Chapter 1 - Intro to study of law vocab

LGS 102 Illinois State ISU (Everything from online textbook) Only vocabulary, not content

Legal Analysis

The process of applying the law to specific facts. Also known as legal reasoning

Fact bound

When even a minor change in the facts can change the outcome

Cause of action

A claim that, based on the law and the facts, is sufficient to support a lawsuit

Enacted law

Constutions, statutes, ordinances, and regulations

Constitutions

Documents ratified by the citizens of a state or nation that establish the organizational structure and the powers granted to different governmental units

Statutes

Laws that are enacted by a state legislature or by Congress

Ordinances

Laws similar to statutes but enacted by a local governments

Regulations

Laws promulgated by administrative agencies

Common law

law created by the courts

Jurisdiction

Legal power a court, government, or official body has to hear cases, make judgements, and apply the law

Mandatory authority

Court decisions from a higher court in the same jurisdiction involving similar facts and law

Persuasive authority

Court decisions from an equal or a lower court from the same jurisdiction or from a court in a different jurisdiction

Precedent

One or more prior court decisions that involve the same legal issue

Stare Decisis

Check notes

Overrule

A decision is overruled when a court in a later case changed the law so that its prior decision is no longer good law

Substantive facts

Things that happened to the parties before the litigation began and that are relevant to their claims

Procedural facts

Facts that relate to what happened procedurally in the lower courts or administrative agencies before the case reached the court issuing the opinion

Legal issues

Questions about the interpretation and application of the law

Disposition

The result reached in a particular case

Affirm

A decision is affirmed when the litigants appela the trial court decision and the higher court agrees with what the lower court has done

Reverse

A decision is reversed when the litigants appeal the trial court decision and the higher court

Remand

When an appellate court sends a case back to the trial court for a new trial or other action

Majority opinion

An opinion in which the majority of the court joins

Concurring opinion

An opinion that agrees with the majority’s result but disagrees with its reasoning

Dissenting opinion

An opinion that disagrees with the majority’s decision and its reasoning

Case briefing

A method for summarizing court opinions

Appellate court

a higher court that reviews decisions made by lower trial courts

Appellate brief

A formal written argument to an appellate court in which a lawyer argues why that court should affirm or reverse a lower court’s decision

Rule

In a case brief, the general legal principle in existence before the case began

Issue

In a case brief, the rule of law applied to the case’s specific facts

Holding

In a case brief, the court’s answer to the issue presented to it; the new legal principle established by a court opinion

Narrow holding

A statement of the court’s decision that contains many of the case’s specific facts, thereby limiting its future applicability to a narrow range of cases

Broad holding

A statement of the court’s decision in which the facts are either omitted or given in very general terms so that it will apply to a wide range of cases

Dictum

A statement in a judicial opinion not necessary for the decision of the case

“Analogous vs. Distinguishable” are also known as

Similar vs. Different