Exam questions Flashcards
5th amendment
Guarantees certain rights to any person accused of a crime. Addresses court procedures in a criminal trial.
The Fifth Amendment breaks down into five rights or protections: the right to a jury trial when you’re charged with a crime, protection against double jeopardy, protection against self-incrimination, the right to a fair trial, and protection against the taking of property by the government without compensation.
14th amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.
The amendment’s first section includes several clauses: the Citizenship Clause, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause.
Nuisance law
Nuisance, in law, a human activity or a physical condition that is harmful or offensive to others and gives rise to a cause of action. A public nuisance created in a public place or on public land, or affecting the morals, safety, or health of the community, is considered an offense against the state. Such activities as obstructing a public road, polluting air and water, operating a house of prostitution, and keeping explosives are public nuisances. A private nuisance is an activity or condition that interferes with the use and enjoyment of neighboring privately owned lands, without, however, constituting an actual invasion of the property.
Albert v. Meadowbrook Swimming Club
Meadowbrook Swimming Club Inc., a business corporation, built an amusement place and enlarged its amusement place by adding an outdoor dance floor, with a ‘shell’ platform for the musicians’ stand. In the summer the defendant opened the dance floor to the public, and engaged modern jazz orchestras to play dance music from nine to twelve, six nights per week, and used amplifiers to enhance the volume of sound.
The music was so penetrating and loud that witnesses who live on the sides of the hills and the plateau were unable to sleep, study, or otherwise lead normal lives in their own homes for four evenings a week during the past and present summer.
The plaintiff won.
Georgia v. Tennessee Copper
The Tennessee Copper Company ran a copper business near Georgia state lines. Local landowners had tried to get a Tennessee court to issue an injunction (Ducktown sulphur), but the court refused due to the importance of the company to the local economy.
Georgia (the state) ventured into the ring in the public nuisance case. The gasses drifted across state lines and damaged forests, orchards, and crops in 5 counties. Georgia had asked Tennessee to ask its citizens to stop polluting. Tennessee declined to take action.
Georgia filed a bill in equity with the US supreme court invoking the court’s jurisdiction over a dispute between states. Requested an injunction.
Georgia WON.
Police Power
Police powers are the fundamental ability of a government to enact laws to coerce its citizenry for the public good, although the term eludes an exact definition. The term does not directly relate to the common connotation of police as officers charged with maintaining public order, but rather to broad governmental regulatory power.
police power, in U.S. constitutional law, the permissible scope of federal or state legislation so far as it may affect the rights of an individual when those rights conflict with the promotion and maintenance of the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the public.
What is property law?
property law, principles, policies, and rules by which disputes over property are to be resolved and by which property transactions may be structured. What distinguishes property law from other kinds of law is that property law deals with the relationships between and among members of a society with respect to “things.” The things may be tangible, such as land or a factory or a diamond ring, or they may be intangible, such as stocks and bonds or a bank account.
Real property
Real property is land or things attached to land. That is why you sometimes hear land referred to as real estate or realty. While materials such as wood, metal or other building materials aren’t real property on their own, they can become real property if they are attached to land. Vegetation such as trees or plants that grow on land can also be considered real property.
Personal property
Personal property can be broken down into two categories: chattels and intangibles. Chattels refers to all type of property. Often, individuals use it regarding the tangible property such as a purse or clothing.
Intangibles are forms of personal property that are not considered tangible. This means that intangible property cannot be touched or seen. The purpose of this category is to accurately address legal rights to property and not to things. Some intangible things may include bank accounts, intellectual property, franchises and licenses, insurance policies, and investments such as stocks or bonds.
Intellectual property rights
Intellectual property rights (IPR) protect those who have created an invention, design, symbol, commercial name or image. Examples include trademarks and patents as well as geographical indications, which come under the EU quality schemes for agricultural products.
The tragedy of the commons
In economics and in an ecological context, the tragedy of the commons is a situation in which individual users, who have open access to a resource unhampered by shared social structures, formal rules, charges, fees, or taxes that regulate access and use, act independently according to their own self-interest and, contrary to the common good of all users, cause depletion of the resource through their uncoordinated action in the case that there are too many users related to the available resources.
Social science vs natural science
Natural sciences are a branch of science that deals with the natural world, while social sciences are a branch of science that deals with human society and social relations.
Scientific method
The scientific method is the process of objectively establishing facts through testing and experimentation. The basic process involves making an observation, forming a hypothesis, making a prediction, conducting an experiment and finally analyzing the results.
Rule vs norm
Rules are written guidelines that prescribe the necessary individual behaviors and actions needed to maintain order in a given organization. Norms, on the other hand, are unwritten guidelines framed by society to govern individuals’ behavioral patterns.
Types of rules
personal
factual
general
abstract
Legal and non-legal rules
A legal rule, or law, is one which has been officially approved by a state’s legislative body. Legal rules are interpreted by courts who decide cases brought before them and may impose sanctions upon those who violate these rules. Legal rules differ from non-legal rules, such as customs or conventions.
What are sources of law?
Sources of law are the origins of laws, the binding rules that enable any state to govern its territory.
In civil law systems, the sources of law include the legal codes, such as the civil code or the criminal code, and customs. In common law systems, there are also several sources that combine to form “the law”.
Open and closed legal systems
Open legal systems are based on common law and precedent, meaning that court decisions are based on past cases. Closed legal systems are based on written codes and laws, meaning that court decisions are determined by the written law. In open systems, judges have more discretion in making decisions, while in closed systems, judges are more limited in their decisions.
What are the different relationships between sources of law?
Rank: Rank refers to the hierarchical relationship between sources of law. Laws at the top of the hierarchy have more authority than laws lower in the hierarchy.
Chronology: Chronology refers to the timeline of law. Laws that are more recent are given more authority than laws that are older.
Specialty: Specialty refers to the type of law. Different sources of law may specialize in a particular area, such as criminal law, or civil law. Laws from a specialized source may be given more authority than those from a general source.
