This study explores the different ways people view the law. It identifies three common narratives: one is based on the idea of the law as magisterial and remote; another views the law as a game with rules that can be manipulated to one's advantage; and a third narrative describes the law as an arbitrary power to be actively resisted. Drawing on more than 400 extensive case studies, the text presents individual experiences interwoven with an analysis that charts a coherent theory of legality. It depicts the institution as it is lived: strange and familiar, imperfect and ordinary, and at the centre of daily life.