1. Law, Courts, and Due Process

2. Criminal and Civil Law Types of Civil Cases Common-law Real property
Precedents
Stare decisis
Statutory law
Common-law marriage
Community-property
Homestead
Probate
Intestate
Real property
Administrative law
Charter
Writs of injunction
Closed shop
Union shop
Slander/libel
Tort
Vernon’s Annotated

3. Civil and Criminal Law
Types of Crimes
Crime
Felony
misdemeanor

4. Figure 7.1 – Texas’s Crime Rate Since 1987
** Total of violent and property crimes (burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft) per 100,000 population.
Murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
Source: Department of Public Safety, Crime in Texas: Calendar Year 2002, p. 14.

5. The Courts Trial and Appeal Original Jurisdiction
Appellate Jurisdiction

6. The Courts Trial Courts’ Jurisdiction Municipal Courts
Justices of the Peace
County Courts
County Courts-at-Law
District Courts

7. The Courts Appellate Jurisdiction Courts of Appeal Texas Supreme Court
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

8. The Selection of Judge and Juries
Selection and Qualifications of Judges
Partisan Elections
The Merit Plan
Texas’s Appointive-Elective System
Qualifications

9. The Selection of Judge and Juries
Selection of trial (petit juries)
Venire
Voir dire
Peremptory challenges
Selection of grand juries
Grand juries
Prima facie
Indictment