General: American Legal System Flashcards
Five Aspects of the American Legal System
Common Law
Federalism
Civil vs. Criminal Law
The Adversarial System
Separation of Powers
Common Law
Common law is court- or judge-made law
(vs. Statutory law)
(Inherited in England)
Stare decisis — let the decision stand
Principle: a legal holding by a court would remain and apply to future similar cases unless there was strong reason to change it.
People could rely on what the law was without changing all of the time — avoids confusion and it helps people complete with the law
Federalism
Federal government and 50 states have the ability to make laws
As well as counties and cities
U.S. travel or does business in multiple locales are subject to many laws at the sam time
(Some may conflict)
Federal law on the same topic a state law can pre-empt the state law
Federal law and state law can co-exist —
Because there are separate federal and state court systems
Federal courts may sometimes rule on issues of state law and vice versa
Civil / Criminal Law
Criminal Law is enforced by the government
Prosecuting authority alleges that an individual or corporations conduct has violate the required standard set by criminal statute and seeks to have them punished as a result
Punishments can include fines or imprisonment, or even death
Civil Law is all other law.
Civil law is different than it is up to the individual or company to press their rights in court, rather than government prosecutor.
US is an Adversarial system
(As opposed to a inquisitorial system where judge and police drive the process and determine the outcome)
Each side represents their POV in court and try to persuade the fact-finder (judge or jury) what happened and the truth.
In this system, the court acts as more of a neutral referee to ensure a fair process
US Principle of separation of powers
Three branches: Legislative, Executive, Judicial
Legislative
Elected by the people to represent them and writes statutes that govern our conduct
Very public, with opportunities for public for all to read because the goal is to get people to conform their behavior to the statutes.
Statutes are normally prospective — intended to address future behavior vs. judgment on what occurred
Executive
Enforces the law and issues regulations based on statutes passed by the legislative branch
Limited power by t he fact it is not suppose to have any power beyond that granted explicitly or implicitly by the Constitution and Congress
Executive is limited by judicial intervention — if dispute is brought to court by the government or private party, judges have the authority to say that the executive has gone to far in enforcing the law, or that law does not allow fo what the executive thought it did
Judicial
Interprets the law and resolves disputes
Typically resolve issues that occurred in the past
The focus Is retrospective = stare decisis — the rules or principles they rely on may be looked to by judges or litigants in future cases
Federal judges and most state court judges are appointed
Some states had elections
Courts mostly honor lawfully passed statutes and regulations and do not have the authority to disregard them
Unless they determine they are unconstitutional
Courts are limited by laws passed by the legislature and the legislature is limited by the judicial interpretation and application of the Constitution
Checks and balances so that one branch does not completely run the government
