My apartment consists of 2 bedrooms, a small living room, a bathroom and a kitchen combined with a dining room. Our 2 bedrooms, half of the living room and half the kitchen/dining room are all connected to one breaker. Our breaker box consists of the main breaker and 2 other switches. 3/4 of our apartment loses power each time the breaker trips. I live in NYS and am trying to find out if there is a law regarding how many rooms or outlets can be assigned to each breaker or if there are supposed to be so many breakers per room in an apartment. All the other apartments in the building, even the ones smaller than mine have at least 4 switches to them. I have been paying my rent faithfully and the landlord keeps ignoring my calls. I feel that this is a safety issue that shouldn't be ignored and although the landlord is in violation of our lease by not responding to the maintenance calls I am also wondering if the wiring is against state regulations also. If any body can help me I would greatly appreciate it.

To get the landlords attention, you can call the local municipal electrical inspector, or housing agency, or possibly the health dept or the Fire Marshall, to report the electrical problem.

The inspector can tell you if the apt is wired to code.

However, why is the breaker tripping? Is it some appliance causing the problem, or too many?

The National Electric Code has guidelines for how many circuits are needed in a residence, based on square footage, demand factor (you don't turn on every light in the house at the same time) The code also specifies circuits for the laundry and the kitchen, minimum number of required outlets, etc. It is not a straightforward formula, and also results in the minimum requirement being met.
Most states and municipalities also have local addendums to the national code, so any advice you get here will be general.

Keep in mind that in an older house, there may not be enough power available, even though it met code requirements when the house was built. (Typically, the kitchen circuit is undersized in older homes, and the microwave oven trips the breaker) The homeowner or landlord is usually not required to upgrade in this case.

It also sounds like you are in a single family home that has been converted to apartments? Just a guess. It is very tricky to separate the electricity into individual tenants in this case.