We define classes of graphs based on forbidding and enforcing boundary conditions. Forbidding conditions prevent a graph to have certain combinations of subgraphs and enforcing conditions impose certain subgraph structures. We say that a class of graphs is an fe-class if the class can be defined through forbidding and enforcing conditions (fe-system). We investigate properties of fe-systems and characterize familiar classes of graphs such as paths and cycles, trees, bi-partite, complete, Eulerian, and k-regular graphs as fe-classes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.