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Конституция Соединенных Штатов

Закон Соединенных Штатов включает в себя множество уровней [1] кодифицированные и незашифрованных формы права , из которых наиболее важными является Конституция Соединенных Штатов , которая предусматривает основу федерального правительства в Соединенных Штатах , а также различные гражданские свободы . Множества Конституции из границ федерального закона, который состоит из актов Конгресса , [2] договора ратифицированы сенатом , [3] постановление , принятое исполнительной власти , [4] и прецедентное праваисходящие от федеральной судебной системы . [5] Кодекс Соединенных Штатов является официальной компиляцией и кодификации общего и постоянного федерального статутного права.

Федеральные законы и договоры, если они соответствуют Конституции, отменяют конфликтующие законы штатов и территорий в 50 штатах США и на территориях. [6] Однако сфера действия федерального приоритета ограничена, поскольку сфера федеральной власти не универсальна. В двойном государе [7] системы американского федерализма ( на самом деле трехсторонний [8] из - за наличиями индейских резерваций ), государства являются пленарными государями , каждый со своей собственной конституцией , в то время как федеральный государь обладает лишь ограниченным высшим органом перечисленным в Конституции. [9]Действительно, штаты могут предоставлять своим гражданам более широкие права, чем федеральная Конституция, при условии, что они не нарушают какие-либо федеральные конституционные права. [10] [11] Таким образом, большинство законов США (особенно действующее «живое право» договорного , деликтного , имущественного , уголовного и семейного права, с которым сталкивается большинство граждан на повседневной основе) состоит в основном из государственных закон , который может сильно варьироваться и действительно сильно варьируется от одного штата к другому. [12] [13]

Как на федеральном уровне, так и на уровне штатов, за исключением штата Луизиана , право Соединенных Штатов во многом основано на системе общего права английского права , которая действовала во время войны за независимость в США . [14] [15] Однако американское право сильно отличается от своего английского предка как по существу, так и с точки зрения процедуры [16], и включает в себя ряд нововведений гражданского права .

Общий обзор [ править ]

Закон влияет на все аспекты американской жизни, включая парковки . Обратите внимание на ссылки на уставы на знаке.

Источники права [ править ]

В Соединенных Штатах право происходит из пяти источников: конституционного права , статутного права , договоров, административных постановлений и общего права (включая прецедентное право). [17]

Конституционность [ править ]

Если Конгресс принимает закон, противоречащий Конституции, суды штатов или федеральные суды могут признать этот закон неконституционным и объявить его недействительным. [18]

Примечательно, что статут не исчезает автоматически только потому, что он признан неконституционным; однако он может быть исключен последующим законом. Многие федеральные законы и законы штатов оставались в силе в течение десятилетий после того, как были признаны неконституционными. Однако в соответствии с принципом stare decisis ни один разумный суд низшей инстанции не будет применять неконституционный статут, и любой суд, который это сделает, будет отменен Верховным судом. [19] И наоборот, любой суд, который отказывается обеспечить соблюдение конституционного закона (если такая конституционность была прямо установлена ​​в предыдущих делах), рискует отменить решение Верховным судом. [20] [21]

Американское общее право [ править ]

Соединенные Штаты и большинство стран Содружества являются наследниками общей правовой традиции английского права. [22] Определенные действия, традиционно разрешенные общим правом Англии, были прямо запрещены Конституцией, например, законопроекты [23] и общие ордера на обыск. [24]

Как суды общего права, суды США унаследовали принцип stare decisis . [25] Американские судьи, как и судьи по общему праву в других странах, не только применяют закон, они также принимают закон в той мере, в какой их решения по рассматриваемым им делам становятся прецедентом для решений по будущим делам. [26]

Фактическое содержание английского права было формально "получено" в Соединенных Штатах несколькими способами. Во-первых, все штаты США, за исключением Луизианы, приняли « статуты о приеме », в которых, как правило, говорится, что общее право Англии (особенно право, определяемое судьей) является законом штата в той мере, в какой оно не противоречит внутреннему законодательству или местным условиям. [27] Некоторые статуты о приеме устанавливают конкретную дату окончания приема, например, дату основания колонии, в то время как другие намеренно расплывчаты. [28] Таким образом, современные американские суды часто ссылаются на дореволюционные дела при обсуждении эволюции древнего принципа общего права, созданного судьями, в его современную форму, [28]например, повышенная забота, традиционно возлагаемая на обычных перевозчиков . [29]

Во-вторых, некоторые важные британские законодательные акты, действовавшие во время революции, были независимо отредактированы штатами США. Двумя примерами являются Статут о мошенничестве (все еще широко известный в США под этим названием) и Статут Елизаветы 13 (предшественник Единообразного закона о мошенничестве). Такие английские статуты до сих пор регулярно цитируются в современных американских делах, интерпретируя их современных американских потомков. [30]

Несмотря на наличие статутов приема, большая часть современного американского общего права значительно отличается от английского общего права. [31] Хотя суды различных стран Содружества часто находятся под влиянием решений друг друга, американские суды редко следуют постреволюционным прецедентам из Англии или Британского Содружества.

