REVIEW OF LEGAL SYSTEMS
The legal system is a system developed to control the operation of a country’s regulatory, governmental and judicial authority who they supervise and impose the laws and regulations of the country. The legal systems that I choose to briefly review is my home country’s and in particular the Greek (Hellenic) legal system compared to the legal system of the United States of America (USA). I choose the above systems due to their differences and one similarity that they have.
The Greek legal system resides to the civil law tradition and it has been influenced by the Roman and Byzantine law (Blakesley, 1991) together with the modern civil law of the German state. The modern Greek law was established and evolved from the
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The US legal system is divided in several levels within USA. The constitution of the US establishes a federal government (Pomeroy, 1883). According to the Federal Judicial Center (n.d.) the US constitution provides certain authorities to the federal government. However not all authority is appointed to the federal government, individual states have their own legal codes, judicial system, state constitution and overall governmental framework.
The legislative work of the USA is performed not only by the federal government but also from each state of the USA as well. Moreover when the federal and state legislation do not provide sufficient governance then US common law and judicial precedent is applied (USDS, 2004).
US common law is a law tradition, originated from England, is a collection of previous court decisions and customary practices which can be said that it may fill the gap in the disputes not resolved by the federal and state legislation (USDS, 2004).
In accordance with the US Department of State (2004) the judicial precedent is applied when law interpretation is required. Therefore the court that is addressing the case may need to interpret a law as it was previously done by a superior court or other equal courts in a similar case.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO LEGAL SYSTEMS
The Greek law system follows the civil law tradition and subsequently its judicial
The American legal system consists of two separate levels of court, defined as federalism, which together administer and enforce the laws in the United States. Federalism distributes the government powers between both the federal governments and the state governments, which ensures that the power of the national government is decentralized.
Justice, as defined by Webster’s Dictionary is the quality of being fair or just. This implies that justice would have something to do with being fair. I thought that if one of the things the law and legal system are about is maintaining and promoting justice and a sense of fairness, they might not be doing such a great job. An eye for an eye is fair? No, that would be too easy, too black and white. I could cite several examples where I thought a judge’s or jury’s ruling was unfair, however I will not simply due to the fact that this is to be about what justice is to me and not what justice was to the particular courtroom situation. I actually do believe in our legal system and I believe in justice. I
The Canadian legal system was influenced dramatically by the Persons case, the Napoleonic code and the Magna Carta. First, the Persons case significantly influenced the Law system as known today. The Persons case, which took place in 1926 was regarding Emily Murphy, an Alberta police magistrate, otherwise known as a judge. While judging a case, her ruling was challenged because according to the British North America Act, women weren’t considered “persons.” In order to change this, Emily Murphy along with the Alberta Famous five started the legal process to prove that women were persons in 1928. The Famous five took the government to court, first at provincial level, then the Supreme Court, however they were unsuccessful. In 1929, the women
Previous studies of the realities faced by the systematically disadvantaged Aboriginal peoples of Canada have emphasized the crippling impact of non- Aboriginal ignorance of these facts, making addressing these conditions of life for Aboriginals impossible (Schaefli 2012, p. 1) and easily maintained through colonialization. As discussed in this course, colonialization and systematic discrimination against Aboriginal peoples has resulted in their overrepresentation in Canadian incarceration institutions (Comack, 2014, pp. 116-142). To expand on this concept, it is my intention to argue that the Canadian Legal system has historically, and continues to, internally and sexually colonized Aboriginal peoples in Canada, suppressing their livelihood, cultures and communities. The political and legislative approaches of Canada’s provincial and federal government are the root of Aboriginal peoples’ historically subordinate political and socio-economic position within Canadian society. In the following essay, I will argue this claim by drawing on the history of containment, displacement, and assimilation of Aboriginal peoples in Eastern dominating Canadian society. I will also discuss and analyze the devastating situations of Aboriginal women, which emerged with the sexual colonialization of Aboriginal peoples sanctioned by the Canadian government and justice system. I will do this by providing historical and statistical evidence from scholarly sources regarding the impacts of
However in the United States we have what is referred to as a dual court system. A dual court system can be defined as a judicial system comprising federal- and state- level judicial systems. A dual court system separates federal and state courts. According to the book a dual court system is advantageous and desirable because it is parallel to federalism. Federalism is a system of government where power is constitutionally divided between central governing body and various constituent units. In the United States, the federal government makes laws, but federalism also gives the state’s power to make their own laws (Siegel, Schmalleger, & Worral, 2011). The Founding fathers saw it as a way to serve as check on an abusive or tyrannical government.
