Political Sci
Terms
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- Adversarial System
- Trial procedures designed to resolve conflict through the clash of opposing sides, moderated by a neutral, passive judge who applies the law
- Civil Law Tradition
- A legal system based on a detailed comprehensive legal code, usually created by the legislature
- Constituitional Law
- Law stated in the Constitution and the body of judicial decisions about the meaning of the constitution handed down in the courts
- Substantive Law
- Law whose content, or substance, defines what we can or cannot do
- Writ of Certiorari
- Formal request by the U.S. Supreme Court to call up the lower court case it decides to hear on appeal
- Change of Venue
- Removal of a trial to a different geographical area
- Statutory Law
- Law passed by a state or the federal legislature
- Judicial Review
- The power of the courts to determine the constitutionality of laws
- Amicus Curiae Brief
- A "friend of the court" document filed by interested parties to encourage the court to grant or deny certiorari or to urge it to decide a case in a particular way
- Criminal Law
- Law prohibiting behavior the government has dtermined is harmful to society; violating a criminal law is called a crime
- Judicial restraint
- view that the courts should reject any active lawmaking functions and stick to judicial interpretations of the past
- Rule of Four
- Requirement that four Supreme Court justices must agree to grant a case certiorari in order for the case to be heard
- Inquisitorial System
- Trial Procedures designed to determine the truth through the intervention of an active judge who seeks evidence and questions witnesses
- Concurring Opionions
- Documents written by the justices expressing agreement with the majority ruling but describing different or additional reasons for the ruling
- Judicial Activism
- View that the courts should be lawmaking, policymaking bodies
- Civil Law
- Law regulating interactions between individuals; violating a civil law is called a tort
- Senatorial Courtesy
- Tradition of Granting senior senators of the presidents party considerable power over federal judicial apointments in thier home states
- Common Law Tradition
- A legal system based on the accumulated rulings of judges over time, applied uniformly-judge-made law
- Forum-Shopping
- The practice of trying to get a case heard in the jurisdiction where the outcome is expected to be favorable
- Procedural Due Process
- Procedural laws that protect the rights of individuals who must deal with the legal system
- Judicial Interpretivism
- A judicial approach holding that the constitution is a living document and that judges should interpret it according to changing times and values
- Procedural Law
- Law that establishes how laws are applied and enforced-how legal proceedings take place
- Courts
- Instituitions that sit as neutral third parties to resolve conflicts according to the law
- Appellate jurisdiction
- The authority of a court to review decisions made by lower courts
- Original Jurisdiction
- The authority of a court to hear a case first
- Appeal
- A rehearing of a case because the losing party in the original trial argues that a point of law was not applied properly
- Strict Constructionism
- A judicial approach holding that the constitution should be read literally with the framers intentions uppermost in mind
- Rule of Law
- The principle that laws must be publicized, nonarbitrary, and uniformly applied; no citizen is above the law
- Precedent
- A previous decision or ruling that, in commmon law tradition, is binding on subsequent decisions
- Administrative Law
- Law established by the bereaucracy, on behalf of Congress
- Jurisdiction
- A court's authority to hear certain cases
- Opinion
- The written decision of teh court that states the judgment of the majority
- Executive Order
- A clarification of congressional policy issued by the president and having the full force of the law
- Dissenting Opinions
- Documents written by justices expressing disagreement with the majority ruling