Вначале американские суды, даже после революции, часто ссылались на современные английские дела, потому что апелляционные решения многих американских судов не сообщались регулярно до середины XIX века. Адвокаты и судьи использовали английские юридические материалы, чтобы восполнить пробел. [32] Ссылки на английские решения постепенно исчезли в течение XIX века, поскольку американские суды разработали свои собственные принципы решения правовых проблем американского народа. [33] Число опубликованных томов американских отчетов выросло с восемнадцати в 1810 году до более 8000 к 1910 году. [34] К 1879 году один из делегатов конституционного съезда Калифорнии.уже жаловался: «Теперь, когда мы требуем, чтобы они изложили причины своего решения, мы не имеем в виду, что они должны написать сто страниц с подробностями. Мы [не] имеем в виду, что они будут включать мелкие дела и налагать возьмите всю эту прекрасную судебную литературу, потому что Господь знает, что у нас ее уже достаточно ". [35] [36]

Сегодня, говоря словами профессора права Стэнфорда Лоуренса М. Фридмана : «В американских делах редко цитируются иностранные материалы. Суды иногда ссылаются на одну или две британских классики, знаменитое старое дело или намек на Блэкстоуна ; но действующее британское законодательство почти никогда ничего не дает упомянуть." [37] Иностранное право никогда не упоминалось как обязательный прецедент, а как отражение общих ценностей англо-американской цивилизации или даже западной цивилизации в целом. [38]

Уровни права [ править ]

Федеральный закон [ править ]

Федеральный закон берет свое начало с Конституции, которая дает Конгрессу право принимать законы для определенных ограниченных целей, таких как регулирование межгосударственной торговли . Кодекс Соединенных Штатов является официальным сбор и кодификация общих и постоянных федеральных законов. Многие законы наделяют органы исполнительной власти полномочиями создавать нормативные акты , которые публикуются в Федеральном реестре и кодифицируются в Своде федеральных нормативных актов . Нормативные акты обычно также имеют силу закона в соответствии с доктриной Chevron.. Many lawsuits turn on the meaning of a federal statute or regulation, and judicial interpretations of such meaning carry legal force under the principle of stare decisis.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, federal law traditionally focused on areas where there was an express grant of power to the federal government in the federal Constitution, like the military, money, foreign relations (especially international treaties), tariffs, intellectual property (specifically patents and copyrights), and mail. Since the start of the 20th century, broad interpretations of the Commerce and Spending Clauses of the Constitution have enabled federal law to expand into areas like aviation, telecommunications, railroads, pharmaceuticals, antitrust, and trademarks. In some areas, like aviation and railroads, the federal government has developed a comprehensive scheme that preempts virtually all state law, while in others, like family law, a relatively small number of federal statutes (generally covering interstate and international situations) interacts with a much larger body of state law. In areas like antitrust, trademark, and employment law, there are powerful laws at both the federal and state levels that coexist with each other. In a handful of areas like insurance, Congress has enacted laws expressly refusing to regulate them as long as the states have laws regulating them (see, e.g., the McCarran–Ferguson Act).

Statutes[edit]

Main article: United States Code
Further information: United States Statutes at Large and List of United States federal legislation
The United States Code, the codification of federal statutory law

After the president signs a bill into law (or Congress enacts it over her/his veto), it is delivered to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) where it is assigned a law number, and prepared for publication as a slip law.[39] Public laws, but not private laws, are also given legal statutory citation by the OFR. At the end of each session of Congress, the slip laws are compiled into bound volumes called the United States Statutes at Large, and they are known as session laws. The Statutes at Large present a chronological arrangement of the laws in the exact order that they have been enacted.

Public laws are incorporated into the United States Code, which is a codification of all general and permanent laws of the United States. The main edition is published every six years by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives, and cumulative supplements are published annually.[40] The U.S. Code is arranged by subject matter, and it shows the present status of laws (with amendments already incorporated in the text) that have been amended on one or more occasions.

Regulations[edit]

Main article: Code of Federal Regulations
Further information: Federal Register
The Code of Federal Regulations, the codification of federal administrative law

Congress often enacts statutes that grant broad rulemaking authority to federal agencies. Often, Congress is simply too gridlocked to draft detailed statutes that explain how the agency should react to every possible situation, or Congress believes the agency's technical specialists are best equipped to deal with particular fact situations as they arise. Therefore, federal agencies are authorized to promulgate regulations. Under the principle of Chevron deference, regulations normally carry the force of law as long as they are based on a reasonable interpretation of the relevant statutes.[41]

Regulations are adopted pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Regulations are first proposed and published in the Federal Register (FR or Fed. Reg.) and subject to a public comment period. Eventually, after a period for public comment and revisions based on comments received, a final version is published in the Federal Register. The regulations are codified and incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which is published once a year on a rolling schedule.

Besides regulations formally promulgated under the APA, federal agencies also frequently promulgate an enormous amount of forms, manuals, policy statements, letters, and rulings. These documents may be considered by a court as persuasive authority as to how a particular statute or regulation may be interpreted (known as Skidmore deference), but are not entitled to Chevron deference.

Common law, case law, and precedent[edit]

The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States
Further information: United States Reports and National Reporter System

Unlike the situation with the states, there is no plenary reception statute at the federal level that continued the common law and thereby granted federal courts the power to formulate legal precedent like their English predecessors. Federal courts are solely creatures of the federal Constitution and the federal Judiciary Acts.[42] However, it is universally accepted that the Founding Fathers of the United States, by vesting "judicial power" into the Supreme Court and the inferior federal courts in Article Three of the United States Constitution, thereby vested in them the implied judicial power of common law courts to formulate persuasive precedent; this power was widely accepted, understood, and recognized by the Founding Fathers at the time the Constitution was ratified.[43] Several legal scholars have argued that the federal judicial power to decide "cases or controversies" necessarily includes the power to decide the precedential effect of those cases and controversies.[44]

The difficult question is whether federal judicial power extends to formulating binding precedent through strict adherence to the rule of stare decisis. This is where the act of deciding a case becomes a limited form of lawmaking in itself, in that an appellate court's rulings will thereby bind itself and lower courts in future cases (and therefore also implicitly binds all persons within the court's jurisdiction). Prior to a major change to federal court rules in 2007, about one-fifth of federal appellate cases were published and thereby became binding precedents, while the rest were unpublished and bound only the parties to each case.[43]

