The English System Of Criminal Law In The United States

Criminal law involves inducing punishment to the convicted individual so that they would pay for their crimes. Civil law deals with disputes between individuals and redressing the wrongs by giving the victim compensation. Examples of criminal law include theft, murder, and robbery. Examples of civil law include, divorce proceedings, child custody proceedings, and property disputes. Five sources of criminal law in the United States include federal legislation, state legislation, municipal ordinances, executive orders, federal and state constitutions, and treaties and other international conventions. Federal legislation operates with its own set of rules apart from individual states. To determine whether if the crime is a federal offense depends

The word law is defined as a system of principles and regulations of ethics and rules in order to keep people and also things in line, a set of rules of conduct. There are many functions of law in business and in society. Without the functions of laws many companies, etc. could and would not survive. Law is very valuable within businesses. Businesses have to have law because it is used as a protective shield for the companies. Without laws, companies could have lawsuits placed on them. So laws are put into place to help avoid as many lawsuits as possible. A majority of

On the fourth of July in 1776 the United States became an independent nation. At that point in time, the foundation for a formal legal system was put into place. One of the oldest sources of law is the common law, which dates back to the colonial days. In the case of Davis v. Baugh, the common law rule was used in the first court trial. Common law refers back to precedent cases of similar disputes and assists the judge in making a decision after comparing both cases. Utilizing this ruling to resolve disputes in court is very helpful because it provides uniformity in court. This rule also provides an expectation of what the verdict will be based off the prior cases. Most importantly, common law allows the judge to remain neutral without the implication of personal bias on each case (Meiners, 2012, pp. 9-10).

Laws and rules are important in our society as they serve as a norm of conduct. Rules ensure that social cohesion is kept. Social Cohesion is important as it maintains and preserves our principle moral, social, economic, and political values and establishes patterns of behaviour expected of members of the society. Every society needs rules (whether legal or not) to regulate behaviour, to provide guidelines of acceptable behaviour and to prevent conflict. Without rules, our society would be in chaos. The movie ‘Lord of the Flies’ is a perfect example of this. One of the main characters Ralph knows that sticking to an agreed set of rules is the only thing preventing a state of complete

Common law is also known as case law, or law by precedent, is a type of legal tradition developed through decisions of legal bodies (courts, tribunals, etc.). Common law systems originated in Anglo-Saxon England as opposed to the Roman Empire, and believe that legal precedent, based on cultural tradition, should carry more weight that judicial mandates. Courts look at an incident and use what was found and decided as a way to base future decisions, thus guaranteeing a more solid legal tradition; but only binding in particular jurisdictions (Plucknett, 2001). Law in the United States is based on common law, using the Constitution as the backbone for all legal theory. The system of law coming from the three branches of government and moving from the Federal system down to the local levels, and in the case of appeals, from the local level up to the U.S. Supreme Court, is part of the idea of federalism and is based on the assumption

Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. (Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90).Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common jurisdictions.

Historically, common law emphasized the importance of judicial decisions rather than utilizing the structure of codes, legal rules, and statutes as courts do today. In the past, judges documented and issued their decisions which were later circulated from one court to another and became known as common law. In cases where parties disagreed, common law court would look at previous decisions made in related cases and incorporate those decisions into the current case (Siegel, et al., 2011). If similar disputes had been resolved in the previous case, the court would utilize the same perspective to resolve their current case. This became known as precedent and like common law, continues to be utilized in today’s court system (Siegel, et al., 2011).

To begin, common law originated in Medieval England in the time of King Henry II. The practice developed sending circuit judges from the King’s central court to travel throughout England to hear the various disputes. The aim of these courts (assizes) was to add consistency and fairness to the legal system. Alongside the traveling courts King Henry also established the jury system. Over time these judges recorded the information of each case they heard as well as the decisions and punishments that were ordered. This is known as case law or common law. This began a justice system that relied on the principle of stare decisis or “to stand by the decision”. This principle developed into the rule of precedent which was used to apply the previous decision to a case with similar circumstance. This system was used throughout the country and thus was known as common law. As the English began colonizing Canada they brought their legal systems with them, which greatly influenced today’s legal system.

