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When lawyers talk about ''the law'' they're talking about two kinds of law, laws made by the government and the common law.
Laws made by the government are called legislation. Important legislation for family law includes the ''[[Divorce Act, RSC 1985, c 3 (2nd Supp)|Divorce Act]]'', a law made by the federal government, and the ''[[Family Law Act, SBC 2011, c 25|Family Law Act]]'', a law made by the provincial government. The government can also make regulations for a particular piece of legislation which might contain important additional rules or say how the legislation is to be interpreted. The most important regulation in family law is the Child Support Guidelines, a regulation to the ''Divorce Act''.
The common law is all of the legal rules and principles that haven't been created by the government. The common law has been developed by the court since the modern court system was established several hundreds of years ago.