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83 Cards in this Set
- Front
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Constitution |
A relatively permanent document or group of documents which set out the fundamental principles that determine the powers and duties of a jurisdiction's government and the rights of the people of the jurisdiction |
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Statutes |
Laws enacted by the legislative branch of a government |
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Administrative regulations |
Rules or orders adopted by agencies within the executive branch of government |
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Treaties and international agreements |
Formal agreements between two or more countries |
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Case Law |
Law created by a jurisdiction's court and found in the courts' written decisions |
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Legislative branch |
consists of one or more legislative bodies that are responsible for enacting laws to govern the applicable jurisdiction |
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executive branch |
c/o a number of agencies or ministries that are responsible for administering, enforcing, or carrying out the jurisdiction's laws |
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judicial branch |
c/o a system of courts that are responsible for applying and interpreting the jurisdictions laws |
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Parliamentary democracies |
parliament (legislative branch) has ultimate authority for making all laws |
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Governmental organization |
typically configured to carry out at least 3 functions: Creating the laws; Administering and enforcing the laws; and settling disputes that arise w/in the jurisdiction |
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Creating the laws |
Nations establish some type of legislative body, often referred to as a legislature or parliament |
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Administering and enforcing the laws |
Nations est. a system of administrative agencies, often referred to as departments or ministries |
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Settling disputes that arise within the jurisdiction |
Nations typically establish a court system and many nations promote alternative dispute resolution methods |
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Examples of Federal Systems of Government |
Argentina - union of 23 provinces and a fed district Brazil - union of 26 states and fed district Canada - federation of 10 provinces and 3 territories Germany union of 16 states India - union of 28 states and 7 territories Indonesion - union of 30 provinces . 2 special regions and a district court Malaysia, Mexico, S. Africa |
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Statutory law |
legislative enactments that create a body of law |
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Congress |
Senate and House of Reps of the Federal government combined |
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State Legislature |
State Senate and State House of Reps combined |
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code |
all of the laws enacted by each legislative body and are compiled and organized into a collection of laws; definition 2: a comprehensive written statement of rules that embody the general principles of law tht apply in a given civil law jurisdiction. |
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U.S. code |
In the U.S. all of the compiled federal statutes |
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State code |
laws enacted by a given state |
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Example of a sub-divided federal code |
IRC (Internal Revenue Code) |
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Example of a sub-divided state code |
State insurance code |
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Examples of federal administrative agencies |
Dept of the Treasury Dept of Justice Securities and Exchange Commission |
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Examples of State administrative agencies |
Office of the Secretary of State Office of the Attorney General |
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Dept of the Treasury |
The federal agency that has primary responsibility for administering federal banking and tax laws |
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Dept of Justice (DOJ) |
The federal agency that is responsible for enforcing federal criminal law, representing the United States in federal cases, and providing legal advice to other federal officials and departments |
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Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) |
The federal agency that administers federal laws governing securities and the investment industry |
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Office of the Secretary of State |
A state agency that is responsible for licensing corporations and businesses |
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Office of the Attorney General |
A state agency that is authroized to enforce the state's criminal laws, represent the state in all legal matters, and provide legal advice to the governor and other state administrative officials |
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Regulations |
rules or orders that are issued by admin agencies and that have the same force and effect as statutes |
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Administrative law |
made up of regulations |
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Administrative code |
filed and compiled administrative laws |
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State Insurance Deparment |
responsible for enforcing the state insurance code and ensuring that insurance companies conducting business w/in the state, comply with all state insurance laws |
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Treaty |
a legally binding agreement entered into by two or more nations which agree to abide by the terms of the treaty |
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Civil Law system |
A legal system based on the Roman legal system in which the laws are codified into written codes enacted by the legislature |
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Civil Code |
contains the general principles of law that apply to relationships between people that arise through birth, adoption, marriage, death, contracts, and personal liability |
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Commercial code |
regulates commercial transactions and business organizations |
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Islamic Legal System |
the law is set out in the book of scripture known as the Qur'an which include elements of civil law, common law, and Islamic law |
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Customary Law system |
members of a community have accepted local customs as binding on the community's members |
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Decision making procedures for Common Law |
court first looks to the applicable written law-statues and regulations; If no statues or regulations apply, then the court applies the doctrine of stare decisis by following precedents, unless strong reasons justify a departure from precedent; If no precedents apply, then the court applies general principles of the common law |
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Decision making procedures for Civil Law |
