US Legal System

11 Key excerpts on "US Legal System"

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  eBook - ePub

  Essentials of Sports Law

  • Glenn M. Wong(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  stare decisis (to abide by or adhere to decided cases) and precedent (an adjudged case which serves as the authority for identical or similar cases or questions of law that subsequently arise) serve to provide this continuity. In addition, each court (except the U.S. Supreme Court) is bound by the decisions of courts of higher authority. The ruling of a court sets precedent that may be altered only by a court of higher authority.

  The court system in the United States is generally viewed as having three functions: (1) administering state and national laws, (2) resolving disputes among parties, and (3) interpreting the legislative intent of a law in deciding a case. These functions are generally related to providing remedy to a party that has been unlawfully affected. Two forms by which remedy can be provided are civil and criminal legal proceedings. Civil law is between private parties only, and provides individuals with a cause of action by which they may be compensated through the recovery of damages. Criminal law is between private parties and society. It is designed to protect the public from harm through the punishment of conduct likely to cause harm. The state is a party to criminal action whereby the state attempts to protect society.

  There are two basic legal systems in the United States: the federal system and the state system. Chapter 2 begins with a description of the federal court system, which includes the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. courts of appeals, U.S. district courts, and several administrative agencies. The chapter next discusses the state legal system, which consists of the primary sources of law in each state’s constitution and court decisions. Naturally, there is variation among state legal systems.

  As important as understanding the legal system in the United States is knowing how to find legal information. The next section identifies and describes numerous legal sources that coaches and administrators may find useful. Section 2.3 , “Civil Legal Process,” describes the steps in a civil lawsuit. This information will assist the athletic administrator in understanding the trial process.

  2.1. THE FEDERAL COURT SYSTEM

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  American Civilization

  An Introduction

  • David Mauk, Alf Tomas Tønnessen, John Oakland(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Versions of the English common law were accepted in all American states (except Louisiana), and much state law is now common law. It is administered and interpreted by the courts and is found in the court decisions of judges, who generally decide matters by adopting principles of law and decisions (precedents) from previous similar cases.

  Generally, American judges at all levels now decide cases pragmatically, in terms of existing law and a sense of justice, so that the decision is fair and reasonable in light of contemporary conditions (a process that is often described as “American Realism”). They follow the precedents unless there are good reasons for ignoring them. Some judges, however, may follow particular readings of law such as “originalism” (reading the Constitution as its framers intended and as it was understood when it was written).

  Statutory law consists of laws that have been passed by state or federal legislatures. This legislation is now very important. It expanded from the nineteenth century as state and federal government intruded increasingly into everyday affairs. The meaning and application of legislation are interpreted and determined by the courts. Many social, economic, and family matters are provided for by state statutes and handled by state courts. At federal levels, statutory law is virtually the only type of law and includes the Constitution, treaties, Acts of Congress, presidential proclamations, executive orders and rules of federal departments.

  The court system

  The courts play a central and influential role in US society. They affect the daily lives of citizens, as social and personal struggles are reflected in civil and criminal court battles. The courts attract both positive and negative criticism.

  US courts operate at federal and state/local levels and have their own areas of authority or jurisdiction. State and local courts handle much of the legal work and are the most immediate for Americans. Federal courts account for some 2 percent of cases tried annually. But the existence of separate court systems can make litigation complicated. Please see Figure 9.1

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  Law for Advertising, Broadcasting, Journalism, and Public Relations

  • Michael G. Parkinson, L. Marie Parkinson(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  1 Introduction to the Legal System

  Certainly, all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently, the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.

  —Chief Justice John Marshall1

  Overview Background of Government and Court Structures Sources of Law in the United States Other Legal Systems Types of Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Legal Hierarchy and Authorities Rules for Justiciability Overview

  This chapter begins with an explanation of the legal system and sources of law in the United States. This information is essential to any understanding of the laws that impact the practices of advertising, broadcasting, journalism, and public relations. It also helps the reader interpret and apply the laws described later.

