Other legal and political systems are very different from the American system, which derives from the traditions of English common law and the framers of the American Constitution. Our legal and political traditions differ both in the type of laws we pass and respect and in the way disputes are resolved in court. Civil law is a comprehensive and codified set of legislative texts created by the legislature. A civilian system clearly defines the cases that can be brought before the courts, the procedures for dealing with claims and the punishment of a crime. The judicial authorities use the conditions of the applicable Civil Code to assess the facts of the case and take legislative decisions. Although civil law is regularly updated, the goal of standardized codes is to create order and reduce biased systems where laws are applied differently from case to case. The U.S. system is a common law system that relies heavily on precedent for formal judgments. In our common law system, court decisions in previous court proceedings are extremely important to the court`s decision on the pending case, even if it is a statute. This is a matter in our federal court system that provides for a hearing or hearing in the U.S. District Court, an appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Teresa Harris, who lost in both the District Court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, here requested a certificate (asking the court to make an order to take the case to the Supreme Court), a motion that is granted less than one in fifty times. In other words, the Supreme Court chooses its cases carefully. In this case, the Court sought to resolve a disagreement between the various appellate courts as to whether a plaintiff can recover damages in a hostile work environment suit without proving “serious psychological harm.” We could look at existing laws, guidelines, which take the form of general rules to be followed in the nation-state or its subdivisions. Laws control judicial decisions or the common law, but are subject to (and are controlled by) constitutional law – decrees, regulations or court decisions – in a manner precise enough to know what the law says. For example, we could look at the published speed limits on most U.S. highways and conclude that the “right” or “right” speed does not exceed fifty-five miles per hour. Or we could look a little deeper and find out how the written law is usually enforced. In this way, we could conclude that sixty-one miles per hour are generally authorized by most state troops, but that sometimes someone receives a ticket for fifty-seven miles per hour within a fifty-five miles per hour zone. Both approaches are empirical, but not strictly scientific.

The first approach, which examines exactly what the rule itself says, is sometimes called the “positivist” school of legal thought. The second approach, based on the social context and actual behaviour of key law enforcement actors, is similar to the “legal realist” school of thought (see Section 1.2.3 “Other Schools of Legal Thought”). Civil law systems are used throughout Europe as well as in Central and South America. Some countries in Asia and Africa have also adopted codes based on European civil law. Germany, Holland, Spain, France, and Portugal all had colonies outside Europe, and many of these colonies adopted the legal practices imposed by colonial rule, as did the original thirteen states of the United States that adopted English common law practices. Law has different meanings and functions. Philosophers have been concerned with questions of justice and law for centuries, and various approaches or schools of legal thought have emerged. In this chapter, we will examine these different meanings and approaches, and examine how social and political dynamics interact with the ideas that animate different schools of legal thought. We will also examine typical sources of “positive law” in the United States and how some of these sources take precedence over others, and we will expose some fundamental differences between the American legal system and other legal systems. In the federal system, judges are appointed by an elected official (the President) and confirmed by other elected representatives (the Senate). If the president belongs to one party and the other party holds a majority of seats in the Senate, political conflicts can arise during judicial confirmation processes. Such a division has been quite common over the past fifty years.

There are hundreds of legal systems in the world. At the global level, international law is of great importance, whether through the practice of sovereign States or through agreement between them in the form of treaties and other agreements. Some transnational entities, such as the European Union, have created their own legal structures. At the national level, the United Nations has more than 180 sovereign States. Many of them are federal and their components may have their own additional laws. Second, the federal judicial system is based on a system of “jurisdiction,” that is, the geographical distribution of courts at certain levels. For example, while there is only one Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal is divided into 13 counties and there are 94 district courts. In addition, each state judicial system has its own “jurisdiction”. As already mentioned, the jurisdiction in which a case has been raised determines which judicial decisions constitute binding precedents. Natural law school has greatly influenced American legal thought.

For example, the idea that certain rights are “inalienable” (as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and in the writings of John Locke) is consistent with this legal view. Individuals may have “God-given” or “natural” rights that the government cannot legitimately take away from them. A government that has only with the consent of the governed is a natural consequence from this point of view. Most judicial decisions that do not apply legislative acts (so-called laws) concern one of the three areas of law: property, contract or tort. Property law deals with the rights and obligations of those who can legally own land (immovable property), how such property can be legally confirmed and protected, how property can be bought and sold, the rights of tenants and the different types of land “estates” (e.g. fief simple, life assets, future interests, easements or rights of way B.