Chapter 1: What is law?

Question 1

Corrective justice

Answer 1

theory of justice according to which (1) a person had a moral responsibility for harm caused to another, and (2) the latter’s loss must be rectified or corrected

Question 2

Critical legal studies

Answer 2

theory of law largely concerned with exposing law as an instrument of the rich and powerful

Question 3

Critical race theory

Answer 3

theory of law that focuses on race-based inequities; an offshoot of critical legal studies

Question 4

Deontological

Answer 4

theories that focus on the inherent rightness or wrongness of behavior, without regard to the behavior’s consequences or outcomes

Question 5

Distributive justice

Answer 5

theory of justice based on lex talionis or the law of retaliation Provides for the distribution of a state’s bounty (property and honors, for example) according to merit

Question 6

Domestic law

Answer 6

law of a particular state or society

Question 7

Ethics

Answer 7

deals with standards of human behavior; like morality, can be approached from either a descriptive or normative point of view

Question 8

Feminist theories of law

Answer 8

theories of law that generally concern the legal, social, and economic rights of and improving opportunities for women

Question 9

Instrumentalist

Answer 9

theories that focus on something – for example, justice or the law – as a means to an end

Question 10

Jurisprudence

Answer 10

also known as “philosophy of law” or “science of law”; concerns theories that are used to describe, explain, or criticize the law

Question 11

Law and society

Answer 11

kind of legal study that looks at law from a broadly social, interdisciplinary perspective

Question 12

Legal positivism

Answer 12

theory that the only valid source of law is the principles, rules, and regulations expressly enacted by the institutions pr persons within a society that are generally recognized as having the power to enact them

Question 13

Legal realism

Answer 13

theory, developed in the United States and Scandinavian countries, that encouraged a more thorough empirical study of the process by which laws are made and applied

Question 14

Marxist theories of law

Answer 14

legal theories, based on the writing of the communist philosopher Karl Marx, that are concerned with the distribution of wealth in society; related to distributive justice theories

Question 15

Military law

Answer 15

constitutionally separate and relatively self-contained system of law regulating the Canadian Forces

Question 16

Morality

Answer 16

as a system of values or principles concerning what is right or wrong with respect to human behavior

Question 17

Natural law

Answer 17

source of law that is higher than human-made (or positive) law and with which human-made law must comply in. order to be valid

Question 18

Positive law

Answer 18

laws made in accordance with the society’s existing formalized and recognized process are valid, regardless of so-called natural law, morality, or any external standard

Question 19

Practice norms

Answer 19

ethical standards and legal skills that legal practitioners must follow and possess to deliver legal services effectively

Question 20

Private law

Answer 20

law that concerns the relationships between persons

Question 21

Procedural law

Answer 21

law relating to the process by which core rights and obligations are determined and enforced

Question 22

Public international law (or international law)

Answer 22

law relating primarily to international treaties and customs and to interstate relationships

Question 23

Public law

Answer 23

law dealing with the legal relationship between a state and individual members of the state

Question 24

Retributive justice

Answer 24

theory of justice based on lex talionis or the law of retaliation

Question 25

Rule of law

Answer 25

a key legal concept whose central tenets are that everyone is equal before the law and that power under the law should not be used arbitrarily

Question 26

Substantive law

Answer 26

law that deals with core rights and obligations

Question 27

Utilitarianism

Answer 27

an ethical philosophy that measures the utility or worth of actions in terms of the overall happiness they generate

Question 28

General Norms or Standards of Behavior

Answer 28

these rules usually prohibit certain activities, such as murder or careless driving

Question 29

Condition Rules

Answer 29

these rules establish conditions or requirements that must be met before certain activities can be carried out

Question 30

Power-Conferring Rules

Answer 30

these rules allow you to define your own legal relationship within certain contexts

Question 31

Conjunctive

Answer 31

if the elements are joined by “and” the list is called conjunctive [A, B, and C]

Question 32

Disjunctive

Answer 32

if the elements are joined by “or”, the list is called disjunctiv [A, B, or C]

Question 33

Morality

Answer 33

a system of values or principles concerning what is right or wrong with respect to human behavior; standards of right and wrong, often associated with personal character

Question 34

Descriptive Morality

Answer 34

observing what a particular community believes to be right or wrong; offering no judgements or endorsements of these beliefs, and describing things as they are

Question 35

Normative Morality

Answer 35

we believe the situation to have objective truth, or to set an ideal standard; a moral code viewed in this light tells us how we should behave

Question 36

Meta-Ethics

Answer 36

deals with basic questions, such as how we determine what is good or bad and the nature of behavioral standards

Question 37

Analytic Jurisprudence

Answer 37

concerned with what the law is, not what it ought to be

Question 38

Normative Jurisprudence

Answer 38

concerned with what the law ought to be

Question 39

Sociology of Law

Answer 39

kind of sociological study that looks at law from a broadly social, interdisciplinary perspective

Question 40

Central tenets

Answer 40

everyone in a society, regardless of their social or political position, should be treated equally before the law