  We begin with a brief comparison of governmental systems and a description of sources of law. We then describe legal systems and the types of courts that function both at the federal level and in the individual states. Included in the description of the courts are an introduction to the ideas of jurisdiction and legal authority. We con clude by describing the different types of opinions rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court and the rules of justiciability the court uses to avoid making unnecessary decisions and to avoid interfering with the states and other branches of the U.S. government.

  Background of Government and Court Structures

  Laws are the principles that structure the relationships between government and the gov erned and among the people within a society. To understand law, one must first have a feel for the government itself. Therefore, we begin with a cursory explanation of the structure of government so you will have a foundation for a later explanation of our legal system.

  Systems of Government

  There are three types of governments: the unitary, the confederal, and the federal. The differences among the three are based on how power is distributed and on the placement of sovereignty.

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  Law For Dummies

  • John Ventura(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • For Dummies

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 1

  All About Our Legal System

  In This Chapter

  Defining laws

  Drawing the line between civil law and criminal law

  Breaking down the court system

  Diving into contracts

  Following the lawsuit process

  W hat do you think of when you hear the words legal system? If you’re like many Americans, you probably think of a courtroom where lawyers, using language you can’t understand, argue with one another, and where a jury of people you don’t know, or a judge in a black robe behind an imposingly high desk, makes decisions about your life using laws you know little or nothing about. That’s an intimidating image, but it’s only a very small part of the picture! Our legal system is much more than just courtroom action.

  This chapter expands your definition of what our legal system is by providing you with information you probably never got in high school — or don’t remember learning, anyway. Maybe you slept through class the day these things were covered! With a more complete understanding of our legal system, you’re better able to avoid getting into legal hot water, and you feel more confident about exercising your legal rights when you do.

  And now for your remedial crash course on our legal system. . . .

  What Are Laws and Where Do They Come From?

  Our laws reflect society’s standards, values, and expectations. They establish “the rules of the game” in our personal interactions and in our business dealings, helping to ensure that we’re treated fairly and that we treat others fairly, too. Laws establish our responsibilities and our rights and help us both avoid problems and resolve problems.

  The laws that govern our lives come from six basic sources: the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, statute law, administrative law, common law, and case law.

  The Constitution

  The Constitution is the granddaddy of all U.S. law, the supreme law of the land, and the standard against which all other laws are measured. It established this country as a republic and determined the structure of our Congressional system. The Constitution applies to all Americans.

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  Construction Law

  An Introduction for Engineers, Architects, and Contractors

  • Gail Kelley(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • RSMeans

    (Publisher)

  1 LAW AND GOVERNMENT 1.1 INTRODUCTION In simple terms, law is the rules that a government uses to protect the health and welfare of its citizens and those within its borders. The government of the United States is a federalist system, which means that lawmaking power is shared between the national (U.S.) government and the individual state governments. Under the division of powers set out in the U.S. Constitution, the national government (also referred to as the federal government) is divided into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch (the U.S. Congress) is responsible for creating the laws, the executive branch (the president and federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency) is responsi- ble for implementing the laws, and the judicial branch (the federal court system) is responsible for interpreting the laws. The powers of the state governments are divided similarly. The legislative branch is the state legislature; the executive branch includes the governor and state agencies such as the state department of motor vehicles; the judicial branch is the state court system. 1.1.1 The Powers of Governments The powers of the federal government are limited to those expressly listed in the U. S. Constitution. Per the 10 th Amendment to the Constitution, any power that is not specifically delegated to the federal government, or specifically prohibited to the states, is reserved to the states or to the people. The most significant power reserved to the states is the general police power to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their communities. The state’s police power is used as the basis for enacting laws in areas such as land use, gambling, crime, licensing, liquor sales, and motor vehicles. With respect to construction, police power gives state governments the right to adopt and enforce building codes and to require that architects and engineers working within the state be licensed by the state.

