice among a group of people, especially depending on country, culture, time, and religion. ... Law topics overview List of areas of law List of legal topics List of legal terms List of jurists List of legal abbreviations List of case law lists List of law firms Further reading Cheyenne Way: Conflict & Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence, Karl N. Llewellyn and E. Adamson Hoebel, University... Legislation refers to the process of enacting statutory laws, or to the set of statutory laws in a state. ... A typical rural county road in Indiana, USA, where traffic drives on the right. ... // Latin root meaning The term social is derived from the Latin word socius, which as a noun means an associate, ally, companion, business partner or comrade and in the adjectival form socialis refers to a bond between people (such as marriage) or to their collective or connected existence. ...

General

A convention is a rule or a selection from among two or more alternatives, where the rule or alternative is agreed upon among participants. Often the word refers to unwritten customs shared throughout a community. For instance, it is conventional in many societies that strangers being introduced shake hands. Some conventions are explicitly legislated; for example, it is conventional in America and Germany that motorists drive on the right side of the road, whereas in England and Barbados they drive on the left. The extent to which justice is conventional (as opposed to natural or objective) is historically an important debate among philosophers. ... This article covers only rules of highways. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: England Travel guide to England from Wikitravel English language English law English (people) List of monarchs of England – Kings of England family tree List of English people Angeln (region in northern Germany, presumably the origin of the Angles for whom England is named) UK... Lady Justice - allegory of Justice as woman with sword and with book - statue at court building. ... Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that do not distinguish between the supernatural and the natural. ... The word objectivity admits at least two related meanings in philosophy. ... A philosopher is a person devoted to studying and producing results in philosophy. ...

The nature of conventions has raised long-lasting philosophical discussion. Quine, Davidson and David Lewis published influential writings on the subject. Lewis's account of convention received an extended critique in Margaret Gilbert's On Social Facts. Another view of convention comes from Ruth Millikan's Language: A Biological Model (2005), once more against Lewis. W. V. Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was one of the most influential American philosophers and logicians of the 20th century. ... Donald Davidson (March 6, 1917 – August 30, 2003) was an American philosopher and the Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. ... David K. Lewis David Kellogg Lewis (September 28, 1941 – October 14, 2001) is considered to have been one of the leading analytic philosophers of the latter half of the 20th century. ... Margaret Gilbert is a philosopher best known for her 1989 book On Social Facts. ... Ruth Millikan (1933 - ) is a well-known American philosopher of biology, psychology, and language. ...

Customary or social conventions

In every field of art, science, or other human endeavor, there are conventions that may simply be expectations (strangers being introduced shake hands, paintings are rectangular) or stock devices (a comedy ends with a marriage, but a cowboy film can end with the hero riding off into the sunset). There are generic conventions which are very closely tied to a particular artistic genre, and may even help to define what that genre is. Terms such as fan conventions and science fiction conventions could be interpreted in this manner, but more often refer to the meaning of "convention" as a gathering or the physical location of a gathering. Resources ArtLex. ... // What is science? There are various understandings of the word science. According to empiricism, scientific theories are objective, empirically testable, and predictive — they predict empirical results that can be checked and possibly contradicted. ... The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ... Comedy is the use of humor in the form of theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. ... A cowboy (Spanish vaquero) tends cattle and horses on cattle ranches in North and South America. ... Films are produced by recording actual people and objects with cameras, or by creating them using animation techniques and/or special effects. ... A genre is a division of a particular form of art according to criteria particular to that form. ... A fan convention, or con, is an event in which the fans of a particular TV show, comic book, or actor, or an entire style of entertainment such as science fiction or anime, gather together to meet famous personalities (and each other) face-to-face. ... Science fiction conventions are gatherings of the community of fans (called science fiction fandom) of various forms of science fiction and fantasy. ... Metro Toronto Convention Centre, late 2004. ...

Government

In government, convention is a set of unwritten rules which the participants in the government are expected to follow. These rules can be ignored only if justification is clear, or can be provided. Otherwise, consequences are sure to follow. Consequences may include ignoring some other convention that has until now been followed. According to the traditional doctrine (Dicey), conventions cannot be enforced in courts, because they are non-legal sets of rules. Convention is particularly important in the United Kingdom and other governments using the Westminster System of government (e g Canada and Australia) where many of the rules of government are unwritten. The Westminster System - also called Parliamentary System is a democratic system of government modelled after that of the United Kingdom system, as used in the Palace of Westminster, the location of the British parliament. ...

International law

The term convention is also used in international law to refer to certain formal statements of principle such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Conventions are adopted by international bodies such as the International Labour Organization and the United Nations. Conventions so adopted usually apply only to countries that ratify them, and do not automatically apply to member states of such bodies. These conventions are generally seen as having the force of international treaties for the ratifying countries. International law, is the body of law that regulates the activities of entities possessing international personality. Traditionally, that meant the conduct and relationships of states. ... The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international convention setting out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children. ... For other meanings of the ILO abbreviation, see ILO (disambiguation). ... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... A treaty is a binding agreement under international law concluded by subjects of international law, namely states and international organizations. ...

External links

• Law-Ref.org index of important international conventions
• Global Business Events Portal