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Legal Studies Exam
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Natural law | certain moral principles, values, and rights are inherent in human nature and can be discovered through human reason |
| Sources of Natural law | Human Reason, Nature/Human Nature, & Divine Order (Thomas Aquinas) |
| Assumptions of Natural Law | Intrinsic Value of Human Life, Capacity for Reason, Intelligible Moral Order, Free Moral Choice, Natural Inclinations |
| Thomas Aquinas | believed that faith and reason work together and that both are gifts from God used to find the truth |
| Conservative Christian Legal Movement | a network of public interest law firms and advocacy organizations that use strategic litigation, policy lobbying, and legal training to advance religious liberty |
| Criticisms of natural law theory | faces major criticisms regarding its logical deductions, religious assumptions, and subjective interpretations of human nature |
| Locke | argued that individuals possess inherent rights—such as life, liberty, and property—that exist independently of any government or positive law. |
| Jefferson | fundamental rights are not granted by governments, but are inherent to human nature |
| King | Civil Rights leader (Natural Law theorist) |
| Lon Fuller | law and morality are inherently connected, arguing that a true legal system contains an "internal morality" rooted in procedural fairness and respect for human agency. |
| Requirements of procedural justice | requires fairness, transparency, and dignity in the processes used to make decisions |
| Procedural justice v. | perceived fairness of the processes and rules used to make decisions, rather than the final outcome itself |
| natural law solutions to problems to the Nazi grudge informant | The Legal Dilemma : The actions were technically legal under validly enacted Nazi statutes at the time; however, punishing the informants after the fact appeared to require either inventing a retroactive law or pretending the Nazi statute was never a law |
| make natural law arguments to support contemporary legal issues/debates | Supporting Natural Law Arguments (Pro Life) : Classical natural law holds that human life begins at conception and is a fundamental basic good. Proponents argue that any positive law permitting abortion is an unjust law because it fails to protect |
| discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments made by natural law theorists | Strengths of Natural Law : Universal Moral Standards, Foundation for Human Rights, Reliance on Reason, Promotion of Human Flourishing Weaknesses of Natural Law; Disagreements on Human Nature, Religious and Theological Reliance, Rigid Outcomes |
| make natural law arguments to oppose contemporary legal issues/debates | Opposing Natural Law Arguments (Pro-Choice/Bodily Autonomy): Counter-arguments grounded in natural rights emphasize individual self-ownership, bodily integrity, and moral agency. |
| Legal Positivism | is a philosophy of law stating that valid laws are created by human social facts and political authority, rather than by inherent moral or natural principles |
| Assumptions of legal positivism | There is no necessary conceptual connection between law and morality. A rule can be legally valid and binding even if it is deeply unjust or morally flawed |
| Austin’s command theory of law | defines law as the general command of a sovereign authority, backed by the threat of punishment for non-compliance |
| Hart’s primary and secondary rules | Primary : Rules telling people what to do (Ex: don't steal, don't murder, pay your taxes, & follow traffic laws) Secondary rules : Rules about rules (ex : Courts & judges determine whether someone violated the law) |
| Hart's core of certainty/penumbra of doubt | Core of certainty : Everyone can tell what the law means Penumbra of doubt : The unclear areas where judges have to interpret the law |
| make positive law arguments to support or oppose contemporary legal issues/debates. | Positive law argument Supporting Roe V. Wade : The 14th amendment grants individuals the rights to privacy, liberty, and rights to one's bodily expression. |
| articulate positive law solutions to problems like the Nazi grudge informant | Positive law solution : The nazi regime were simply following the laws during the time that Germany gave them. As a result, they shall receive no punishment because those were the laws enacted upon them. |
| You should be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments made by positive natural law theorists | Strengths : sets establishments in absolute rules and not bias Weaknesses : sudjective interpretations |
| You should be able to give examples of laws and situations that correspond to Hart’s notions of primary/secondary rules | Primary rules : tell individuals what they must or must not do, directly creating legal duties. If you break a primary rule, you face a legal sanction, penalty, or civil liability Secondary rules : explain how the legal system itself operates. |