As federal judge Alex Kozinski has pointed out, binding precedent as we know it today simply did not exist at the time the Constitution was framed.[43] Judicial decisions were not consistently, accurately, and faithfully reported on both sides of the Atlantic (reporters often simply rewrote or failed to publish decisions which they disliked), and the United Kingdom lacked a coherent court hierarchy prior to the end of the 19th century.[43] Furthermore, English judges in the eighteenth century subscribed to now-obsolete natural law theories of law, by which law was believed to have an existence independent of what individual judges said. Judges saw themselves as merely declaring the law which had always theoretically existed, and not as making the law.[43] Therefore, a judge could reject another judge's opinion as simply an incorrect statement of the law, in the way that scientists regularly reject each other's conclusions as incorrect statements of the laws of science.[43]

In turn, according to Kozinski's analysis, the contemporary rule of binding precedent became possible in the U.S. in the nineteenth century only after the creation of a clear court hierarchy (under the Judiciary Acts), and the beginning of regular verbatim publication of U.S. appellate decisions by West Publishing.[43] The rule gradually developed, case-by-case, as an extension of the judiciary's public policy of effective judicial administration (that is, in order to efficiently exercise the judicial power).[43] The rule of binding precedent is generally justified today as a matter of public policy, first, as a matter of fundamental fairness, and second, because in the absence of case law, it would be completely unworkable for every minor issue in every legal case to be briefed, argued, and decided from first principles (such as relevant statutes, constitutional provisions, and underlying public policies), which in turn would create hopeless inefficiency, instability, and unpredictability, and thereby undermine the rule of law.[45][46] The contemporary form of the rule is descended from Justice Louis Brandeis's "landmark dissent in 1932’s Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co.," which "catalogued the Court’s actual overruling practices in such a powerful manner that his attendant stare decisis analysis immediately assumed canonical authority."[47]

Here is a typical exposition of how public policy supports the rule of binding precedent in a 2008 majority opinion signed by Associate Justice Stephen Breyer:

Justice Brandeis once observed that "in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right." Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co. [...] To overturn a decision settling one such matter simply because we might believe that decision is no longer "right" would inevitably reflect a willingness to reconsider others. And that willingness could itself threaten to substitute disruption, confusion, and uncertainty for necessary legal stability. We have not found here any factors that might overcome these considerations.[48]

It is now sometimes possible, over time, for a line of precedents to drift from the express language of any underlying statutory or constitutional texts until the courts' decisions establish doctrines that were not considered by the texts' drafters. This trend has been strongly evident in federal substantive due process[49] and Commerce Clause decisions.[50] Originalists and political conservatives, such as Associate Justice Antonin Scalia have criticized this trend as anti-democratic.[51][52][53][54]

Under the doctrine of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938), there is no general federal common law. Although federal courts can create federal common law in the form of case law, such law must be linked one way or another to the interpretation of a particular federal constitutional provision, statute, or regulation (which in turn was enacted as part of the Constitution or after). Federal courts lack the plenary power possessed by state courts to simply make up law, which the latter are able to do in the absence of constitutional or statutory provisions replacing the common law. Only in a few narrow limited areas, like maritime law,[55] has the Constitution expressly authorized the continuation of English common law at the federal level (meaning that in those areas federal courts can continue to make law as they see fit, subject to the limitations of stare decisis).

The other major implication of the Erie doctrine is that federal courts cannot dictate the content of state law when there is no federal issue (and thus no federal supremacy issue) in a case.[56] When hearing claims under state law pursuant to diversity jurisdiction, federal trial courts must apply the statutory and decisional law of the state in which they sit, as if they were a court of that state,[57] even if they believe that the relevant state law is irrational or just bad public policy.[58]

Under Erie, such federal deference to state law applies only in one direction: state courts are not bound by federal interpretations of state law.[59] Similarly, state courts are also not bound by most federal interpretations of federal law. In the vast majority of state courts, interpretations of federal law from federal courts of appeals and district courts can be cited as persuasive authority, but state courts are not bound by those interpretations.[60] The U.S. Supreme Court has never squarely addressed the issue, but has signaled in dicta that it sides with this rule.[60][61] Therefore, in those states, there is only one federal court that binds all state courts as to the interpretation of federal law and the federal Constitution: the U.S. Supreme Court itself.[60]

State law[edit]

Volumes of the Thomson West annotated version of the California Penal Code, the codification of criminal law in the state of California
Main article: State law (United States)

The fifty American states are separate sovereigns,[62] with their own state constitutions, state governments, and state courts. All states have a legislative branch which enacts state statutes, an executive branch that promulgates state regulations pursuant to statutory authorization, and a judicial branch that applies, interprets, and occasionally overturns both state statutes and regulations, as well as local ordinances. They retain plenary power to make laws covering anything not preempted by the federal Constitution, federal statutes, or international treaties ratified by the federal Senate. Normally, state supreme courts are the final interpreters of state constitutions and state law, unless their interpretation itself presents a federal issue, in which case a decision may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by way of a petition for writ of certiorari.[63] State laws have dramatically diverged in the centuries since independence, to the extent that the United States cannot be regarded as one legal system as to the majority of types of law traditionally under state control, but must be regarded as 50 separate systems of tort law, family law, property law, contract law, criminal law, and so on.[64]

Most cases are litigated in state courts and involve claims and defenses under state laws.[65][66] In a 2012 report, the National Center for State Courts' Court Statistics Project found that state trial courts received 103.5 million newly filed cases in 2010, which consisted of 56.3 million traffic cases, 20.4 million criminal cases, 19.0 million civil cases, 5.9 million domestic relations cases, and 1.9 million juvenile cases.[67] In 2010, state appellate courts received 272,795 new cases.[68] By way of comparison, all federal district courts in 2016 together received only about 274,552 new civil cases, 79,787 new criminal cases, and 833,515 bankruptcy cases, while federal appellate courts received 53,649 new cases.[69]

