Zero-L Flashcards
Public Law
The set of laws that governs the relationship between citizens and their government. This includes constitutional law, administrative law, and much of criminal law.
Private Law
The set of laws that governs the relationship of private citizens with each other. Examples include contract law, tort law, and property law.
State Action Doctrine
The constitutional law principle that the Constitution applies only to state action toward individuals, not actions between individuals where there is no state involvement.
Substantive Law
The law that governs how people are to behave. This is the “semantics” of law.
Procedural Law
The law that governs how to make use of the legal system, including how to make and enforce laws. This is law’s “grammar.”
Jurisdiction
The power to make legal decisions and judgments. To say that a court “has jurisdiction” refers to its power to pronounce law, especially its power to hear a certain type of case or adjudicate disputes between particular persons. But “jurisdiction” is sometimes used differently in other contexts. For example, “this jurisdiction” refers to “this state” or “this nation’s laws.”
Civil Law Jurisdiction
A legal system built around comprehensive codes. Examples include France, Germany, and the state of Louisiana.
Common Law Jurisdiction
A legal system where law is made largely by court decisions rather than legal codes. Examples include the U.S. and other former British colonies.
Tribal Law
Law created by a tribal government that applies to tribal members and territories. There are over 500 tribal governments recognized in the U.S.
Domestic Law
The law that is made by U.S. sovereigns and governs activities on U.S. soil. In some cases, it may also govern U.S. citizens or others within the jurisdictional power of the U.S. even though they may not be physically present in the U.S.
International Law
The set of rules that countries follow in dealing with each other. This includes the relationship between sovereign states and international entities, such as the International Criminal Court, as well as supranational law, such as the law of the European Union that governs its members.
Constitutional Law
The body of law that derives from the U.S. Constitution. It defines the role of the branches of federal government, divides authority between the federal government and the states, and enumerates the basic rights of citizens. States also have constitutional law based on their state constitutions, but when we speak of it we typically specify “state constitutional law.”
Statute
A law passed by the legislative branch.
Bicameralism
Refers to the practice of having two “chambers” or “houses” of the legislative branch, each of which must pass a bill before it becomes law. A federal statute must be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate before it becomes law.
Presentment
Refers to the practice of presenting a federal statute passed by both the House and Senate to the President for signature before it becomes law.
Regulation
A rule issued by a government agency that has the force of law. Sometimes the word “regulation” or “regulate” is also used more informally by lawyers to refer to governance. For example, “how should we regulate autonomous vehicles?”
Circuit Court
An intermediate appellate federal court one level below the U.S. Supreme Court.
Due Process Clause
A provision of the U.S. Constitution that, in abbreviated form, states “No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Governing Law
The law that applies in a particular situation. For example, the law that will be used to interpret a contract.
Remedies
The body of law regarding the kinds of relief a litigant seeks from the court. The two most common forms of remedies are damages (when the defendant pays money to the plaintiff) and an injunction (when the defendant does, or refrains from doing, a specific action).
Sovereign
A person or institution habitually obeyed in a well-defined territory, but who or which does not habitually obey any other person or institution.
Legal Positivism
The idea that a rule is a law if, and only if, the rule is the command of the sovereign to its subjects and if the failure to follow that rule is backed up by the threat of punishment. Associated with John Austin and Jeremy Bentham.
Rule of Recognition
A social rule that specifies what counts as a law and what does not. Associated with HLA Hart. Hart used the Rule of Recognition to replace the idea of the “sovereign” in his formulation of legal positivism.
Natural Law
An opposing picture to legal positivism of the nature of law. This view is committed to the idea that law has a moral core, that moral facts determine legal content.
Liability
Legal responsibility. Someone is liable for a harm suffered by a party when he or she is legally and financially responsible for that harm.
Federalism
A form of government, such as in the U.S., in which power is divided between a central (federal) government and regional (state) governments.
Constitutional Amendment
A change to the Constitution proposed either by the Congress, with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures.
Duty to Retreat
Also known as a “retreat rule.” A requirement of the criminal law of some states that you may not claim self-defense if you could have safely retreated, but did not, before using deadly force against a deadly attacker.
Article III
The section of the U.S. Constitution that establishes and empowers the judicial branch of the federal government.
District Court
In the federal system, the general trial court (sometimes referred to as a “court of first instance”).
Plea Bargain
An agreement in a criminal case between a prosecutor and defendant in which the defendant pleads guilty in exchange for a limited charge or a reduced sentence.
Allegation
A statement that something is true that has not yet been proven. Often it refers to a factual assertion that a party claims can be proven at trial.
Standard of Review
The amount of deference given by an appellate court in reviewing the decision of a lower court. The standard of review that a court applies depends on the context of the case, the nature of the factual or legal issue being appealed, and the judicial body that made the decision.
Legal Issue
A question relating to the law by which a case is to be decided, as opposed to “factual issues.”
Appeal
The review in one court of the proceedings and decisions of another, either as to law or fact, or both.
Appellate
An adjective meaning relating to courts of appeal.
En Banc
A French expression, which translates to “on the bench.” In the federal system, en banc refers to an appeal in which all the qualified judges hear and decide the case instead of just a subset of the judges (as is typical in appeals).
Certiorari
The Supreme Court’s discretionary review of an action by a lower court or agency. To request that the Supreme Court hear an appeal, a party must file a petition (pleading) for certiorari. If the Court decides to hear the appeal, it will issue a writ of certiorari, which orders the lower court to provide its files and records for review. Often called “cert.” for short.
Appeal as of Right
When an appellate court is required to hear an appeal, as opposed to a “discretionary appeal,” when an appellate court can decide whether or not to hear an appeal.”
Family Court
A court with jurisdiction over affairs of children (e.g., adoption, custody, maintenance, neglect, abuse, and abandonment) and families (e.g., divorce, alimony).
Probate Court
A court with jurisdiction over matters relating to guardianships, wills, trusts, and estates.
Juvenile Court
A court with jurisdiction over criminal cases involving minors.
Municipal Court
A court organized within a city, village, or township, with jurisdiction over offenses under local ordinances and certain petty offenses.
Merit Selection
A process in which a non-partisan judicial nominating committee generates a list of potential judges from which the appointing authority (usually the governor of the state) selects who to appoint.
Tort Law
The branch of law relating to civil (as opposed to criminal) wrongful acts or omissions. Torts give rise to a civil action or private lawsuit.
Stare Decisis
A Latin expression meaning, “to stand by things decided.” Stare decisis is a principle that ordinarily requires judges to apply the reasoning from earlier decisions (precedents) so that later cases reach the same result as similar earlier cases decided by the same court or a superior court.
Public Policy
An argument appealing to what is right, just, and promotes the public good. Public policy arguments can be made in relation to what goals should be promoted through statutes or regulation, or as a basis for determining when courts should exercise the use of judicial power. One common usage of the phrase is that a contract would not be enforced because it is “contrary to public policy.” (Note that this term’s meaning is more contextual than many others we define here.)
Slippery Slope
An argument form where the arguer suggests that if a particular step is taken now, it will inevitably lead to a very bad unwanted consequence later on.
Institutional Competence
An argument that a certain kind of institution, most often courts, are ill-equipped to make certain decisions, and that such decisions should be made by another institution (e.g., legislatures or agencies).
Consequentialism
A Moral Philosophy in which the rightness or wrongness of an action is judged solely by its consequences.
Caption
The heading of a case which includes the names of the parties, the name of the court issuing the opinion, the date of the opinion, and sometimes other identifying information.
