Palestinian law is the rule of law within the territory administered by the Palestinian National Authority pursuant to the Oslo Accords. It has an unusually unsettled status, as of 2008, due to the complex legal history of the area, the overlapping jurisdictions, and the lawlessness and high crime rate in those areas. Palestinian law includes many of the legal regimes and precepts used in Palestinian ruled territory and administered by the Palestinian Authority (West Bank areas A and B) and Hamas (Gaza Strip), which is not an independent nation-state.

The scope of this article is to explain the legal history, context and development of law, the current fields of study of law in Palestinian ruled territory, as well as the state of lawlessness in those territories. It is also to discuss the domestic and international positions on which set of laws are controlling in Palestinian ruled territory today.

Due to the changing usages of the terms "Palestine" and "Palestinian" throughout history, the term may also be associated with regimes that are not associated with the Palestinian law of today. Examples include the discussion (in a reference work dating from 1906) of the Talmudic interpretation of laws from Palestine before 70 C.E., also known as Halakha: "Those of the laws of Palestine that were extended after the Exile were originally enacted for the purpose of protecting the judicial administration and economic interests of Palestine, and with a view to encourage settlement there." Such references to ancient Palestinian law do not apply to the Palestinian legal situation since at least 1948.

Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former spokesperson with the Palestine Liberation Organization. She is best known for her work as a legal adviser and negotiator on peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian organizations. President George W. Bush referred her role in 2005 by stating that she is "a lovely lady who is a very well-educated person, went back to Palestine to try to serve what she hopes will be a country. I was impressed".

Buttu was born in Canada to Palestinian parents. She received a B.A. in Middle East and Islamic Studies and an LL.M. from the University of Toronto, a J.D. from Queen's University Faculty of Law, a J.S.M. from Stanford Law School, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

She began her work as negotiator in 2000, shortly after the outbreak of the Second Palestinian Intifada, as a spokesperson for the Negotiations Support Unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization.The Economist in 2005 termed her part of the closest thing to a Palestinian makeover.Al-Ahram Weekly carried an op-ed piece in 2005 in which she was lauded for projecting an image that was opposite of the Palestinians stock villain's role image.