The Modern Day Legal Systems

Imagine you are the director of health information services for a medium-sized health care facility. Like many of your peers, you have contracted with an outside copying service to handle all requests for release of patient health information at your facility. You have learned that a lobbying organization for trial attorneys in your state is promoting legislation to place a cap on photocopying costs, which is significantly below the actual costs incurred as part of the contract. (Case Study, p. 20)

This act occurred on July 1st, 1867 the law The British North America Act is important in Canadian history because it is the 1867 Act which officially created the new country of Canada by joining together the four provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia legal in Confederation. This legislation, passed by the British Parliament, created Canada as a new making it its own today. Therefore Canada is an independent country that must not listen to anyone but themselves.

The courts play a huge role in the criminal justice system. The dual court system of the United States (U.S.) was established through the U.S. constitution. The court systems have a multiple purposes and elements of court. Federal and state court system is what makes up the dual court system of the U.S. Today the U.S. court system is what it is today because of previous legal codes, common law, and the precedent it played in the past. Making the U.S. court system a vital role in the criminal justice system..

The Statute of Westminister allowed Canada to make their own laws and regulations. Britain couldn’t rule Canada, but the Privy Council in Britain is still higher than Supreme Court of Canada. The document was signed in Britain, since Canada was still part of British Empire at the time. British Empire passed the Statute of Westminister on Dec. 11, 1931 and Canada gained complete independence. This Statute effected not only Canada but five more dominions, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Irish Free State, the Dominion of Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.

Canada adopted the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms after Pierre Trudeau's ideology, work and effort of a Canadian Constitution and for constitutional rights and freedoms. Trudeau was a patriot and believed in an independent nation. He wished for Canada to have its own identity and therefore helped pass the Constitution Act of 1982. The legislation went through long political and legal battles, but, Trudeau was able to make the legislation into effect. Queen Elizabeth II, signed the legislation and officially made it law. Moreover, the constitution was consisted of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Consequently all people in Canada had fundamental rights and freedoms. This included freedom of expression, the right to a democratic government, mobility rights, the legal rights of people accused of crime and many more rights we now take for granted. These rights made Canada a democratic nation and helped form it into one of the best places to live. In addition, Trudeau included homosexuality, abortion, religious and indigenous rights. He decriminalized homsexuality, liberalized divorce law, legalized contraception, legalized abortion and also created The Rights Of Indigenous People of Canada. He included rights for all individuals, for individuals to be treated equally. At the time, many disagreed on homosexuality, abortion, contraception and providing Indigenous people with specialized rights to

Canada was a very unstable country 150 years ago, with two countries fighting over the land. John A MacDonald helped make Canada a very strong and stable country. The French took over the land of Canada and called it New France. Later on, he British took control of New France and later on, called it British North America. One big part of Canadian history was developing a Responsible government to take care of its’ citizens.

Pre-Confederation, Canada experienced many events which led to the expansion and development of Canadian institutions. Not much longer after the arrival and settlement of the French, the British followed, with the same goal as the French, wanting to colonize the land. It was not possible for both to own the land together. The British had conquered New France in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, meaning they had now conquered land they could colonize. This gave them the advantage, and they began looking for settlers and colonists who were loyal to the British Crown (Cochrane, Blidook and Dyck, 20).

Canadian have a different history than the US, both were establish by European colonial powers

It meant that Canada could change its constitution without the involvement of British Parliament. It received royal assent from Queen Elizabeth II on March 29th 1982 and severed all remaining legal ties with Britain. Entrenched in the constitution was the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter ensured the protection of fundamental and language rights for Canadians across the country; it also helped Canadians challenge government statutes that were found discriminatory. In order for the Constitution to be amended, seven or two thirds of Canadian provinces, that make up at least half of the nation’s population, must agree – this is also known as the amending formula.

The United States court system is the institution were all the legal disputes in the american society are carryed out and resolved. However, one single court is not enough to resolve every single dispute in society and that is why the court system is made up of two different courts, the federal courts and the state courts. Moreover, the federal and state courts are made up of several divisions made to handle legal disputes differently depending on its seriousness. For example, the state court is made up of trial courts of limited jurisdiction and probate courts were cases and disputes originate and then move up to trial courts of general jurisdiction, intermediate apellate courts, and courts of last resort respectively depending on the case.In contrast, the federal court consists of district courts, territorial coutrs, tax court, court of international trade, claims court, court of veterans appeals, an courts of military review which then move on to courts of appeals respectively and may ultimately end up in the United States supreme court. In addition, cases from state court may also appeal into the federal court system but not the other way around.

As mentioned in the text “Law is a body of rules established by government officials that bind government, individuals, and nongovernment organization.” These rules were established to maintain stability and justice. The five sources of law are common law, constitutional law, legislation, executive orders and administrative law. Common law is judge made and is grounded in tradition and previous judicial decisions, instead of in written laws. It was a tradition beginning in England as the United States had former ties to England, they were influenced by it. Constitutional law is the body of law that comes out of the courts in cases involving the interpretation of the constitution. The highest court is the Supreme Court.

Between the time of Hammurabi and modern day America there have been several legal systems established around the world. The legal system from which the United States derives its’ own rules and regulations is that of the English

The most significant reason was the adaptation of the British parliament to the Quebec Act, 1774. According to this act the rights were given to the Roman Catholics and the French language as well as the French civil laws. This induced a feeling among the Canadians

During the WWI era, there were multiple events which pressed for Canada’s national autonym which eventually led to the successful creation of the Statute of Westminster. Prior to the creation of the Statute of Westminster, Britain has full control over any legal action taken place in the Commonwealth dominions including Canada. The Statue of Westminster was the last Imperial Act carried out by

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