Autumn Smith
CJS/220
March 31, 2013
Lacey Martz
Law Opinion
Introduction
In the paragraphs below I am going to examine and explain the creation of U.S. laws. In doing this I will take into consideration common law heritage. I am going to close the paper with my own opinion of what laws should and should not be a law and what should be considered when laws are made.
The Creation of Laws
In democracies such as ours, laws are the rules set by public officials. The state and federal legislators of the government are who enacts these laws. Once enacted the executive branch which controls law enforcement enforces these laws. It is the job of the judicial branch to make sure laws are valid when compared to the principles in the United States Constitution. Before a law is made an action must attract condemnation. The American legal system undergoes constant metamorphosis. New laws are enacted to deal with current situations, and old laws are modified to keep up-to-date each year. There are very few laws that have been removed from the codes. New laws are often created from attempts to utilize existing laws of questionable behavior that were unsuccessful. It is not easy coming up with new laws. Someone or some group influences legislators to write and sponsor laws. It also takes the support of many citezens for a law to make it to the books, however laws are passed that have the the support of a vocal minority and not the population as a whole.
Common Law Heritage As the nation started to develop and declared independence from the common law of medieval England, common law was enacted and then adapted to America’s needs.. These laws are based on the interpretation of judges. This is because only the most serious crimes had statues written. For this reason historical common laws are also refered to as judge made laws. In this case, the judges become useful when it comes to comparison of past and present decisions made by a judge in similar cases. If a unique situation that had no earlier precedent arises, a judge may be expected to develop a case law by ruling in such a way that will affect all the future cases that are of the same circumstance. The most crucial aspect of common law method is that in all the cases that seem to have a similar circumstance, the court should give a similar ruling. Common law is uncodified, meaning it is not written in any one place. However the American legal system is based on laws developed as part of common law.
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