Zero-L Vocabulary

Public Law

The set of laws that governs the relationship between citizens and their government. This includes constitutional law, administrative law, and much of criminal law.

Private Law

The set of laws that governs the relationship of private citizens with each other. Examples include contract law, tort law, and property law.

State Action Doctrine

The constitutional law principle that the Constitution applies only to state action toward individuals, not actions between individuals where there is no state involvement.

Substantive Law

The law that governs how people are to behave. This is the "semantics" of law.

Procedural Law

The law that governs how to make use of the legal system, including how to make and enforce laws. This is law's "grammar."

Jurisdiction

The power to make legal decisions and judgements OR the physical area for which a court or legal entity is able to have power

Civil Law Jurisdiction

A legal system built around comprehensive codes. Examples include France, Germany, and the state of Louisiana.

Common Law Jurisdiction

A legal system where law is made largely by court decisions rahter than legal codes. Examples include the U.S. and other former British colonies.

Tribal Law

Law created by a tribal government that applies to tribal members and territories.

Domestic Law

The law that is made by U.S. sovereigns and governs activities on U.S. soil. In some cases, it may also govern U.S. citizens or others within the jurisdictional power of theU.S. even though they may not be physically present in the U.S.

International Law

The set of rules that countries follow in dealing with each other. This includes the relationship between sovereign states and international entities, such as the International Criminal Court, as well as supranational law, such as the law of the European Union that governs its members.

Constitutional Law

The body of law that derives from the U.S. Constitution.

Statues

A law passed by the legislative branch.

Bicameralism

Refers to the practice of having two "chambers" or "houses" of the legislative.

Presentment

The practice of presenting a federal statue passed by both the House and Senate to the President for signature before it becomes law

Regulation

A rule issued by a government agency that has the force of law.

Sovereign

A person or institution habitually obeyed in a well-defined territory, but who or which does not habitually obey any other person or institution.

Legal Positivism

The idea that a rule is a law if, and only if, the rule is the command of the sovereign to its subjects and if the failure to follow that rule is backed up by the threat of punishment. Associated with John Austin and Jeremy Bentham.

The Rule of Recognition

A social rule that specifies what counts as a law and what does not. Associated with HLA Hart.

Natural Law

An opposing picture to legal positivism of the nature of law. This view is committed to the idea that law has a moral core, that moral facts determine legal content.

Liability

Legal responsibility. Someone is BLANK for a harm suffered by a party when he or she is legally and financially responsible for that harm.

Federal

Relating to the U.S. government (as opposed to U.S. state governments).

Federalism

A form of government, such as in the U.S., in which power is divided between a central (federal) government and regional (state) governments.

Invalid

Not legally binding. In the context of this module, a law could be said to be [BLANK] if it violates the Constitution.

Constitutional Amendment

A change to the Constitution proposed either by the Congress, with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures.

Duty to Retreat

A requirement of the criminal law of some states that you may not claim self-defense if you could have safely retreated, but did not, before using deadly force against an attacker.

Article III

The section of the U.S. Constitution that establishes and empowers the judicial branch of the federal government.

District Court

In the federal system, the general trial court (sometimes referred to as a "court of first instance").

Plea Bargain

An agreement in a criminal case between a prosecutor and defendant in which the defendant pleads guilty in exchange for a limited charge or a reduced sentence.

Allegation

A statement that something is true that has not yet been proven. Often it refers to a factual assertion that a party claims can be proven at trial.

Standard of Review

The amount of deference given by an appellate court in reviewing the decision of a lower court.

Legal Issue

A question relating to the law by which a case is to be decided, as opposed to "factual issues."

Appeal

The review in one court of the proceedings and decisions of another, either as to law or fact, or both.

Appellate

An adjective meaning relating to courts of appeal.

En Banc

A French term referring to an instance where a case is heard by all judges of a court rather than the normal select panel.

U.S. Supreme Court

The highest federal court. It has final appellate jurisdiction over all federal court decisions and also hears state court cases that turn on issues of federal law.

Certiorari

The Supreme Court's discretionary review of an action by a lower court or agency. To request that the Supreme Court hear an appeal, a party must file a petition (pleading) for this.

Precedent

A decision made in an earlier case that resolves (or at least has bearing on) a legal question in a new case.

Appeal as of Right

When an appellate court is required to hear an appeal, as opposed to a "discretionary appeal," which is when an appellate court can decide whether or not to hear an appeal.

Family Court

A court with jurisdiction over affairs of children (e.g., adoption, custody, maintenance, neglect, abuse, and abandonment) and families (e.g., divorce, alimony).

Probate Court

A court with jurisdiction over matters relating to guardianships, wills, trusts, and estates.

Juvenile Court

A court with jurisdiction over criminal cases involving minors.

Municipal Court

A court organized within a city, village, or township, with jurisdiction over offenses under local ordinances and certain petty offenses.

Primary

A selective mechanism by which members of a political party express their preference in the selection of the party's candidates for public office.

Retention Election

A periodic process held at the same time as a general election, in which voters decide whether a state judge will remain in office.

Merit Selection

A process in which a non-partisan judicial nominating committee generates a list of potential judges from which the appointing authority (usually the governor of the state) selects whom to appoint.

Caption

The heading of a case which includes the names of the parties, the name of the court issuing the opinion, the date of the opinion, and sometimes other identifying information.

Citation

Includes the name of a case, the name of the court that decided it, the year the case was decided, the reporter, and the page number on which the case starts in the relevant reporter.

