Exam I Book Outline Chapters 1 2 3 I Chapter I The American Legal System A Sources of Law 1 There are five sources of law B Common Law 1 Developed in England a Common law b Equity law c Statutory law d Constitutional law e Executive orders and administrative rules 2 Law a set of rules that attempt to guide human conduct and a set of formal governmental sanctions that are applied when those rules are violated a Initially customs of people were used by the king s courts as the foundation for the law disputes were resolved according to community custom and governmental sanction was applied to enforce the resolution b Often times judges were forced to create laws themselves when they couldn t find one suitable for a particular cases and thus common law was sometimes known as judge made law 2 Common law an inductive system in which a legal rule and 3 legal standards are arrived at after consideration of many cases involving similar facts In a deductive system of law the rules are expounded first and then the court decides the legal situation under the existing rule 4 Common law suggests that judges should look to the past and follow court precedents a Star decisis Let the decision stand a judge should resolve current problems in the same manner as similar problems were resolved in the past 5 Precedent an established rule of law set by a previous case courts should follow precedent when it is advisable and possible a While following the precedent is desirable it is not always the right way to proceed to protect the integrity of common law judges developed a means of coping with bad law and new situations in which the application of old law would result in injustice 6 Four Options For Handling Precedent a Accept and follow the precedent for guidance b Modify or update the precedent making it correspond to what the judge perceives to be contemporary sensibilities and circumstance c Distinguish the differences between the precedent and the current case if they are different problems they are different cases and the precedent can t be applied d Overrule the precedent declaring the prior decision wrong and thus no longer the law courts generally overrule prior opinions as bad law only when they are changes in 1 Factual knowledge and circumstances 2 Social mores and values and or 3 Judges justices on the court 7 Decisions made by the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the U S Constitution and federal laws are binding on all federal and state courts decisions made by the U S Court of Appeals on federal matters are binding only on other lower federal and state courts in the circuit or region 8 Case reporter a book containing a chronological collection of the opinions rendered by a particular court for cases that were decided by the court a Each collection has its individual citation or identification number which reflects the name of the reporter in which the case can be found the volume of that reporter and the page on which the case begins b An example of a case citation Adderly v Florida 385 U S 39 1966 where A v F is the case name 385 is the volume number of the case reporter U S is the abbreviated name of the case reporter 39 is the page number on which the report of the decision in the case begins and 1966 is the year the case was decided 1 Equity similar to common law a system of jurisprudence distinct from common law in which courts are empowered to decide cases on the basis of equity or fairness and are not bound by the rigid precedents that often exist in common law 2 Equity suits are never tried before a jury rulings come in the form of judicial decrees not in judgments of yes or no but instead are discretionary on the part of judges a Judges are free to do what they think is right and fair in a specific case 3 While the typical remedy in civil lawsuit in common law is damages money equity allows a judge to issue orders C Equity Law D Statutory Law that can either be preventive or remedial often granted in courts of equity are restraining orders 1 Statutory law is created by elected legislative bodies at the local state and federal levels a Statutes tend to deal with problems affecting society or large groups of people in contrast with common law which dealers with smaller individual problems b Statutory law can anticipate problems and common law cannot 1 Example a state legislature can pass a statute that prohibits publication of a student s records without prior consent of the student under common law the problem cannot be resolved until the student s record has been published c Criminal laws in the U S are all statutory laws common law crimes no longer exist in this country and have not since 1812 d Statutory law is collected in codes and law books instead of reports as in common law 2 Statutory construction the judicial interpretation on the exact meaning of ambiguous phrases or words in constructed statutes a Judges are supposed to determine what the legislature meant when it passed the law not what they think the law should mean 1 Constitutions first they provide the plan for establishment and organization of the government next they outline duties responsibilities and powers of the various elements of government finally they usually guarantee certain basic rights to the people such as freedom of speech 2 Any law or other constitution that conflicts with the U S Constitution is unenforceable 3 State constitutions can give more and greater rights to citizens than provided under U S Constitution but they cannot reduce or roll back rights given by the federal Constitution 4 Void for vagueness doctrine a law will be declared unconstitutional and struck down 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 5 Overbreadth doctrine a law is overbroad if it does not aim only at problems within the allowable area of legitimate E Constitutional Law government control but also sweeps within its ambit or scope other activities that constitute an exercise of protected expression F Executive Orders and Administrative Rules 1 Rules generated by the administrative agencies of government at the federal state and local levels are 2 Orders issued by elected officers of government are called executive orders a These government executives include the US president governors mayors county executives village presidents and they all have power to issue rules of law sometimes referred
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