Gas prices are not subject to many regular economic laws. The mercantile is set by future traders and determined by OPEC, some governments, and oil companies.
One law it is affected by is the law of supply and demand. The worlds population is gradually increasing, and the economies of the world are gradually becoming more viable; notably in the two most populated nations on earth, India and China. As a result, more people are taking to the roads in gasoline consuming automobiles. Oil is a resource of finite abundance. It is being drained everyday. Therefore, the demand for it is going up, while the supply of it is going down. This raises its price.
Secondly, about sixty percent of the worlds oil supply is controlled by an oligopoly: OPEC. This is an international organization with a business interests, not subject to legal oversight by one, or a collection of governments or international organizations like the UN. Therefore, they basically do what they want. OPEC drills for oil in the most expensive places first, ensuring that the cheapest places are left for last. This also increases the price of gas.
Third, future traders are partly responsible for setting the price point by determining what the price of oil will be like in the near future. In that respect things like the war in Iraq contribute greatly, along with any other international incident in the Persian Gulf, as well as other economic realities like the depreciation of the dollars value. As the value of the dollar drops, more money will have to be used to buy things, so the future traders adjust the price accordingly. Therefore, the congress printing money that can't be backed also contributes to rising gas prices.
Fourth, oil companies determine how much they will retail sell gas for. They buy it at a wholesale price but sell it for quite a bit more. This is true of any product, but the oil companies may charge quite a bit in order to procure the money necessary to fund future exhibitions to find more oil resources.
To sum it up, there are several reasons for the gas prices being the way they are and there is no short fix. If Americans boycotted gas, or even drove less, it would gradually bring gas prices down by dropping the demand. However, gas prices will never be back down to what they once were, unless and until an alternative source of energy is put on the market, and is viable enough to compete with oil. This will take several decades however. In the short term, if we manage international affairs betters, increase the value of the dollar and lower our demand for oil, then prices can be brought down to a more reasonable price.