American Legal System

Laws

Federal Legal System

The United States Constitution establishes a federal system of government. The Constitution gives specific powers to the federal (national) government. All power not delegated to the federal government remains with the states. Each of the fifty states has its own state constitution and governmental structure. Power in both the state and federal governments is separated into three branches the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. The legislative branch has the power to create laws; and the judicial branch has the power to interpret and apply these laws in individual cases and controversies. Separation of government authority prevents abuse of power. As a control on the powers of the executive and legislative branches, the judicial branch has the power of judicial review. Judicial review provides the power of a court to declare legislative or executive acts invalid, if those acts are contrary to the federal or state constitutions.

As a product of federalism, the United States has dual court system consisting of the federal and state courts. The U.S. Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the federal government and specifies the authority of the federal courts. Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction only over certain types of cases, such as cases involving federal laws, controversies between states, and cases involving foreign governments. In certain other areas federal courts share jurisdiction with state courts.

Structure of the Federal Court System

The U.S. Constitution establishes the United States Supreme Court and gives Congress the authority to establish the lower federal courts. Congress has established two levels of federal courts below the Supreme Court: The United States District Courts and the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals. United States District Courts are on the first level and are the trial courts (courts of first instance) of the federal system. There are 94 such district courts throughout the nation. At least one district court is located in each state. In addition to district judges, bankruptcy judges (who hear only bankruptcy cases) and magistrate judges (who assist the trial judge) are located within the district courts. United States Circuit Courts of Appeals are on the next level. There are 12 of these regional intermediate appellate courts located in different parts of the country. Panels of three judges hear appeals from the district courts. A party to a case may appeal as a matter of right to the circuit court of appeal (except that the government has no right of appeal if it loses in a criminal case, i.e., if the jury gives a verdict or judgment of not guilty. ) These regional circuit courts also hear appeals from decisions of federal administrative agencies. One non-regional circuit court hears appeals in specialized cases such as cases involving patent laws and claims against the federal government. At the top of the federal court system is the United States Supreme Court, made up of nine justices who sit together to hear cases. At its discretion, the United States 3 Supreme Court may hear appeals from the federal circuit courts of appeals as well as the highest state courts if the appeal involves the U.S. Constitution or federal law

State Legal System

State Legal systems are similar to the federal legal system, but generally they can only hear claims of state law. The Constitution of the United States is the basis for the legal system of the United States. The structure of state court systems varies from state to state. Each state court system has unique features; however, some generalizations can be made. Most states have courts of limited jurisdiction presided over by a single judge who hears minor civil and criminal cases. States also have general jurisdiction trial courts that are presided over by a single judge. These trial courts are usually called circuit courts or superior courts and hear major civil and criminal cases. Some states have specialized courts that hear only certain kinds of cases such as traffic or family law cases. All states have a highest court, usually called a state supreme court, that serves as an appellate court. Many states also have an intermediate appellate court called a court of appeals that hears appeals from the trial court. A party in a case generally has one right of appeal (except in the case of the government which has no right of appeal it if loses a criminal case).

Sources of Laws

There are four sources of law at the state and federal levels:

· Constitutions

· Statutes

· Court Opinions

· Administrative Regulations

Constitutions: A constitution establishes a system of government and defines the boundaries of authority granted to the government. The United States Constitution is the preeminent source of law in the American legal system. All other statutes, court opinions and regulations must comply with its requirements. Each state also has its own constitution. A state constitution may grant greater rights than those secured by the federal constitution but cannot provide lesser rights than the federal constitution.

Statutes: Statutes are statements of law enacted by federal and state legislatures. Statutes passed during a legislative session are organized by subject and published in a code. Federal statutes are published in the United States Code.

Court Opinions: Courts interpret statutes promulgated by the legislative and rules created by the executive branch of government. Statute and rules deemed unconstitutional by the court are invalidated. As a source of law, court opinions are known as the common law. Although the courts can create common law, legislatures have the power to change or abolish them, if the legislation is constitutional. There are many publications, called reports or reporters, that publish cases. See attached charts for reports and reporters that publish federal.

Administrative Regulations: Administrative agencies are created by legislative action and operate under the control of the executive branch. Agencies regulate statutorily defined areas of law. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created, in part, to promulgate and enforce standards for pollution control in the United States. Administrative law can act like legislatures (by creating regulations), like the executive branch (by enforcing regulations) and like courts (by adjudicating violations). Federal regulations are published in the Code of Federal Regulations.

Types of Laws

There are four distinct kinds of law, criminal, common, normal and statuate.

 Criminal Law: This is the sort of law that the police implement. Murder, ambush, theft and assault are altogether included inside the limits of criminal law. A decent manner by which to outline which offenses go under criminal law is 'an offense which is viewed as being against everyone, despite the fact that it isn't'.

Common Law: Civil law has a wide range of territories encased in it. Models that go under this law are legitimate rights, for example, a privilege to instruction or to a worker's organization enrollment and separation issues, for example, how the furniture is part between the couple and who gets authority of the kids. The most ideal approach to depict it is that it takes a gander at activities that are not wrongdoings.

Statutory law:   Statutory law can be found in two kinds of distributions: aggregations of rules or systematized laws.7 Both the arrangements and the codes have a similar wording, yet their configurations are unique. A government law is given the quantity of the U.S. Congress that passed it and a second number that speaks to the sequential request of its section. 

Regulatory law: Managerial offices serve two noteworthy capacities: rule-production and mediation (or requirement). The principles and guidelines of authoritative offices and official records are commonly distributed in a register and accumulated in a code.

Regulations

Differences between Laws and Regulations

Laws are made by resolutions that start from authoritative bills initially presented by either the Senate or the Assembly. For instance, in 1953 the Physical Therapy Practice (Act) was made by Chapter 1823 in view of AB 1001. The Physical Therapy Practice Act starts with §2600 in the Business and Professions Code (B&P Code) and oversees the act of active recuperation. The Act, rules, laws and B&P Code could be viewed as synonymous.

Regulations are measures (see the Rulemaking Process beneath) embraced as principles by the Physical Therapy Board of California to execute, decipher, or make explicit the law authorized or controlled by the Physical Therapy Practice Act. Guidelines must be endorsed by the Office of Administrative Law, and recorded with the Secretary of State.

Purpose of Regulations

The motivation behind much government guideline is to give security, either to people, or to nature. Regardless of whether the subject is ecological security, wellbeing and wellbeing in the home or working environment, or utilization of merchandise and ventures, guidelines can have sweeping impacts.

Sources and Development of Regulations

In common law frameworks, the wellsprings of law incorporate the legitimate codes, for example, the common code or the criminal code, and custom; in precedent-based law frameworks there are likewise a few sources that consolidate to shape "the law". Common law frameworks regularly assimilate thoughts from the precedent-based law and the other way around. Scotland, for example, has a cross breed type of law, as does South Africa, whose law in an amalgam of precedent-based law, common law and innate law.

References

American law (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e5d0/cd884dc22c8993bd00e1575589300cd86109.pdf [Accessed September13, 2019].

Sources of Law https://www.uidaho.edu/-/media/UIdaho-Responsive/Files/law/library/legal-research/guides/sources-law.pdf (PDF Download Available). Available from: [Accessed April 13, 2019].