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  Judicial Process

  Law, Courts, and Politics in the United States

  • David Neubauer, Stephen Meinhold(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  A constitution is the document that establishes the underlying principles and general laws of a nation or a state. The U.S. Constitution is the fundamental law of the land. All other laws—federal, state, or local—are subsidiary. Similarly, each state has a constitution that is the “supreme law of the TABLE 2.3 Major Components of U.S. Law Federalism National State Local Multiple Sources of Law Constitutions Statutes Administrative regulations Judicial Decisions Case law Public Law and Private Law International administrative Constitutional Criminal Tort Contract Property Inheritance Civil Law and Criminal Law Divorce Felony Property Misdemeanor Substantive Law and Procedural Law Rights Responsibilities Due process of law Rules of court Remedies Judgment Monetary damages Injunction Doctrines of Access Jurisdiction Standing to sue Political question Justiciability Class action 30 Part I Institutions of Law Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. state.” State courts may use their state constitution to invalidate the actions of state legislators, governors, or administrators. Constitutions define the powers that each branch of government may exercise. For instance, Article III of the U.S. Constitution creates the federal judiciary. Constitutions also limit governmental power. Some limitations take the form of prohibitions. Thus, Article I, Section 9, states: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.” Other limitations take the form of specific rights granted to citizens.

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  An Introduction to Crime and Crime Causation

  • Robert C. Winters, Julie L. Globokar, Cliff Roberson(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  181 chapter nine American system of justice Chapter objectives After studying this chapter, you should understand and be able to explain • The constitutional basis of the U.S. justice system • How laws are legislated and adjudicated • The nature, responsibilities, and interrelationships of the local, state, and federal court systems • The responsibilities and functioning of appellate and supreme courts at the state and federal levels • The nature, jurisdictions, and interrelationships of various local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies • The nature and functioning of the correctional system at the local, state, and federal levels. • The fundamental principles of various criminological theories • How criminological theories affect criminal justice policymaking in the United States Introduction Having witnessed the various abuses of power possible through the laws and courts in a monarchy, America’s Founding Fathers were determined to avoid the duplication of a legal system with such explicit potential to further the aims of those in power. Given that the initial waves of colonization of what would become the United States came mostly from England, it is not particularly surprising that the U.S. legal system draws heavily on the traditions of English common law. Yet in the process of seeking a fresh start in the New World, those colonists almost immediately began modifying their legal traditions. As early as 1636, the leaders of the Plymouth Colony, in codifying the first written laws set down on American shores, deliberately departed from English traditions in certain respects.

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  Legal and Ethical Aspects of Health Information Management

  • Dana McWay(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 22 CHAPTER 2 Court Systems and Legal Procedures INTRODUCTION It is truly an American phenomenon that a primary method of resolving disputes in the United States is through the court system. Although alternative methods of dispute resolution increas- ingly are being used, filing a lawsuit has become the way many Americans deal with resolving their disputes. Understanding the court systems and the legal procedures employed to process cases through these systems will assist the health information manager in understanding the use of health information in a legal action. COURT SYSTEMS Federal and state courts are similar in certain respects but differ in others. Both the federal and state court systems employ a multitier structure: trial courts, intermediate courts of appeal, and a supreme court. They differ, however, on what matters can be brought before them. Jurisdiction Jurisdiction is the authority by which courts and judicial officers may hear and decide a case. Jurisdiction encompasses authority not only over the parties involved, called personal jurisdiction, but also authority over the question at issue, called subject matter jurisdiction. This distinction is illustrated in Figure 2.1. The scope and extent of subject matter jurisdiction vary between federal and state courts, with subject matter jurisdiction in the federal courts being more limited in nature than subject matter jurisdiction in state courts. The contrast between jurisdictions is illustrated in Figure 2.2.

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  Environmental Health Law

  An Introduction

  • Russellyn S. Carruth, Bernard D. Goldstein(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Jossey-Bass

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 1

  Overview of the US Legal System

  Key Concepts

  • Checks and balances: Governmental power is divided between the national government and the states, and between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, to avoid any one group wielding excessive power.
  • Enumerated powers: The federal government is a government of limited powers, having only those powers explicitly granted it by the Constitution.
  • Law: There are various kinds of “law” that come from multiple sources.

  The purpose of this chapter is to provide an introduction to the American legal system, governmental structures, and sources of law. The concepts discussed here are fundamental to all American law; they are not unique to environmental law. But these fundamentals provide a context for understanding environmental law.