Shepardizing

Determining what other cases have overruled, distinguished, or otherwise changed our understanding of a case.

Petitioner

The party seeking to have the Supreme Court review a case, through a writ of certiorari. Typically, the party that lost in the prior stage of the proceeding.

Respondent

The party against whom a petition is filed. In the Supreme Court, this is typically the party who won the case in the court below and seeks to defend the judgment.

Majority Opinion

An opinion that is joined by a mojority of the judges of a court.

Concurring Opinion

An opinion by a judge who agrees with the majority on the outcome of the case but disagrees with the majority on something or has something to add.

Dissenting Opinion

An opinion by a judge who would have ruled differently than the majority.

Procedural History and Posture

The story of a case's encounter with the law up to the present case.

Reliefe Sought

The remedy the parties want in a case.

Money Damages

Money given to a party as a remedy for the harm they have suffered.

Injunctive Relief

A court order for someone to do something or refrain from doing something.

Declaratory Judgement

A remedy that is a mere statement of what the law is.

Disposition

The court's determination of what should happen in a case. It is an action and is usually found in the last few lines of a majority opinion.

Affirm

A disposition in which a court of appeals or supreme court leaves the judgment or ruling immediately below intact. However, the reasoning the court offers for that result may have changed.

Reverse

A disposition in which a court of appeals or supreme court overturns the judgment or ruling below, i.e., declares that the decision below was wrong.

Vacate

Similar to reversing a decision of the lower court, an appelette court may simply deny the disposition and clear the record completely from that lower decision.

Remand

The case is sent back to the court below for further action.

Holding

The legal rule announced by a case that could be used in future cases.

Obiter Dictume (Dicta)

Latin for "a remark by the way." It is information in the opinion that is not necessary for the opinion and does not have binding precedential value.

Tort Law

The branch of law relating to civil (as opposed to criminal) wrongful acts or omissions

Stare Decisis

A Latin expression meaning "to stand by things decided." It is a principle that ordinarily requires judges to apply the reasoning from earlier decisions (precedents) so that later cases reach the same result as similar earlier cases decided by the same court or a superior court.

Public Policy

An argument appealing to what is right, just, and promotes the public good.

Slippery Slope

An argument form where the arguer suggests that if a particular step is taken now, it will inevitably lead to a very bad unwanted consequence later on.

Institutional Competence

An argument that a certain kind of institution, most often courts, are ill-equipped to make certain decisions, and that such decisions should be made by another institution (e.g., legislatures or agencies).

Counterfactual

Relating to or expressing what has not happened or is not the case.

Consequentialism

A moral philosophy in which the rightness or wrongness of an action is judged solely by its consequences.

Vertical Dimension of Precedent

A decision by a higher court binds lower courts in the same court system.

Horizontal Dimension of Precedent

A court's general obligation to adhere to its own decisions from previous cases.

Bill

A proposed law under consideration by a legislature

Joint Resolution

A legislative measure that requires approval by the Senate and House of Representatives and is presented to the President for approval. It is like a Bill except it cannot be used to propose a constitutional amendment.

Concurrent Resolution

A legislative measure adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives that does not require the approval of the President and does not have the force of law.

Simple Resolution

A legislative measure passed by either the Senate or the House of Representatives (but not the other body) and does not require the approval of the President nor have the force of law.

Tabling

To postpone or suspend consideration of a pending motion or piece of legislation.

Conference Committee

A committee made up of members from both the Senate and House of Representatives that meets, negotiates, and agrees to a new, compromised version of a particular bill when each house passes a different version.

Pocket Veto

What occurs to a bill when it passes both chambers of the legislature but does not become law because the President took no action for 10 days and congress is in recess during that time.

U.S. Code

A compendium of federal laws.

Title

Each large part of the U.S. Code, divided by subject matter.

Slip Law

The statute by itself on a single sheet or in pamphlet form before it is included into session laws.

Public Law Number

The number assigned to a published slip law; the first number represents the number of the Congress that passed the law and the second represents the chronological order in which the law was passed.

Session Law

The booklet containing published statutes, bound chronologically by Congressional session.

Statutes at Large

The official U.S. government compilation of federal session laws; the official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress.

"Stat." Citation

Citation for the Statutes at Large.

Cross-reference

When statutes reference one another

Statutory Interpretation

The principles courts use in reading a statute and relating it to a particular issue or question.

Legislative Supremacy

The doctrine that when Congress passes a statute, a judge in the U.S. constitutional system has a duty to try to figure out Congress's policy instructions for it.

Legislative Intent

Congress's policy instructions that the judiciary tries to ascertain.

Ordinary Meaning

The first step in statutory interpretation which involves giving the words in a statute their plainly understood sense; dictionaries are useful starting points.

Purpose or Policy of the Statute

What Congress is trying to get at in a statute.

The Canons (Maxims) of Construction

The legal system's set of rules that judges use to help sort out what a statute means or what to do when a statute is ambiguous or doesn't make sense.

Linguistic Canon

Common-sense presumptions about the way people use language used to help find the meaning of words and phrases in statutes.

Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius

A linguistic canon of construction that means that if you specify one thing, you impliedly exclude the things you don't specify.

Substantive Canon

Canons of construction that put a thumb on the scale of one interpretation or another in order to serve some broad, general policy that the legal system wants to promote.

Rule of Lenity

A substantive canon that tells us that if a criminal statute is ambiguous - if there are two possible meanings - the judge should pick the one that favors the criminal defendant, that is, the more lenient one.