and financial organizations also rely on many written legal documents, such as contracts, reports to government agencies, tax records, and accounting reports. Financial institutions and markets that hold, transmit, trade, insure, or regulate holdings for clients or other institutions are particularly dependent on written records (though now often in digital form) to maintain the integrity of their roles. Governance and law Many modern systems of government are organized and sanctified through written constitutions at the national and sometimes at the state or other organizational levels. Written rules and procedures typically guide the operations of the various branches, departments, and other bodies of government, which regularly produce reports and other documents as work products and to account for their actions. In addition to legislative branches that draft and pass laws, these laws are administered by an executive branch, which can present further written regulations specifying the laws and how they are carried out. Governments at different levels also typically maintain written records on citizens concerning identities; life events such as births, deaths, marriages, divorces; the granting of licenses for controlled activities; criminal charges, traffic offenses, and other penalties small and large; and tax liability and payments. Governance systems also produce policies to shape society's activities, sometimes also at the international level, e.g. allocating budgets and regulating or actuating economic mechanisms, ideally towards collective goals and values such as safety and health or for addressing identified problems. These also include systems at subnational levels, such as cities and multinational corporations (e.g. corporate governance and Web platform governance). Written legal codes, in modern governments are typically produced by legislative branches and provide standardized rules for commercial, civil, and lawful activity. The legal codes also provide remedies and penalties for violation of the rules as well as procedures for their enforcement. In the United States, legal proceedings in courts produce written records, which can become appealed based on the written records to higher courts. Written records carry particular evidentiary weight in court proceedings. Lawyers also offer written briefs for initial proceedings, consequent appeals and other points at issue; maintain files on the cases they are engaged with; and negotiate written agreements that might resolve cases. Judges produce written opinions that then may be treated as precedent for consequent cases. Police departments and other bodies charged with the enforcement of laws and maintenance of civil, commercial, or criminal order regularly must produce reports of the