Chapter 1- The American Legal System

What are the 5 sources of the US law?

Laws have been around since when?

Greek draconian Law-

Roman Law-

What does rhetoric mean?

Legal systems develop over ____________.

How many tablets were laws written on?

What were the laws written on tablets mostly of?

Dane Law-

What are the 3 reasons we have laws?

Laws ______ who has power.

___________ in the law is more important than justice.

Also known as judge-made law, inductive system of law: a legal rule is developed after deciding a number of similar cases.

What does stare decisis mean?

4 options for handling precedent-

Permits a judge to fashion solutions to unique or unusual problems in individual cases, used when common law is too rigid or not applicable, rulings are judicial decrees not yes or no judgements, these courts can issue restraining orders.

3 remedies in equity law-

Derived from legislative bodies: city councils, state legislatures, US congress, attempts to anticipate problems that may affect society or large numbers of people, criminal laws in the US are all statutory laws, collected in codes and law books instead of case reporters.

The US constitution is the highest law of the land, no other form of law can override the constitution,.

If a person of reasonable and ordinary intelligence would not be able to tell, from looking at its terms, what speech is allowed and what speech is prohibited.

If the law does not aim only at problems within the allowable area of legitimate government control but also sweeps within its scope other activities that constitute a limitation of protected expression.

Legal orders or declarations issued by the executive officers of localities or states, or by the US president.

Rules created by governmental agencies at the state and federal level

Two types of orders?

52 judicial system in the US-

Two types of courts-

Determine the facts of the case, courts of original jurisdiction (final courts to hear case), must hear all cases they are assigned, can be juried or bench trials

Review the factual record established by the trial court, determine whether the law was properly applied and/or legal procedures followed, not obligated to hear all cases, usually 3 judges and no jury

Oldest federal court, operating since 1789, only court that can't be abolished, has both original and appellate jurisdiction but primarily services as an appellate body.

Rule of four