State legal systems[edit]

  • Law of Alabama
  • Law of Alaska
  • Law of Arizona
  • Law of Arkansas
  • Law of California
  • Law of Colorado
  • Law of Connecticut
  • Law of Delaware
  • Law of Florida
  • Law of Georgia (U.S. state)
  • Law of Hawaii
  • Law of Idaho
  • Law of Illinois
  • Law of Indiana
  • Law of Iowa
  • Law of Kansas
  • Law of Kentucky
  • Law of Louisiana
  • Law of Maine
  • Law of Maryland
  • Law of Massachusetts
  • Law of Michigan
  • Law of Minnesota
  • Law of Mississippi
  • Law of Missouri
  • Law of Montana
  • Law of Nebraska
  • Law of Nevada
  • Law of New Hampshire
  • Law of New Jersey
  • Law of New Mexico
  • Law of New York
  • Law of North Carolina
  • Law of North Dakota
  • Law of Ohio
  • Law of Oklahoma
  • Law of Oregon
  • Law of Pennsylvania
  • Law of Rhode Island
  • Law of South Carolina
  • Law of South Dakota
  • Law of Tennessee
  • Law of Texas
  • Law of Utah
  • Law of Vermont
  • Law of Virginia
  • Law of Washington
  • Law of West Virginia
  • Law of Wisconsin
  • Law of Wyoming

Local law[edit]

States have delegated lawmaking powers to thousands of agencies, townships, counties, cities, and special districts. And all the state constitutions, statutes and regulations (as well as all the ordinances and regulations promulgated by local entities) are subject to judicial interpretation like their federal counterparts.[70]

It is common for residents of major U.S. metropolitan areas to live under six or more layers of special districts as well as a town or city, and a county or township (in addition to the federal and state governments).[71] Thus, at any given time, the average American citizen is subject to the rules and regulations of several dozen different agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, depending upon one's current location and behavior.

Legal subjects[edit]

American lawyers draw a fundamental distinction between procedural law (which controls the procedure by which legal duties and rights are vindicated)[72] and substantive law (the actual substance of law, which is usually expressed in the form of various legal rights and duties).[73]

Criminal law and procedure[edit]

Main articles: United States criminal law and United States criminal procedure

Criminal law involves the prosecution by the state of wrongful acts which are considered to be so serious that they are a breach of the sovereign's peace (and cannot be deterred or remedied by mere lawsuits between private parties). Generally, crimes can result in incarceration, but torts (see below) cannot. The majority of the crimes committed in the United States are prosecuted and punished at the state level.[74] Federal criminal law focuses on areas specifically relevant to the federal government like evading payment of federal income tax, mail theft, or physical attacks on federal officials, as well as interstate crimes like drug trafficking and wire fraud.

All states have somewhat similar laws in regard to "higher crimes" (or felonies), such as murder and rape, although penalties for these crimes may vary from state to state. Capital punishment is permitted in some states but not others. Three strikes laws in certain states impose harsh penalties on repeat offenders.

Some states distinguish between two levels: felonies and misdemeanors (minor crimes).[74] Generally, most felony convictions result in lengthy prison sentences as well as subsequent probation, large fines, and orders to pay restitution directly to victims; while misdemeanors may lead to a year or less in jail and a substantial fine. To simplify the prosecution of traffic violations and other relatively minor crimes, some states have added a third level, infractions. These may result in fines and sometimes the loss of one's driver's license, but no jail time.

On average, only three percent of criminal cases are resolved by jury trial; 97 percent are terminated either by plea bargaining or dismissal of the charges.[75]

For public welfare offenses where the state is punishing merely risky (as opposed to injurious) behavior, there is significant diversity across the various states. For example, punishments for drunk driving varied greatly prior to 1990. State laws dealing with drug crimes still vary widely, with some states treating possession of small amounts of drugs as a misdemeanor offense or as a medical issue and others categorizing the same offense as a serious felony.

The law of criminal procedure in the United States consists of a massive overlay of federal constitutional case law interwoven with the federal and state statutes that actually provide the foundation for the creation and operation of law enforcement agencies and prison systems as well as the proceedings in criminal trials. Due to the perennial inability of legislatures in the U.S. to enact statutes that would actually force law enforcement officers to respect the constitutional rights of criminal suspects and convicts, the federal judiciary gradually developed the exclusionary rule as a method to enforce such rights.[76] In turn, the exclusionary rule spawned a family of judge-made remedies for the abuse of law enforcement powers, of which the most famous is the Miranda warning. The writ of habeas corpus is often used by suspects and convicts to challenge their detention, while the Third Enforcement Act and Bivens actions are used by suspects to recover tort damages for police brutality.

Civil procedure[edit]

Main article: United States civil procedure

The law of civil procedure governs process in all judicial proceedings involving lawsuits between private parties. Traditional common law pleading was replaced by code pleading in 24 states after New York enacted the Field Code in 1850 and code pleading in turn was subsequently replaced again in most states by modern notice pleading during the 20th century. The old English division between common law and equity courts was abolished in the federal courts by the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938; it has also been independently abolished by legislative acts in nearly all states. The Delaware Court of Chancery is the most prominent of the small number of remaining equity courts.

Thirty-five states have adopted rules of civil procedure modeled after the FRCP (including rule numbers). However, in doing so, they had to make some modifications to account for the fact that state courts have broad general jurisdiction while federal courts have relatively limited jurisdiction.

