"English distinguishes between "law" and "right", with each corresponding to some of the aspects of loi (Gesetz) or droit (Recht), but the extension of the concepts is not the same. "Law" has a wider extension than loi, and even if "right" partly overlaps with the polysemy of jus or of droit, the use of the term "right", in the singular and the plural, refers more often to the specific dimension of droit that the French would term droits subjectifs (subjective rights; that is, freedom, property, etc.) attached to individual or collective subjects."
"In the continental tradition, law is both a rule and a command given by an authority empowered to enact it; more specifically, la loi refers to a certain kind of norm, established by a particular power (legislative power), and regarded as higher than that of other sources of droit (regulation, jurisprudence, and so on), in accordance with criteria that can be material or formal. In this context, the basic problem is knowing what founds the higher authority of the law, and what can stem from its intrinsic characteristics (rationality, generality, publicness, and so forth), and from the identity of the founder of the law (the sovereign)."
CASSIN, Barbara, Emily APTER, Jacques LEZRA a Michael WOOD, ed. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon: A one-of-a-kind reference to the international vocabulary of the humanities. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780691138701, p. 551.