| Hart's core of certainty | refers to the clear, unambiguous central cases where a legal rule unquestionably applies without needing interpretation |
| Hart's penumbra of doubt | the gray area surrounding a legal rule where the application of its general words is unclear. |
| Legal Consciousness | the way people experience, interpret, and react to the law and legal rules in their daily lives. |
| Pig-keeping in New York City | refers to the fierce social, political, and sanitary clashes over free-roaming swine in urban public spaces |
| Criticisms of legal consciousness theory | examines how ordinary people understand, experience, and engage with the law in daily life |
| Hartog’s view of legal consciousness | dynamic and messy arena where ordinary people, social customs, and official legal texts constantly collide and reshape one another |
| People v. Harriet (1803) | is a landmark American common-law case concerning public health, urban governance, and the definition of a public nuisance |
| articulate how legal consciousness differs from theories of natural law and positivism. | Legal consciousness differs from natural law and legal positivism by shifting the inquiry away from what the law is or what morality the law should embody |
| explain the positivist responses to the fact that pigs remained on the streets of New York after People v. Harriet | Legal positivists view the persistence of New York street pigs as a classic gap between valid "law on the books" and "law in action," arguing that a rule remains legally binding even if society disobeys it and the state fails to enforce it |
| give an example of a modern area of the law in which there are competing perspectives on what the law is. | Perspective A (Roe V. Wade) : Overturning Roe V. Wade goes against the right to liberty of one's bodily autonomy Perspective B : The 14th amendment does not have the word "abortion" in the constitution |
| Administrative Agencies | an official government body created by a legislature (such as the U.S. Congress or a state assembly) |
| Legislative agencies | governmental body, office, or organization that operates within the legislative branch of government to support a legislature in carrying out its duties, such as making laws |
| Enumerated and implied powers | Enumerated powers : what the federal government is allowed to do Implied powers : These are powers that are not explicitly written down in the Constitution, but are assumed |
| Supremacy Clause | establishing that federal law is the supreme law of the land, meaning it overrides any conflicting state or local laws. |
| Preemption | When a federal law preempts a state law, the state law becomes invalid and unenforceable. |
| local lawmaking | Lawmaking : enacted by sub-state municipal bodies that apply within specific counties |
| Types of administrative agencies | government bodies created by legislation to implement and enforce specific laws. They are generally categorized based on their relationship with the executive branch and their primary function |
| Rule making | he formal administrative process through which government agencies create, modify, or repeal detailed regulations to implement laws |
| Controlling agencies | refers to one of two distinct legal concepts depending on the context: the regulation and oversight of administrative agencies by the branches of government |
| Executive orders | written, signed, and published directive from the President of the United States |
| explain how legislatures, presidents, and administrative agencies make law | Legislatures enact statutes, presidents issue executive orders, and administrative agencies create detailed regulations to enforce those laws |
| Federal State laws | Rules enacted by the national government that apply uniformly to everyone across the entire United States. |
| State laws | Rules enacted by individual state governments that apply within the borders of a specific state |
| Local Laws | legal rule or statute that applies only within a specific geographic and political subdivision—such as a city, town, county, municipality, or village—rather than across an entire state or country. |
| Types of administrative agencies | Executive : These fall directly under the control of the President Independent Agencies: These are insulated from direct presidential control. Ex : Federal Communications Commission |
| Controlling agencies | Administrative agencies are controlled through a system of checks and balances divided among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. |
| Executive orders | a signed, written directive from the U.S. president that manages the operations of the federal government a |
| explain how legislatures, presidents, and administrative agencies make law. | Legislatures pass statutes, presidents sign or veto bills and issue executive orders, and administrative agencies write detailed rules and regulations to enforce those laws. |
| provide specific examples of lawmaking by legislatures, presidents, and administrative agencies | Legislatures: The U.S. Congress passed the Affordable Care Act Presidents: President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation Administrative Agencies: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) |
