What is law in the legal sense (Recht im juristischen Sinn), and how does it influence behaviour?

The rules set by written laws, ordinances and court rulings, plus long-accepted unwritten rules (customary law). It is usually backed by sanctions and enforceable in court, regulates behaviour rather than attitudes, and works through external pressure.

Its features:

• Sources: written statutes, ordinances and court decisions, and customary law (Gewohnheitsrecht): rules followed generally and for a long time without ever being written down.
• Enforcement: usually backed by sanctions and enforceable before a court.
• Object: it regulates the individual's behaviour in society, not their attitude. The law does not care whether you want to steal, only whether you do.
• Aim: order and security in society.
• Effect: external. It shapes behaviour through outside pressure (fear of punishment).

Contrast this with the sense of justice (next card), which works from the inside.

Go deeper:

• Wikipedia: Customary law — how unwritten rules become binding law.