Chapter 2 Flashcards
Laws
Rules of conduct promulgated and enforced by the government.
Jurisprudence
The study of law and legal philosophy.
Natural Law
A legal philosophy whose proponents espouse that there are ideal laws that can be discovered through careful thought and humanity’s innate sense of right and wrong.
Legal Positiviism
A legal theory whose proponents believe that the validity of a law is determined by the process through which it was made rather than by the degree to which it reflects natural law principles.
Legal Formalism
A legal theory that views the law as a complete and autonomous system of logically consistent principles within which judges find the correct result by simply making logical deductions.
Legal Realism
A legal philosophy whose proponents think that judges decide cases based on factors other than logic and preexisting rules, such as economic and sociological factors.
Originalism
An approach to constitutional interpretation that narrowly interprets the text of the Constitution in a manner that is consistent with what most people understood those words to mean at the time that they were written.
Eveolutionary appropach
An approach to constitutional interpretation in which judges seek to determine the underlying purpose that the drafters had in mind at the time they wrote the law and the modern-day option that best advances that purpose.
Constitutional Law
A body of principles and rules either explicitly stated in , or inferred from, the US Constitution and those of the individual states.
Confederation
A form of government in which independent units from an alliance but retain most of their power, delegating only a limited amount of power to a central authority.
Sovereign Powers
The power of a government to do the things that are traditionally considered necessary to govern, such as making and executing laws, collecting taxes, signing treaties, and making war.
Separation of Power
The division of governmental power among legislative, executive, and judicial brances.
Power of Judicial Review
A court’s power to review statutes to decide if they conform to the US or state constitutions.
Federalism
A system of government in which the authority to govern is split between a single nationwide central government and several regional governments that control specific geographic areas.
Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution.
Doctrine of Incorporation
The application of the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process protections to incorporate the provisions of the Bill of Rights and make them applicable to the states.
State Action Requirement
A defendant cannot be charged with violating a constitutional right unless acting as an agent of a governmental entity.
Statute
A law enacted by a state legislature or by Congress.
Ordinance
A law enacted by a local government; a subcategory of statutory law.
Administrative Law
Rules and regulations created by administrative agencies.
Regulation
A law promulgated by an administrative agency.
Enabling Act
A statute establishing and setting out the powers of an administrative agency.
Fourth Branch of Government
Administrative agencies
Executive Order
An official policy directed issued by the President, or by the governor of a state, that directs government employees as to how they should implement the law. At the federal level, executive orders are published in the Federal Register.
Executive memorandum
An official policy directive issued by the President, or by the governor of a state, that directs government employees as to how they should implement the law.
Common Law
Law created by the courts.
Codification of common law
The process of legislative enactment of areas of the law previously governed solely by the common law.
Derogation of the common law
Used to describe legislation that changes the common law.
Equity
Fairness; a court’s power to do justice. Equity powers allow judges to take action when the law would otherwise limit their decision to monetary awards. Equity powers include a judge’s ability to issue an injunction and to order specific performance.
Injunction
A court order requiring a party to perform a specific act or to cease doing a specific act.
Specific Performance
A requirement that a party fulfill his or her contractual obligations.