New York, Illinois, and California are the most significant states that have not adopted the FRCP. Furthermore, all three states continue to maintain most of their civil procedure laws in the form of codified statutes enacted by the state legislature, as opposed to court rules promulgated by the state supreme court, on the ground that the latter are undemocratic. But certain key portions of their civil procedure laws have been modified by their legislatures to bring them closer to federal civil procedure.[77]

Generally, American civil procedure has several notable features, including extensive pretrial discovery, heavy reliance on live testimony obtained at deposition or elicited in front of a jury, and aggressive pretrial "law and motion" practice designed to result in a pretrial disposition (that is, summary judgment) or a settlement. U.S. courts pioneered the concept of the opt-out class action, by which the burden falls on class members to notify the court that they do not wish to be bound by the judgment, as opposed to opt-in class actions, where class members must join into the class. Another unique feature is the so-called American Rule under which parties generally bear their own attorneys' fees (as opposed to the English Rule of "loser pays"), though American legislators and courts have carved out numerous exceptions.

Contract law[edit]

The Uniform Commercial Code
Main article: United States contract law

Contract law covers obligations established by agreement (express or implied) between private parties.[78] Generally, contract law in transactions involving the sale of goods has become highly standardized nationwide as a result of the widespread adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code. However, there is still significant diversity in the interpretation of other kinds of contracts, depending upon the extent to which a given state has codified its common law of contracts or adopted portions of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts.

Parties are permitted to agree to arbitrate disputes arising from their contracts. Under the Federal Arbitration Act (which has been interpreted to cover all contracts arising under federal or state law), arbitration clauses are generally enforceable unless the party resisting arbitration can show unconscionability or fraud or something else which undermines the entire contract.

Tort law[edit]

Main article: United States tort law
The Restatement (Second) of Torts, a highly influential restatement of United States tort law

Tort law generally covers any civil action between private parties arising from wrongful acts which amount to a breach of general obligations imposed by law and not by contract. This broad family of civil wrongs involves interference "with person, property, reputation, or commercial or social advantage."[79]

Tort law covers the entire imaginable spectrum of wrongs which humans can inflict upon each other, and partially overlaps with wrongs also punishable by criminal law. It is primarily a matter of state law and is usually developed through case law from state appellate courts; it is rarely a matter of federal law, and tort-related statutes are focused on discrete issues like authorizing wrongful death claims (which did not exist at common law).[80] Although the American Law Institute has attempted to standardize tort law through the development of several versions of the Restatement of Torts, many states have chosen to adopt only certain sections of the Restatements and to reject others. Thus, because of its immense size and diversity, American tort law cannot be easily summarized.

For example, a few jurisdictions allow actions for negligent infliction of emotional distress even in the absence of physical injury to the plaintiff, but most do not. For any particular tort, states differ on the causes of action, types and scope of remedies, statutes of limitations, and the amount of specificity with which one must plead the cause. With practically any aspect of tort law, there is a "majority rule" adhered to by most states, and one or more "minority rules."

Notably, the most broadly influential innovation of 20th-century American tort law was the rule of strict liability for defective products, which originated with judicial glosses on the law of warranty. In 1963, Roger J. Traynor of the Supreme Court of California threw away legal fictions based on warranties and imposed strict liability for defective products as a matter of public policy in the landmark case of Greenman v. Yuba Power Products.[81] The American Law Institute subsequently adopted a slightly different version of the Greenman rule in Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which was published in 1964 and was very influential throughout the United States.[82] Outside the U.S., the rule was adopted by the European Economic Community in the Product Liability Directive of July 1985,[83] by Australia in July 1992,[84] and by Japan in June 1994.[85]

By the 1990s, the avalanche of American cases resulting from Greenman and Section 402A had become so complicated that another restatement was needed, which occurred with the 1997 publication of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability.[86]

Property law[edit]

Historically, American property law has been heavily influenced by English land law,[87] and is therefore concerned with real property first and personal property second.[88] It is also primarily a matter of state law, and the level of interstate diversity in the law of property is much more substantial than in contract and tort.[88] In the 1970s, the Uniform Law Commission's project to standardize state real property law was a spectacular failure.[89][90][91] The majority of states use a title recording system (coupled with privately provided title insurance) to manage title to real property, although title registration (Torrens title) is also allowed in a small minority of states.[92] Title to personal property is usually not registered, with the notable exceptions of motor vehicles (through a state department of motor vehicles or equivalent), bicycles (in certain cities and counties), and some types of firearms (in certain states).[93]

Family law[edit]

In the United States, family law governs relationships between adults, and relationships between parents and their children.[94] As a discrete area of law worthy of its own specialists and law professors, American family law is relatively young in comparison to European family law; it did not take flight until the no-fault divorce revolution of the 1960s.[95] Before the 1950s, widespread religious, legal, and social prohibitions against divorce in the United States meant that divorces were rare, were often seen as fact-driven matters (meaning that they were perceived as turning on each case's facts and not broadly generalizable legal principles), and rarely went up on appeal.[96] The rise of no-fault divorce caused divorce litigation to shift away from the question of who was at fault for the collapse of the marital relationship and to focus instead on issues such as division of property, spousal support, and child support.[97]

Family cases are traditionally a matter of state law and are virtually always heard only in state courts.[98][99] Certain kinds of contract, tort, and property civil actions involving state law issues can be heard in federal courts under diversity jurisdiction, but federal courts decline to hear family cases under the "domestic relations exception" to diversity jurisdiction.[98]

Although family cases are heard in state courts, there has been a trend towards federalization of certain specific issues in family law. State courts and the lawyers who practice before them must be aware of federal income tax and bankruptcy implications of a divorce judgment, federal constitutional rights to abortion and paternity, and federal statutes governing interstate child custody disputes and interstate child support enforcement.[99]

See also[edit]