court first looks to the applicable code; if no code applies, then the court applies the general principles of law set out in the applicable code; although not bound to follow precedents, the court will be influenced by its own prior decisions and decisions of higher courts on similar issues |
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Criminal Law |
law that defines certain acts of crimes and provide specific punishments for each crime |
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Civil Laws |
laws that are concerned with private--that is, nongovernmental --rights and remedies |
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Public law |
refers to those areas of the law that affect the public interest and that govern relationships between the government and nongovernmental parties |
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Private law |
refers to those areas of the law that primarily involve disputes between nongovernmental parties |
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Civil litigation |
a judicial process by which private parties go to court to enforce a legal right or to obtain a remedy for a civil wrong |
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cause of action |
a set of facts that gives a person the right to judicial relief |
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Elements for a cause of action |
1. one person has a legal right 2. another person has a legal duty to observe that right 3. the second person breaches her legal duty 4. the first person suffers a loss or injury as a result of that breach |
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contract |
a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties; the agreement consists of a promise or a set of promises |
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breach of contract |
the failure of a party to perform a contractual obligation |
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tort |
a private wrong--other than a breach of contract---for which the law provides a remedy to the wronged party |
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person |
a natural person or an entity, such as a corporation, that the law recognizes as having legal rights and duties |
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Procedural stages |
1. pleading stage 2. discovery stage 3. trial stage |
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affirmative defense |
an allegation of facts that constitute a defense to the plaintiff's claim |
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Discovery |
a process in which the parties to a civil lawsuit gather information that is relevant to the lawsuit so that they can prepare to present their respective cases at trial |
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contempt of court |
any act that hinders the court in administering justice or that lessens the authority and dignity of the court |
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Prima facie case |
is evidence that is sufficient to prove the elements of a party's case and that entitles the party to judicial relief unless the opposing party presents evidence to the contrary |
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preponderance of the evidence |
the decision as to an issue of fact must be supported by the greater weight of the evidence |
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presumption |
a rule of law under which a fact is assumed to be true because another fact or set of facts was proven |
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conclusive presumption |
a presumption that cannot be refuted |
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rebuttable presumption |
a presumption that can be disproven but that stands until adequate evidence is presented to the contrary |
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conflict of laws |
the area of the law that determines which substantive laws apply to each issue in a case when the laws of more than one jurisdiction are involved in the action |
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judgment |
an official decision of a court that resolves a dispute and determines the rights and obligations of the parties to the action |
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Res judicata |
meaning that a matter has been decided |
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Delicts |
intentional faults that damage another person |
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Quasi-delicts |
unintentional faults that damage another person |
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intentional torts |
a private wrong committed by a person who intended to do something that the law declares a wrong |
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Examples of intentional torts |
assault, battery, defamation (libel), fraudulent misrepresentation, inducing a breach of contract, and trespassing to land |
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Negligence |
a private wrong committed by a person who failed to exercise the legally required degree of care |
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contributory negligence |
a plaintiff's own negligence that contributes to his loss |
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comparative negligence |
allows a plaintiff who was contributorily negligent to recover from the defendant, but the amount of that recovery is reduced in proportion to the plaintiff's fault |
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assumption of the risk |
an affirmative defense that totally bars a plaintiff's claim when the plaintiff understood the nature of the risk presented by the defendants conduct and voluntarily incurred that risk |
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strict liability |
liability without regard for whether the defendant was at fault |
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legal remedies |
primarily involved the payment of money damages to injured parties |
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equitable remedies |
remedies developed by the equity courts to provide new remedies to legal remedies where the courts were not bound by rigid procedures and were given discretionary power to base their decisions on moral rights and concepts of justice |
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liquidated damages |
a sum of money that the parties to a contract have specified in their agreement as the amount of damages to be recovered by a party if the other party breaches the contract |
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Prospective damages |
damages that have not occurred at the time of the trial of a case but that are reasonably likely to occur as a result of the defendant's conduct |
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statutory damages |
damages that are awarded under the provisions of a statute rather than under the common law rules governing damages for civil wrongs |
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remote damages |
damages for losses that the defendant could not reasonably have anticipated resulting from a given set of facts (generally not awarded) |
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speculative damages |
damages that may occur in the future as a result of the defendants actions (not commonly awarded) |
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injuction |
a court order that prohibits a party from committing a specific act |
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declaratory judgment |
a judicial statement that declares or denies the parties legal rights but does not include specific relief or any means to enforce those rights. |
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alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods |
any nonjudicial method of resolving civil disputes |