presence of a jury, if the defendant wishes so. Even if a case is too
First of all, the historical back ground and source of law in the common law is back as before 100 years or more. In fact, they use as a policy for the UK colonel in all of the countries under UK control. After that it become as law for UK and different countries. In the same way, the common law sources depends on Constitution, old law, Custom and Convention. According to Morris L. Cohen (1989) (To understand the importance of the reception statutes, we must remember that the common law of England did not have automatic or direct applicability or authority in the American colonies). Second, historical background and sources for civil law is back to Spain and Portugal colonel in Europe and America and it is a part of Roman law. Moreover, they come from the principle of the French revolutions. In fact, civil law sources depend on legislation – statutes and subsidiary legislation, Custom and
The judicial system is divided into several branches just as in the States. These branches are local, state, and federal branches. They also incorporate a Supreme Court. The legal system of laws is based or
Businesses are formed to make money. In the pursuit of making money, businesses deal with consumers and customers and other businesses. In all things in life when you have more than one individual or entity there will be some form of dispute that will arises in the course of time. This paper will focus on purchasing agents and insurance claim agents on why they avoid conflicts in the courts. It will also address how purchasing agents and insurance claim agents access disputes, how they handle disputes and what their objectives are in avoiding such disputes.
The English system law has been described as a common law rather than a civil law system. To begin with, there is a significant difference between the civil and criminal law. On the one hand, the purpose of the civil law will be to settle disputes between private’s parties. On the other hand, criminal law is the body of law that punish criminal offenses and protect the innocent.
Judicial precedent means the use of decisions made by judges in the past as a source of law, where a similar case arises the past decision is used as a guideline.
In the United States, our laws can be traced back to the English common law. There are many tenants of English common law that are still applicable today, such as many of the torts doctrines. However, since 1788, the United States has operated under our current constitution. In that constitution they divided the power of the government and gave the legislative power to the legislative branch, and to keep the Judiciary as a wholly separate branch. So this means that we have one creating the law and one interpreting the law. This then leads to an inherent linkage between the two branches, but these two branches look at the law very differently. The legislative branch sees the laws that they pass as their final product, and a product that get hammered and beaten so much that it rarely looks the same as it did in the beginning. On the other hand, The Court will look at the law as it is written in the code books. This means the courts in a challenge, it is perfect, “newly” minted law, without all the bangs and scrapes that helped shaped the law, unless there was a preceding case within the courts that would have changed the law.
Common law, derived from English law and found in England, the United States, Canada, and other countries once under English influence;
The essence of law is a body of rules and traditions that govern the conduct of businesses and business transactions. United States law has its roots in the British system of common law. British common law was derived from the writs issued by English royalty each writ specifically tailored to a specific infraction. Sir William Blackstone is credited with defining the British common law as a large set of cases. The United States has combined the principles of the common law British system with statutes issued by various courts to establish a set of rules known in America as The Law. While common law does rely on some statutes, it is predominately based on precedent. Precedents are judicial decisions that were made prior to the current case and are referenced in current cases to determine guilt or innocence and meter out the punishment. Precedents reflect society’s perception of certain activities and apply a moral code to those activities, such as stealing or
Another difference between civil and common law system is the force of precedents. In civil law system, the court decides the particular cases according to the legislation and legal norms. But in the common law the courts are supposed not only to solve the cases, but also give an example of how similar cases have to be solved in the future. This means, that decisions, which are made by higher level courts in a specific areas are binding the lower ones to follow them. This makes the court in the common law the basis of legislation.