  • Admission to the bar in the United States
  • Attorneys in the United States
  • Black's Law Dictionary
  • Courts of the United States
  • Legal education in the United States
    • Law school in the United States
  • Legal systems of the world
  • Privacy laws of the United States

Lists[edit]

  • Legal research in the United States
  • List of sources of law in the United States
  • List of Uniform Acts (United States)—intended for state-level legislation
  • List of United States federal legislation
  • List of United States Supreme Court cases

References[edit]

  1. ^ See Stephen Elias and Susan Levinkind, Legal Research: How to Find & Understand The Law, 14th ed. (Berkeley: Nolo, 2005), 22.
  2. ^ Ex parte Virginia, 100 U.S. 339 (1880).
  3. ^ Head Money Cases, 112 U.S. 580 (1884).
  4. ^ Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134 (1944).
  5. ^ Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958).
  6. ^ William Burnham, Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States, 4th ed. (St. Paul, MN: Thomson West, 2006), 41.
  7. ^ Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452 (1991).
  8. ^ Kowalski, Tonya (2009). "The Forgotten Sovereigns". Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 36 (4): 765–826.
  9. ^ United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995).
  10. ^ Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980).
  11. ^ California v. Ramos, 463 U.S. 992 (1983).
  12. ^ Hughes, Graham (1996). "Common Law Systems". In Morisson, Alan B. (ed.). Fundamentals of American Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 9–26. ISBN 9780198764052. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  13. ^ Friedman, Lawrence M. (2019). A History of American Law (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 646. ISBN 9780190070915. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  14. ^ Hughes, Graham (1996). "Common Law Systems". In Morisson, Alan B. (ed.). Fundamentals of American Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 9–26. ISBN 9780198764052. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  15. ^ Friedman, Lawrence M. (2019). A History of American Law (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780190070915. Retrieved August 11, 2020. Professor Friedman points out that English law itself was never completely uniform across England prior to the 20th century. The result was that the colonists recreated the legal diversity of English law in the American colonies.
  16. ^ White, G. Edward (2012). Law in American History, Volume 1: From the Colonial Years Through the Civil War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 49–50. ISBN 9780195102475. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  17. ^ Paul Bergman and Sara J. Berman-Barrett, Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare & Try a Winning Case, 6th ed. (Berkeley: Nolo, 2008), 481.
  18. ^ See Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (Cranch 1) 137 (1803).
  19. ^ James B. Beam Distilling Co. v. Georgia, 501 U.S. 529 (1991). In this case, the Supreme Court of Georgia had stubbornly refused to retroactively apply a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court decision which had declared a Hawaii statute to be unconstitutional as a violation of the Commerce Clause, even though it was clear that the Georgia statute had exactly the same flaw as the Hawaii statute. The high court reversed by a 6–3 majority.
  20. ^ See Casarotto v. Lombardi, 886 P.2d 931, 940 (Mont. 1994) (Trieweiler, J., specially concurring), vacated and remanded by 515 U.S. 1129 (1995), reaff'd and reinstated by 901 P.2d 596 (Mont. 1995), rev'd sub nom. Doctor's Assocs., Inc. v. Casarotto, 517 U.S. 681 (1996).
  21. ^ Cavazos v. Smith, 565 U.S. 1 (2011) (per curiam).
  22. ^ Friedman, Lawrence M. (2019). A History of American Law (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 79–81. ISBN 9780190070915. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  23. ^ U.S. Const., Art. 1, §§ 9 and 10.
  24. ^ U.S. Const., Amend. IV.
  25. ^ John C. Dernbach and Cathleen S. Wharton, A Practical Guide to Legal Writing & Legal Method, 2nd ed. (Buffalo: William S. Hein Publishing, 1994), 34–36.
  26. ^ Scalia, Antonin (2018). "Common-Law Courts in a Civil-Law System: The Role of United States Federal Courts in Interpreting the Constitution and Laws". A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law (New ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 3–48. ISBN 9780691174044.
  27. ^ Miles O. Price & Harry Bitner, Effective Legal Research: A Practical Manual of Law Books and Their Use, 3rd ed. (Buffalo: William Hein & Co., 1969), 272.
  28. ^ a b Ibid.
  29. ^ See, e.g., Gomez v. Superior Court, 35 Cal. 4th 1125, 29 Cal. Rptr. 3d 352, 113 P.3d 41 (2005) (citing Lovett v. Hobbs, 89 Eng. Rep. 836 (1680)). The Gomez court relied on a line of cases originating with Lovett in order to hold that Disneyland was a common carrier.
  30. ^ See, e.g., Phillippe v. Shapell Industries, 43 Cal. 3d 1247, 241 Cal. Rptr. 22, 743 P.2d 1279 (1987) (citing original Statute of Frauds from England) and Meija v. Reed, 31 Cal.4th 657, 3 Cal. Rptr. 3d 390, 74 P.3d 166 (2003) (citing Statute of 13 Elizabeth).
  31. ^ Burnham, 43–44.
  32. ^ Friedman, Lawrence M. (2019). A History of American Law (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780190070915. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  33. ^ Elizabeth Gaspar Brown, "Frontier Justice: Wayne County 1796–1836," in Essays in Nineteenth-Century American Legal History, ed. Wythe Holt, 676–703 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976): 686. Between 1808 and 1828, the briefs filed in court cases in the Territory of Michigan changed from a complete reliance on English sources of law to an increasing reliance on citations to American sources.
  34. ^ Friedman, Lawrence M. (2019). A History of American Law (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 605. ISBN 9780190070915. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  35. ^ People v. Kelly, 40 Cal.4th 106, 51 Cal. Rptr. 3d 98, 146 P.3d 547 (2006).
  36. ^ Willis, E.B.; Stockton, P.K. (1881). Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of California, Convened at the City of Sacramento, Saturday, September 28, 1878, Vol. III. Sacramento: State of California. p. 1455.
  37. ^ Friedman, Lawrence M. (2004). American Law in the Twentieth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 575. ISBN 9780300102994. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  38. ^ See Lawrence v. Texas, 538 U.S. 558 (2003), in which the majority cited a European court decision, Dudgeon v. United Kingdom, 45 Eur. Ct. H. R. (1981), as indicative of the shared values of Western civilization.
  39. ^ "About Public and Private Laws". United States Government Printing Office. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  40. ^ "About the US Code". US Government Publishing Office.
  41. ^ Duffy, John; Herz, Michael (2005). A Guide to Judicial and Political Review of Federal Agencies. Chicago: American Bar Association. p. 54. ISBN 9781590314838.
  42. ^ Hughes, Graham (1996). "Common Law Systems". In Morisson, Alan B. (ed.). Fundamentals of American Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 9–26. ISBN 9780198764052. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  43. ^ a b c d e f g h Hart v. Massanari, 266 F.3d 1155 (9th Cir. 2001), citing Anastasoff v. United States, 223 F.3d 898, vacated as moot on reh'g en banc, 235 F.3d 1054 (8th Cir. 2000).
