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Sources of Law
Constitutional Law is base on a formal document that defines broad powers. Federal constitutional law originates from
the U.S. constitution. State constitutional law originates from the individual state constitutions.
Statutes and ordinances are legislation passed on the federal, state, or local levels.
Common Law is base on the concept of precedence – on how the courts have interpreted the law. Under common law,
the facts of a particular case are determinate and compared to previous cases having similar facts in order to reach a
decision by analogy. Common law applies mostly at the state level. It originated in the 13th century when royal judges
began recording their decisions and the reasoning behind the decisions.
Administrative Law – federal, state, and local level. Administrative law is made by administrative agencies that define the
intent of the legislative body that passed the law.
The sources of law have both vertical and horizontal dimensions. Vertical dimensions include federal authority, state
authority, and concurrent authority. Federalism refers to this form of government, in which there is national and local
authority. Federal authority covers laws related to patents, pensions and profit sharing, and labor issues. State authority
covers business association, contracts, and trade secrets. Concurrent authority covers security law, tax law, and employment
law. Note that employment law refers to non-union relationships; labor law refers to union relationships.
The horizontal dimension is related to the separation of power between the executive branch, which creates administrative
law, the legislative branch, which creates statutes, and the judicial branch, which creates common law. The judicial system in
the U.S. has a pyramid structure consisting of fewer higher level courts and more lower level courts:
Supreme Court - Appellate Courts - Trial Courts
Las fuentes de ley tienen ambas dimensiones verticales y horizontales. Las dimensiones verticales incluyen autoridad
federal, autoridad estatal, y la autoridad coexistente. El federalismo se refiere a esta forma de gobierno en que hay autoridad
nacional y local. La autoridad federal cubre leyes relacionadas a las patentes, las pensiones y repartición de las utilidades, y
los problemas laborales. La autoridad estatal cubre asociación comercial, contratos, y secretos de comercio. La autoridad
concurrente cubre la ley de seguridad, ley del impuesto, y ley del empleo. Observe que la ley del empleo se refiere a las
relaciones de los no sindicados; la ley laboral se refiere a las relaciones de la unión.
La dimensión horizontal se relaciona a la separación de poder entre la rama ejecutiva que crea la ley administrativa, la rama
del legislativo que crea los estatutos y la rama judicial que crea el derecho común. El sistema judicial en el U.S. tiene una
estructura de pirámide que consiste en menos tribunales de mayor nivel y más Tribunales de inferior nivel:
La Corte Suprema - Las Cortes de Apelación - Tribunal de Primera Instancia
The end phase of a lawsuit is the trial, beginning with a pre-trial conference in which the parties attempt to settle in from of a judge without going to court.
The trial then proceeds with the evidence and then a judgement and possibly a post-judgement. The post-judgement may be that a new trial is necessary,
such as in cases of mistrial.
The defendant usually has the right to one appeal within a certain period of time. An appeal is filed with the appellate court. There are briefs, oral
arguments, and then a decision.
The judgement is enforced by first obtaining an execution that freezes the defendant´s assets. The defendant is served and the assets are levied. The
defendant, however, may choose to file for bankruptcy protection, in which case all creditors are stopped, including court judgements.
Remedies
When attempting to understand how courts interpret the law, it is worthwhile to study past cases of similar legal issues. Past legal cases provide the
opportunity to understand the law by studying well-argued positions from both sides. When studying a case, the following points should be identified:
1. Facts. One should identify which facts are important and which are not.
2. Issue. One should isolate the specific legal issue relevant to the case.
3. Court holding (ruling).
4. Reasoning (why the court decided as it did).