| Term | Definition |
|---|
| constitutional law | It distributes power among the branches of Government. It is the supreme law of the land. Any law that conflicts with it is invalid. The states also have constitutions, but the federal consitution prevails. |
| statutory law | They are enacted by Congress and by state and local legislative bodies. Uniform laws (such as the Uniform Commercial Code) and model codes are created by panels of experts and scholars and adopted at the option of each state's legislature. |
| administrative law | Consists of the rules and regulations issued by administrative agencies which derive their authority from the legislative and executive brances of government. |
| case law and common law doctorines | Includes courts' interpretations of constitutional provisions, statues, and administrative rules. Because statues often codify common law rules, courts often rely on it as a guide to the intent and purpose of a statue. It governs all areas not covered by statues. |
| remedies at law | include awards of land, money, and items of value. A jury trial is available only in an action at law. |
| remedies at equity | include decrees of specific performance, injunctions, and rescission. Decisions to award them are guided by equitable maxims, |
| stare decisis | The use of precedent as binding authority in a common law system. It makes the legal system more efficient, just, uniform, stable, and predictable. |
| when there is no precedent | a court may look at other legal principles and policies, social values, or scientific data. |
| when a precedent is incorrect | a judge may decide that a precedent is incorrect if there have been changes in technology, business practices, or society's attitudes. |
| Issue-Rule-Application-Conclusion | Legal reasoning requires learning the facts of a case, identifying the issues and the relevant legal rules, applying the rules to the facts, and coming to a conclusion. |
| Forms of Legal Reasoning | In applying an old precedent or establishing a new one, judges may use many forms of reasoning- deductive reasoning, linear reasoning, reasoning by analogy, and others- to harmonize their decisions with earlier cases. |
| substantive law | includes laws that define, describe, regulate, and create rights and duties. |
| procedural law | includes rules for enforcing those rights. |
| private law | concerns relationships between private entities. |
| public law | addresses the relationship between persons and their government. |
| civil law | regulates relationships between individuals. |
| criminal law | regulates relationships between individuals and their society. |
| cyber law | the emerging body of law (cour decisions, new and amended statues, etc.) that governs cyberspace transactions. |
| publication of statues | Federal statues are arranged by date of enactment in United States Statutes at Large. State statues are collected in similar state publications. Statues are also published in codified form (the form in which they appear in the federal and state codes) in other publications |
| finding a statue in a publication | statues are usually referred to in their codified form. In the codes, laws are compiled by subject. For example, the United States Code (U.S.C) arranges by subject most federal laws. Each subject is assigned a title number and each statue a section number within a title. |
| publication of rules and regulations | Rules and regulations adopted by the federal administrative agencies are published initially in the Federal Register. They are also compiled by subject in the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R). |
| Finding a rule or regulation in a publication | In the C.F.R, rules and regulations are arranged by subject. Each subject is assigned a little number and each rule or regulation a section number within a title. |
| publication of court opinions | state appellate court opinions are often published by the state in consecutively numbered volumes. They may also be published in units of the National Reporter System, by West Publishing Company. Federal court opinions appear in other West publications. |
| Finding a court opinion in a publication | After a decision is published, it is usually referred to by the name of the case and the volume, name, and page number of one or more reporters( which are often, but not always, West reporters). This information is called the citation. |
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