  44. ^ Michael J. Gerhardt, The Power of Precedent (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 59.
  45. ^ Daniel A. Farber and Suzanna Sherry, Judgment Calls: Principle and Politics in Constitutional Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 70–71.
  46. ^ Frederick Schauer, Precedent, 39 Stan. L. Rev. 571, 595–602 (1987).
  47. ^ Starger, Colin (2013). "The Dialectic of Stare Decisis Doctrine". In Peters, Christopher J. (ed.). Precedent in the United States Supreme Court. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 19–46. ISBN 978-94-007-7950-1. Available via SpringerLink.
  48. ^ John R. Sand Gravel Co. v. United States, 552 U.S. 130, 139 (2008).
  49. ^ Cass R. Sunstein, Designing Democracy: What Constitutions Do (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 80.
  50. ^ Raoul Berger, "Judicial Manipulation of the Commerce Clause," 74 Tex. L. Rev. 695 (Mar. 1996).
  51. ^ National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. ___ (2012) (Thomas, J. dissenting)
  52. ^ Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428 (2000) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
  53. ^ United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996) (Scalia, J., dissenting)
  54. ^ Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) (Scalia, J., dissenting)
  55. ^ Romero v. International Terminal Operating Co., 358 U.S. 354, 360–361 (1959).
  56. ^ Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Elec. Mfg. Co., Inc., 313 U.S. 487 (1941).
  57. ^ Hughes, Graham (1996). "Common Law Systems". In Morisson, Alan B. (ed.). Fundamentals of American Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 9–26. ISBN 9780198764052. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  58. ^ Trident Center v. Connecticut Gen. Life Ins. Co., 847 F.2d 564 (9th Cir. 1988). In this opinion, federal judge Alex Kozinski attacked a 1968 Supreme Court of California opinion at length before conceding that under Erie, he had no choice but to apply the state court's reasoning despite his strong dislike of it.
  59. ^ Stone Street Capital, LLC v. California State Lottery Com., 165 Cal. App. 4th 109, 123 fn. 11 (2008).
  60. ^ a b c Frost, Amanda (2015). "Inferiority Complex: Should State Courts Follow Lower Federal Court Precedent on the Meaning of Federal Law?" (PDF). Vanderbilt Law Review. 68 (1): 53–103.
  61. ^ Johnson v. Williams, 568 U.S. 289 (2013).
  62. ^ Heath v. Alabama, 474 U.S. 82 (1985). In Heath, the U.S. Supreme Court explained that "the Court has uniformly held that the States are separate sovereigns with respect to the Federal Government because each State's power to prosecute is derived from its own 'inherent sovereignty,' not from the Federal Government .... The States are no less sovereign with respect to each other than they are with respect to the Federal Government. Their powers to undertake criminal prosecutions derive from separate and independent sources of power and authority originally belonging to them before admission to the Union and preserved to them by the Tenth Amendment."
  63. ^ See 28 U.S.C. § 1257.
  64. ^ Olson, Kent C. (1999). Legal Information: How to Find It, How to Use It. Phoenix: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 6. ISBN 0897749634.
  65. ^ Sean O. Hogan, The Judicial Branch of State Government: People, Process, and Politics, (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006), xiv.
  66. ^ Alan B. Morisson, "Courts," in Fundamentals of American Law, ed. Alan B. Morisson, 57–60 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 60.
  67. ^ Court Statistics Project, Examining the Work of State Courts: An Analysis of 2010 State Court Caseloads, (Williamsburg: National Center for State Courts, 2012), 3.
  68. ^ Examining the Work of State Courts, 40.
  69. ^ Office of Judges Programs, Statistics Division, Judicial Caseload Indicators (Washington: Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 2016).
  70. ^ See, e.g., Burton v. Municipal Court, 68 Cal. 2d 684 (1968) (invalidating Los Angeles city ordinance regulating motion picture theatres as an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution).
  71. ^ Osborne M. Reynolds, Jr., Local Government Law, 3rd ed. (St. Paul: West, 2009), 33.
  72. ^ Walston-Dunham, Beth (2012). Introduction to Law (6th ed.). Clifton Park: Delmar. p. 102. ISBN 9781133707981. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
  73. ^ Walston-Dunham, Beth (2012). Introduction to Law (6th ed.). Clifton Park: Delmar. p. 101. ISBN 9781133707981. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
  74. ^ a b Manweller, Mathew (2006). "Chapter 2, The Roles, Functions, and Powers of State Courts". In Hogan, Sean O. (ed.). The Judicial Branch of State Government: People, Process, and Politics. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 37–96. ISBN 9781851097517. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  75. ^ Manweller, Mathew (2006). "Chapter 2, The Roles, Functions, and Powers of State Courts". In Hogan, Sean O. (ed.). The Judicial Branch of State Government: People, Process, and Politics. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 37–96. ISBN 9781851097517. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  76. ^ Urbonya, Kathryn R. (2006). "Fourth Amendment Federalism?: The Court's Vacillating Mistrust and Trust of State Search and Seizure Laws". In Ross, Mary Massaron; Voss, Edwin P. (eds.). Sword and Shield: A Practical Approach to Section 1983 Litigation. Chicago: American Bar Association. pp. 249–300. ISBN 9781590317662. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  77. ^ For example, Section 437c of the California Code of Civil Procedure was amended by the state legislature several times in the 1990s to bring California's summary judgment standard in line with Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Aguilar v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 25 Cal. 4th 826, 849 (2001).
  78. ^ Farnsworth, E. Allan (2010). Sheppard, Steve (ed.). An Introduction to the Legal System of the United States (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780199733101. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
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  81. ^ Mark A. Kinzie & Christine F. Hart, Product Liability Litigation (Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning, 2002), 100–101. See also Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc., 59 Cal. 2d 57 (1963).
  82. ^ Kinzie & Hart, 101.
  83. ^ Norbert Reich, Understanding EU Law: Objectives, Principles and Methods of Community Law (Antwerp: Intersentia, 2005), 337.
  84. ^ Ellen E. Beerworth, "Australia," 51–74, in International Product Liability, vol. 1, ed. Christian Campbell (Salzburg: Yorkhill Law Publishing, 2006), 52.
  85. ^ Patricia L. Maclachlan, Consumer Politics in Postwar Japan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 226.
  86. ^ "ALI Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Products Liability". Ali.org. Archived from the original on May 31, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2013.
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  89. ^ Marion W. Benfield, Jr., Wasted Days and Wasted Nights: Why the Land Acts Failed, 20 Nova L. Rev. 1037, 1037–41 (1996).
  90. ^ Ronald Benton Brown, Whatever Happened to the Uniform Land Transactions Act? 20 Nova L. Rev. 1017 (1996);
  91. ^ Peter B. Maggs, The Uniform Simplification of Land Transfers Act and the Politics and Economics of Law Reform, 20 Nova L. Rev. 1091, 1091–92 (1996).
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Further reading[edit]

