Chapter 2: Functions and Sources of Law

Question 1

Laws

Answer 1

Rules of conduct promulgated and enforced by the government.

Question 2

Jurisprudence

Answer 2

The study of law and legal philosophy.

Question 3

Natural law

Answer 3

A legal philosophy whose proponents think there are ideal laws that can be discovered through careful thought and humanity’s innate sense of right and wrong.

Question 4

Legal positivism

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Legal formalism

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

Legal realism

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Originalism

Answer 7

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 the were written.

Question 8

Evolutionary approach

Answer 8

An approach to constitutional interpretation in which judges seek to determine the underlying purpose that the drafters had in mind at the time the wrote the law and the modern-day option that best advances that purpose.

Question 9

Constitutional law

Answer 9

A body of principles and rules either explicitly stated in, or inferred from, the U.S. Constitution and those of the individual states.

Question 10

Separation of powers

Answer 10

The division of governmental power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Question 11

Checks and balances

Answer 11

Division among governmental branches so that each branch acts a check on the power of the other two.

Question 12

Federalism

Answer 12

A system of government in which the authority to govern is split between a single, nationwide central government and several regional governments.

Question 13

Bill of Rights

Answer 13

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Question 14

Doctrine of incorporation

Answer 14

In constitutional law, the application of the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process protections to incorporate the provisions in the Bill of Rights and make the applicable to the states.

Question 15

Power of judicial review

Answer 15

A court’s power to review statutes to decide if they conform to the U.S. or state constitutions.

Question 16

Statute

Answer 16

A law enacted by a state legislature or by Congress.

Question 17

Ordinance

Answer 17

A law enacted by a local government; a subcategory of statutory law.

Question 18

Administrative law

Answer 18

Rules and regulations created by administrative agencies.

Question 19

Regulation

Answer 19

A law promulgated by an administrative agency.

Question 20

Enabling act

Answer 20

A statute establishing and setting out the powers of an administrative agency.

Question 21

Fourth branch of government

Answer 21

Administrative agencies.

Question 22

Common law

Answer 22

Law created by the courts.

Question 23

Stare decisis

Answer 23

The doctrine stating that normally once a court has decided one way on a particular issue, it and other courts in the same jurisdiction will decide the same way on that issue in future cases given similar facts, unless they can be convinced of the need for change.

Question 24

Codification of the common law

Answer 24

The process of legislative enactment of areas of the law previously governed soley by the common law.

Question 25

Derogation of the common law

Answer 25

Used to describe legislation that changes the common law.

Question 26

Equity

Answer 26

Fairness; a court’s power to do justice. Equity powers allow judges to take action when otherwise the law would limit their decisions to monetary awards. Equity powers include a judge’s ability to issue an injuction and to order specific performance.

Question 27

Injunction

Answer 27

A court order requiring a party to perform a specific act or to cease doing a specific act.

Question 28

Specific performance

Answer 28

A requirement that a party fulfill his or her contractual obligations.