The Role and Function of Law

The Role and Function of Law

Amber Crockett

ETH 321

10/31/2016

Kevin Spiering

The Role and Function of Law

Law is a set of rules that have been made by the government of a town, state or country. These laws are enforced by officials of the courts and law enforcement. The United States, except for Louisiana, is governed under Common Law which was a body of law that originated in England and relied upon Judges for its decisions. The United States has two Court systems, The Federal court system and The State Court system.

The Federal Court system and the State Court system are set up very similarly where each have three separate courts, the lower court, the intermediate appeals court and the supreme court. The major difference in the two systems is which trials are heard in which court system. The State’s lower court or trial court is responsible for hearing all cases that it holds Subject Matter Jurisdiction over. The Federal’s lower court is responsible for hearing cases that only deal with certain matters; a question of Federal Law, a trial that the United States is one of the parties, trials that involve conflicts between states, and suits that involve citizens from different states better known as diversity of citizenship. Within the two systems the procedure is the same when it comes to a trial. The lawsuit is heard in the lower court, if the losing party feels that there is a question of the law they may request that the case be reviewed, it is reviewed in the intermediate appeals court (Appellate court(federal) and Court of Appeals(State)). The third court is, the Supreme court(state) and the U.S. Supreme Court(federal), is responsible for reviewing cases a second time. A case may be considered for a second review only after a written request has been submitted.

Judicial Review is when a law is reviewed to determine whether or not it is unconstitutional or not. Judicial review allows the Supreme Court to actively enforce that the constitution be upheld amongst the other branches of government. Judicial restraint is used amongst the justices that believe that their power of Judicial review be used sparingly. Judicial activism is the belief that Judicial review be used whenever it is needed.

Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR) can