  • Friedman, Lawrence M. American Law (1984)
  • Hadden, Sally F. and Brophy, Alfred L. (eds.), A Companion to American Legal History. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
  • Hall, Kermit L. et al. eds. The Oxford Companion to American Law (2002) excerpt and text search
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "American Law" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Legal history[edit]

  • Edwards, Laura F. A Legal History of the Civil War and Reconstruction: A Nation of Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2015) 212 pp.
  • Friedman, Lawrence M. A History of American Law (3rd ed. 2005) 640 pp
  • Friedman, Lawrence M. American Law in the Twentieth Century (2002)
  • Hall, Kermit L. The Magic Mirror: Law in American History (1989)
  • Hall, Kermit L. et al. American Legal History: Cases and Materials (2010); 752 pages
  • Horwitz, Morton J. The transformation of American law: 1780–1860 (1977)
  • Hovenkamp, Herbert The Opening of American Law: Neoclassical Legal Thought, 1870–1970 (2015)
  • Horwitz, Morton J. The transformation of American law, 1870–1960: the crisis of legal orthodoxy (1994)
  • Howe, Mark de Wolfe, ed. Readings in American Legal History (2001) 540pp
  • Johnson, Herbert A. American legal and constitutional history: cases and materials (2001) 733 pp
  • Rabban, David M. (2003). "The Historiography of Late Nineteenth-Century American Legal History". Theoretical Inquiries in Law. 4 (2): Article 5. doi:10.2202/1565-3404.1075. S2CID 56143958.
  • Schwartz, Bernard. The Law in America. (Evolution of American legal institutions since 1790). (1974).

Colonial[edit]

  • Gerber, Scott D. (2011). "Bringing Ideas Back In—A Brief Historiography of American Colonial Law". American Journal of Legal History. 51 (2): 359–374. doi:10.1093/ajlh/51.2.359. SSRN 1815230.
  • Hoffer, Peter (1998). Law and People in Colonial America (Rev. ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5822-4.

Lawyers[edit]

  • Abel, Richard L. American Lawyers (1991)
  • Chroust, Anton-Hermann. The Rise of the legal profession in America (2 vol 1965), to 1860
  • Drachman, Virginia G. Sisters in Law: Women Lawyers in Modern American History (2001)
  • Nizer, Louis. My Life in Court. (1978) Popular description of a lawyer's practice
  • Vile, John R. Great American lawyers: an encyclopedia (2001)
  • Vile, John R. Great American judges: an encyclopedia (2003)
  • Wortman, Marlene Stein. Women in American Law: From colonial times to the New Deal (1985)

Philosophy of law[edit]

  • Cardozo, Benjamin N., ed. An Introduction to Law. (1957). (Essays by eight distinguished American judges)
  • Hart, H.L.A. The Concept of Law. (1961). (Introductory text on the nature of law)
  • Llewellyn, Karl N. "The Bramble Bush," in Karl N. Llewellyn on Legal Realism. (1986). (Introductory text on the nature of law)
  • Pound, Roscoe. Social Control Through Law. (Nature of law and its role in society). (1942)

External links[edit]

  • Official U.S. Government page on Laws and Legal Issues
  • Official U.S. Government page for U.S. federal courts
  • Texts of U.S. federal laws and U.S. state laws
  • U.S. Code collection at Cornell University's Legal Information Institute