  THE STRUCTURE OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

  The United States was created—or “constituted”—in 1789 by a document called the Constitution. The document was drafted by chosen representatives and then approved by the original thirteen states. At the time, this was a unique new phenomenon—a government created by, rather than imposed on, the governed. The people of America had very recently won their independence from England, and they were eager to protect their independence. Above all, they shied away from power concentrated in too few hands, which they saw as a recipe for tyranny.

  The founders—the drafters of the Constitution—sought to establish a government strong enough to govern and defend the country while at the same time protecting the rights of the states and the people. They invented a system of government based on a new idea: separation and balance of powers. Power is divided among separate segments of government, as a check against abuse of power by any one segment. This idea, often called checks and balances

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  Major Principles of Media Law

  2019 Edition

  • Wayne Overbeck, Genelle Belmas(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  More than ever before, a knowledge of media law is essential for a successful career in mass communications. This textbook was written for communications students and media professionals, not for lawyers or law students. We will begin by explaining how the American legal system works. THE KEY ROLE OF THE COURTS Mass media law is largely based on court decisions. Even though Congress and the 50 state legislatures have enacted many laws affecting the media, the courts play the decisive role in interpreting those laws. For that matter, the courts also have the final say in interpret-ing the meaning of our most important legal document, the U.S. Constitution. The courts have the power to modify or even overturn laws passed by state legislatures and Congress, particularly when a law conflicts with the Constitution. In so doing, the courts have the power to establish legal precedent, handing down rules that other courts must ordinarily follow in deciding similar cases. But not all court decisions establish legal precedents , and not all legal precedents are equally important as guidelines for later decisions. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the country; its rulings are generally binding on all lower courts. On matters of state law the highest court in each of the 50 states (usually called the state supreme court) has the final say—unless one of its rulings somehow violates the U.S. Consti-tution. On federal matters the U.S. Courts of Appeals rank just below the U.S. Supreme Court. All of these courts are appellate courts; cases are appealed to them from trial courts. Trial vs. appellate courts. There is an important difference between trial and appellate courts. While appellate courts make precedent-setting decisions that interpret the meaning of law, trial courts are responsible for deciding factual issues such as the guilt or innocence of a person accused of a crime. This fact-finding process does not normally establish legal

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  Government and politics in South Africa 5

  • Landsberg C, S Graham(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Van Schaik Publishers

    (Publisher)

  The traditional view was that the courts only applied the law; they did not make it. Today, there is no question that, in the application of a rule of law to an actual case, the courts do have a law-making function (Shapiro, 1975: 342ff). This function is, however, limited and is not as comprehensive as that of the legislature. The courts make laws mainly by their interpretation and application of existing rules of law, whereas the legislature makes laws by amending or replacing existing laws and by making new laws (Rautenbach, 2012: 163). Application of the law by the courts also differs from its application by the executive. The executive, which must execute the laws made by the legislature and, in the process, must also interpret and apply the law, is always a party to the relationships to which it applies the law and to the disputes that arise therefrom. By contrast, the courts are never a party to any dispute they are called upon to resolve (Rautenbach, 2012: 163–164).

  4.4 The legal system

  4.4.1 Historical background

  It has been mentioned that every state has a unique legal system. A legal system develops over time and one of the determining factors, therefore, in the nature of a legal system is its historical background. The peculiarities of the South African legal system can largely be attributed to our particular legal and political history. Although the South African legal system forms part of the Western legal traditions, distinctive historical and other factors led to the development of a unique legal system within that legal tradition. A legal tradition can be defined broadly as a family of legal systems displaying similarities in respect of historical development, theories, sources, methodology, key legal concepts and legal institutions (Katz, 1986: 2; David & Brierly, 1985: 20; Glendon, Gordon & Osakwe, 1982: 4–5). The three major Western legal traditions are the civil law tradition of the European continent, which stems from Roman law, the Anglo-American common law tradition, and the socialist legal tradition. In the world at large, one can also identify a distinct Islamic legal tradition, an African tradition and various Asian legal traditions (David & Brierly, 1985: 453ff).

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