This Week’s Focus: What is the Law? What are the Functions of the Law? Where Does Law Come From? U.S. Constitution v. State Constitutions Federal Court System v. State Court System Idea Behind our Legal System: How Does It Work?

What is the LAW? Black’s Law Dictionary 5 th ed.: Law, in its generic sense, is a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by controlling authority, and having binding legal force. That which must be obeyed and followed by citizens subject to sanctions or legal consequences is a law. Question: What does the law mean to you ? Paralegals work with the law on a daily basis. It is critical that you understand the sources of the law, the three branches of government, and relationship between the federal government and state governments.

What are the functions of the Law? The law is often described by the functions it serves within a society. The primary functions served by U.S. laws are: 1. Keeping the peace, which includes making crimes out of certain activities. 2. Shaping moral standards (e.g., enacting laws that discourage drug and alcohol abuse). 3. Promoting social justice (e.g., enacting statutes that prohibit discrimination in employment). 4. Maintaining the status quo (e.g., passing laws that prevent the forceful overthrow of government).

What are the functions? Cont’d 5. Facilitating orderly change (e.g., passing statutes only after considerable study, debate, and public input). 6. Facilitating planning (e.g., designing commercial laws to allow businesses to plan their activities, allocate their productive resources, and assess the risks they take). 7. Providing a basis for compromise (approximately 90 percent of all lawsuits are settled prior to trial). 8. Maximizing individual freedom (e.g., the rights of freedom of speech, religion, and association granted by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution).

Primary Sources of Law Two primary sources of American Law: (1) Legislative : U.S. Constitution, state constitution, federal and state civil and criminal statutes, federal and state administrative regulations (2) Judge or Court-made Law : common law, judge-made law, court cases/precedent or stare decisis

Where does law come from? Magna Carta (June Law of the Land) Mayflower Compact Declaration of Independence 1776 U.S. Constitution ( ): serves several major functions: 1. It creates the three branches of the federal government (executive, legislative, and judicial) and allocates powers to these branches. 2. It grants the federal government certain authority to enact laws and enforce those laws. 3. It protects individual rights by limiting the government’s ability to restrict those rights.

U.S. Constitution v. State Constitutions Powers not given to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution are reserved to the states. The sharing of power between the federal government and state governments is called FEDERALISM. States also have their own constitutions that create legislative, executive and judicial branches of state government. State constitutions define the powers of state government and rights of citizens. The Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1830, by George CatlinGeorge Catlin

Basic State Court System

Federal Court System This image graphically describes the structure of the United States Judicial System. Keep in mind that this is the federal side of the system. Each of the 50 states then has it’s own structure as well. Most of them are similar to the basic structure of the federal courts, i.e., trial courts at the bottom, an appellate level, then the state supreme court.

Idea Behind our Legal System: How Does It Work? Adversarial Legal System Right to be represented by a lawyer Judge is neutral and impartial Trial is based on rules, statutes, and historical precedent Criminal Prosecution: brought by the government against the defendant Civil Actions: brought by a plaintiff against an individual or corporation Difference: prison v. compensation