Origins and Characteristic of the Law and Legal Systems of the United States
Origin of the Common Law Legal System
The common law is used in all the states except Louisiana. Louisiana uses a civil law legal system, which is common throughout Europe.
Characteristics of the Common Law Legal System
Origin of the Civil Law Legal System
It can be argued that any time a state legislature encodes a law which was not previously coded, that the state legal system becomes partly a civil code system.
Civil law is used …show more content…
Establishing Standards
People and businesses and government employees must act in a way acceptable to the average person. Voting people hire and employ a person in the legislature to decide what laws to promote to achieve this end. The law sets standards for all sorts of activity and items such as food and safety regulations.
Maintaining Order
Resolving Disputes
Protecting Liberties and Rights
Fields of the System of the Law
In the United States the levels of the law are federal law, state law and local law. The various types of government levels of law have influence over people and the way they live and work in a multiple border geography.
Federal Law
State Law
All the states add up to fifty separate systems of criminal law, family law, property law, contract Local Law
Two Types of Laws
Two types of law in the United States are procedural law and substantive law.
Procedural Criminal Law
Criminal cases have procedural guidelines that are different from the substantive law. The law that controls the way a criminal court case proceeds is called the criminal procedural law.
Civil Procedural