CRR Quiz #1

law

a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by controlling authority and having binding legal force

how a trial works

lawsuit is filed; months/years of legal argument; argue in motions and trial happens after all motions are resolved

fact

trials found out questions of _____

plaintif, defendant

the ______ brings the lawsuit and accuses the _______

jury

in a trial they decide what they think the question of facts’ answer is

no

is there always a jury? even though there’s a right of trial by jury, sometimes it’s a small enough amount of $, for example with a speeding ticket

question of law, question of fact

This asks what a rule/statute means and is decided by a judge

This asks what actually happened and is decided by a judge/jury in a trial

appeal

when a judge makes a decision, it’s not the end of the story because they can ___, or elevate cases for judicial review

law

on appeal, you can only argue about cases of ____ (the original judge is the best person for cases of fact)

no

does the SCOTUS have to listen to appealed cases, unlike most appealed courts?

legal positivism

theory that believes that the law doesn’t come from anywhere except acts of government

the judge’s role is to see what the government meant to say the rule is and apply it to whatever’s in front of them, regardless of whether it’s a good outcome or not

natural law

believes that there is a higher law (law of God, nature - thinking, etc.) & the moral reality of the universe exists outside of the human brain

if human-made law contradicts that view, the human-made law is incorrect

federalism

power is split up at different tiers

this occurs in different levels of govt (ex - states, townships, courts; something that starts federal is going to stay federal, etc.)

3rd circuit courts

for example in philly it covers pa, de, nj

there are 12 of them

civil lawsuits

between private citizens or companies and/or the government

this type of case if it’s any case that isn’t a criminal case (when the govt prosecutes and puts someone in a jail)

administrative law

type of law that involves federal agencies

fed agencies can investigate it and bring you before an admin judge

federal agencies

make rules about how businesses can act - not passed by Congress, but do have force of law

statute

law that the legislature wrote down

ex - civil rights act of 1964

judicial decision

something a judge makes

if the jury reaches a guilty verdict, it’s not a judicial decision

cause of action

when the government doesn’t say “here’s a rule of action”, but rather “here’s a way to treat other people + you can figure it out”

ex - if someone creates a deepfake of you, you can sue him

executive action

an official order directly followed by the president

ex - a police officer can break into your house if a criminal runs there, even though the law says you have a right to privacy

judicial decisions

common law is based on ______, rather than written legislative statutes

common law

the idea that judges should defer to past decisions, rather than innovate

follows judicial federalism chain

sources of law

statute, judicial decision, causes of action, executive and admin decisions, common law

lawyers

help navigate the legal system; their main duty is to pursue their clients’ best interests

can get sued and they can get disbarred

reasonableness

many laws are written with the assumption that is bad if the person was unreasonable

this idea is whatever the judge thinks is reasonable

IRAC method

Issue

Rule

Analysis

Conclusion

allows you to think about any problem as an equation with two sides

legal realism

theory that relies more on social context and the actual behavior of those who enforce the law

looking a bit deeper to find out how the written law is usually applied

substantive law, procedural law

this type of law answers what the law is, this type of law answers how do we answer the law being broken

priority of laws

Constitution —> statutes —> judicial decisions