Criminal Law is a legal act to individual(s) and are punishable by law. Most of our criminal laws are based of ancient laws and from England where our laws came from. The first actual written law that was formed was called cuneiform which was a form that was craved into stones or on clay which then they were baked till they were hard. (CA Criminal Law Concepts).

For the next 550 years law was influenced by guilt. Later on, in English Common law, this theory became “ Actus Reas” which is a guilty act and “Mens Rea” which is a guilty mind. Sir William Blackstone was a legal scholar back in those days who would become the guidance to English and American law. Blackstone guided English and American Law for around 300 years. Many legal principles such as the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution were bounded to Blackstone's Biblical principles. Some of these principles of criminal justice include, justice is compensatory, the judgment under the law is declaratory, and a burden of proof and citizens cannot be treated like criminals unless they have been tried and convicted as criminals. The English Common Law System established a set of rules to solve issues that arose within society. This led to the first big distinction between two types of crimes, felonies, and misdemeanors. For more serious crimes a grand jury composed of members of the community decided if there was enough evidence to prosecute, but, no attorneys or public prosecutors

Societies have ways of encouraging and enforcing what they view as appropriate behavior while discouraging and punishing what they consider to be inappropriate behavior; moreover, societies also have shared ideas of what is right and desirable when it comes to social norms according to our textbook, Introduction to Sociology (Schaefer 62). Writer Bradley Wright, from his article The Prevalence of Social Norms, states that social norms are the core concepts of sociology, and it refers to the behavioral expectations that a social group holds for its individuals. Ultimately, social norms tell people what they are supposed to do and how to behave in any given situation within our society. In contrast, breaking “formal norms,” such as laws, can

The American Justice system, to me, is flawed, but I do not feel that it has been neglected. It is a sad truth that there are so many wrongs that occur in a system of corrections. However, I believe that the Justice System is playing “catch up” with society’s rapid acceleration of growth. In the space of just 10 years there has been: The Legalization of Marijuana, Legalization of Gay Marriage, Terror groups and organizations attacking large cities, Rioting has become more common, for instance in Baltimore and Ferguson and, America has become more polarized. The Justice System just cannot maintain the pace. There are also a few things that negatively impacting it and not assisting at all. For one, social media exploding any attack by a police officer has become almost a social norm and I extremely difficult, if not, impossible to incapacitate legally in today’s world. The Justice System are trying, however, and I feel that it will only be a matter of time before it gains ground on society and maintains order once more. There have been advancements in technology to help speed up the process of court hearings and also catching criminals. New organizations have been created to help stop cyber attacks and make it safer. There have been government subsidies given to the Federal Justice System for higher employment and effectiveness of their task forces. Therefore, I do not believe that it is a case of neglect affecting this country, instead, a negative impact of society’s rapid

The American criminal law system has made a dramatic change over the last few decades. We have seen the overturning of some huge landmark cases dealing with human rights. These cases still have a lasting impact in our society today. In terms of the sentencing for convicted felons, the shift has been more from indeterminate sentencing to determinate sentencing. Indeterminate was thought of as a process of rehabilitation for offenders. The shift to determinate sentencing was a more aggressive approach to the crime in American. The justice system itself has a lot of work to be done especially with received between the black community and the police of America. This is a huge problem facing our country right now; most can say this can be our generation civil rights movement. Over the past few years there has been a series of high profile cases involving white police officers and African American people, resulting in the death of African Americans. There has been intense outrage in the community because it is being portrayed as black lives don’t matter. This has been nothing done about these criminal acts done to these police officers.

According to Reference.com (2007), law is defined as: “rules of conduct of any organized society, however simple or small, that are enforced by threat of punishment if they are violated. Modern law has a wide sweep and regulates many branches of conduct.” Essentially law is the rules and regulations that aid in governing conduct,

Law can be defined as the written agreement that a society agrees upon this dictates appropriate and acceptable conduct and behaviour we display toward each other. Law is the foundation of the society it can only work if the society abides by it and work to maintain its existence, this will help solve any problems and crimes.