Blaw exam note
BLAW 243 STUDY GUIDE
Wednesday, January 11 2010
I. What is law?
a. Rules rules come from who ever is in charge
b. Golden Rule: those who have the gold make the rules
c. We as people came upon 2 different ways of making rules
i. The Romans: wrote everything down and gave us statutory law
1. Statute: laws that are written down. Passed by major legislature.
2. Ordinance: a statute local in nature. Have limited effect because they’re in a limited area.
3. US government creates statutes ii. England: thought of all possible things that occur and established a court system to have power to create laws DECISIONAL LAW
d. Decisional Law Example: person 1 shoots deer, person 2 brings deer down. Court must make a decision who the deer belongs to established “law”
e. Law today is a combination of English (decisional) and Roman (statutory) law
f. Is one more important than the other?
i. STATUTORY law overrides decisional ii. STATUTORY law is more powerful because it can override decisional
g. Substitutive law: combination of statutory and decisional law
h. Fundamentally, substitutive, statutory, and decisional law make up the law
II. Does the law change?
a. Law can be repealed or amended
b. The law must be adjusted to where it is suited better
c. Statutory law is fixed until the body who created it, changes it
d. Decisional law is in a constant state of evolution (unlike a fixed statute)
i. when courts are faced with right vs. wrong, they are setting a precedence ii. as circumstances in society change and decision makers change, decisional law changes and old approaches are changed. iii. Example: current tv- attorney tires to take other court cases from the past sets precedence for what rules.
e. Stare decisis: “let the decision stand” let the old decision carry on
i. The court is not bound to follow old decisions if society has changed laws no longer fit society ii. Decisional law changes
f. Example of courts
Wednesday, January 11 2010
I. What is law?
a. Rules rules come from who ever is in charge
b. Golden Rule: those who have the gold make the rules
c. We as people came upon 2 different ways of making rules
i. The Romans: wrote everything down and gave us statutory law
1. Statute: laws that are written down. Passed by major legislature.
2. Ordinance: a statute local in nature. Have limited effect because they’re in a limited area.
3. US government creates statutes ii. England: thought of all possible things that occur and established a court system to have power to create laws DECISIONAL LAW
d. Decisional Law Example: person 1 shoots deer, person 2 brings deer down. Court must make a decision who the deer belongs to established “law”
e. Law today is a combination of English (decisional) and Roman (statutory) law
f. Is one more important than the other?
i. STATUTORY law overrides decisional ii. STATUTORY law is more powerful because it can override decisional
g. Substitutive law: combination of statutory and decisional law
h. Fundamentally, substitutive, statutory, and decisional law make up the law
II. Does the law change?
a. Law can be repealed or amended
b. The law must be adjusted to where it is suited better
c. Statutory law is fixed until the body who created it, changes it
d. Decisional law is in a constant state of evolution (unlike a fixed statute)
i. when courts are faced with right vs. wrong, they are setting a precedence ii. as circumstances in society change and decision makers change, decisional law changes and old approaches are changed. iii. Example: current tv- attorney tires to take other court cases from the past sets precedence for what rules.
e. Stare decisis: “let the decision stand” let the old decision carry on
i. The court is not bound to follow old decisions if society has changed laws no longer fit society ii. Decisional law changes
f. Example of courts