nomos

Nomos, from the Greek νόμος (nomos), means law, custom, or rule. It denotes the normative order that regulates behavior within a community and can refer to formal statutes as well as unwritten social norms. In classical Greek thought, nomos is often contrasted with physis, nature; the distinction marks the difference between man-made law or convention and natural order.

Throughout ancient Greek philosophy and political life, nomos referred to the laws and institutions by which a city or society governs itself. It could describe statutory law, constitutional arrangements, or customary practices that coordinate social life. The concept was employed by philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle to analyze how communities organize power, restraint, and justice, and to explore tensions between convention and virtue.

In later philosophy and social theory, nomos broadened to denote the overarching normative order of a society or institution, including legal and moral norms. The term has given rise to terms such as nomothetic, meaning law-like or generalizing across cases.

In political theory, the idea of nomos has also been revived in discussions of international order; for example, Carl Schmitt’s Nomos of the Earth discusses the geopolitical and legal structures that organize the world-system beyond the state.