RULES are not the same as LAWS

World leaders in the post-WW2 era crafted what is often called a "rules-based global order." This raises the question about how rules might differ from laws. I consulted AI to help understand the difference.

Rules and laws differ primarily in their source of authority, jurisdiction, and the severity of consequences for breaking them. While both aim to maintain order and safety, laws are a specialized, legally binding subset of rules created by a governing body. 

Key Differences Between Rules and Laws

Feature	Rules	Laws
Origin	Created by individuals or private organizations (parents, teachers, clubs, employers).	Enacted by government bodies (parliament, congress, or local legislatures).
Jurisdiction	Apply only to members of a specific group or location (a household, school, or sport).	Apply to all members of a community, state, or country equally.
Enforcement	Enforced by the person or organization that created them.	Enforced by public authorities like the police and the court system.
Consequences	Typically milder and flexible, such as being grounded, losing privileges, or disqualification.	Strict and pre-determined, including fines, community service, or imprisonment.
Formality	Often informal and can be changed quickly as needs arise.	Must go through a formal legislative process (bill to law) and are written into official codes.

Specialized Contexts

• Administrative Law: In a legal context, "rules" often refer to regulations created by government agencies (like the EPA or FDA). These rules provide the technical "how-to" details for enforcing broader laws passed by the legislature.
• Scientific Context: A law is a universal principle that describes what always happens under certain conditions (e.g., Newton's laws of motion), while a rule is often a tool or independently proven statement used to predict behavior in specific circumstances.
• Sports: Many sports use the terms interchangeably; for example, cricket is governed by "Laws," while baseball is governed by "Official Rules". 

This post is prompted by the US seizure of the president of Venezuela 

and his wife for legal reasons. But I sense a gray area between

laws and rules. 

Hegemony is a broader, more subtle form of power based on consent, cultural influence, and shared ideas, making dominance seem natural, while legal power relies on formal rules, institutions, and explicit enforcement (like laws and courts) to command obedience, though hegemony often works through legal systems to secure consent for its dominant ideas. Legal power is about the right to rule and stated authority, whereas hegemony is the deeper, often invisible, ability to shape what people believe is right or normal, even without coercion. 

Hegemony

• Nature: Power through consent, leadership, and shared norms.
• Mechanism: Intellectual and moral leadership; making the dominant group's worldview seem like common sense (e.g., "that's just the way things are").
• Scope: Cultural, ideological, and often subtle, shaping beliefs and desires.
• Example: A powerful nation influencing global culture and economic practices, leading other states to adopt similar systems because they seem beneficial or inevitable, notes this Oxford Public International Law article. 

Legal Power

• Nature: Formal authority, rules, and rights.
• Mechanism: Commands, prohibitions, decisions, and enforcement through institutions (police, courts, laws).
• Scope: Explicit, codified, and often coercive (threat of punishment).
• Example: A government's power to pass laws, collect taxes, and prosecute crimes, based on a constitution or established legal framework, explains this democracy paradox article. 

Key Difference

• Hegemony is about leading (getting people to want what you want or accept your rule as legitimate), while legal power is about ruling (getting people to obey through formalized authority).
• Hegemony provides the consent that makes legal power more stable and less reliant on brute force, creating a seemingly universal order, notes this Taylor Francis article and this US Legal Forms article.