| Precedent | a court decision or legal principle that serves as an authority for deciding subsequent cases with identical or similar facts |
| Types of courts | Federal, state, appellate |
| Judicial review | the power of courts of law to examine the actions of the legislative, executive, and administrative branches of government |
| Jurisdiction | the official power, right, or authority of a court, government, or legal body to interpret and apply the law |
| Standing | a legal requirement that a person must show a direct, personal connection to and harm from a law |
| State and federal jurisdiction | state courts handling most local matters and federal courts dealing strictly with constitutional or national laws. |
| explain how courts make law. | Courts make law by interpreting statutes, filling legislative gaps, and creating legally binding precedents that lower courts must follow. |
| explain why some believe the U.S. Supreme Court may be facing a legitimacy crisis and the reasons for the decline in public support for the Court. | The U.S. Supreme Court faces a legitimacy crisis due to historically low public trust driven by highly partisan rulings, the sudden overturning of long-standing precedents, and ongoing ethical controversies surrounding several justices. |
| Precedent and Legal Reasoning | Legal precedent : is a court decision that serves as an authority or guide for deciding subsequent cases with identical or similar facts Legal reasoning : the method by which judges and lawyers apply legal rules to the specific facts of a case |
| Legal formalism | is a theory of jurisprudence which views the law as a self-contained, logical system of rules separate from social |
| Legal realism | a school of legal philosophy which argues that the law is not a self-contained, mechanical system of abstract rules, but is instead shaped by social interests |
| Precedent/Stare decisis | Precedent: actual rule established by a higher court in a previous case. This prior ruling acts as a model or authority for future cases with similar facts. Stare Decisis: legal principle that forces or directs courts to follow that precedent. |
| explain how precedent works in the federal court system | legal principle where courts look to past, published judicial decisions as a guide for deciding current cases with similar facts or legal questions. This practice is rooted in stare decisis |
| discuss the pros and cons of precedential approaches to judicial decision making. | Pros : Predictability and Certainty, Consistency and Fairness Cons : Rigidity and Injustice, slow adaptation , Complexity and Technicality |
| apply precedent to subsequent cases and explain what parts of precedent are malleable | using past court decisions to solve new legal problems. If a past case has the same setup, the court usually has to follow the same rule : Spotting differences, Ignoring extra comments,Changing the reach |
| Extra-Legal Influences | Defendant Characteristics, Personal & Social Cues, External pressures |
| Demographics and life experiences | Demographics - are statistical data and characteristics used to describe a human population or specific groups within it. Life experiences - refer to the personal events, social circumstances, historical background, and active participation in life |
| Political ideology | a set of shared ethical values, beliefs, and doctrines that explains how society should be organized |
| Safford Unified School District v. Redding (2009) | case holding that public school officials violate a student's Fourth Amendment rights when they conduct an overly intrusive strip search without reasonable suspicion that contraband is hidden in the student's underwear. |
| National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012) | (2012) is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that largely upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) |
| Strategic considerations | contract law refers to something of legal value (such as money, goods, services, or a forbearance) that is bargained for and exchanged between parties to make a contract legally binding. |
| Law and economics | field that applies theory and social scientific methods to analyze, understand, and evaluate legal rules and institutions. |
| explain and give examples of situations in which demographic characteristics or life experiences might influence judicial decision making. | Demographic characteristics and life experiences shape how judges perceive facts, interpret ambiguous laws, and exercise legal discretion, serving as a human lens through which the law is applied rather than a purely mechanical calculation |
| explain, in general terms, the ideological makeup of the current Supreme Court. | The current U.S. Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative supermajority composed of six Republican-appointed justices and three Democratic-appointed justices |
Created by:
Jaylaou111