American jurists fundamentally distinguish between procedural law (which governs the procedure by which legal duties and rights are defended)[72] and substantive law (the actual content of the law, which is usually expressed in the form of various legal rights and obligations). [73] The first source of law is constitutional law. Two constitutions are applicable in each state: the Federal or U.S. Constitution, which is in force throughout the United States of America, and the State Constitution. The Constitution of the United States created our legal system, as discussed in Chapter 2, „The Legal System in the United States.“ State constitutions generally focus on matters of local concern. Federalism influences legal research not only by providing multiple legal instruments for which researchers are responsible, but also by providing multiple forums for resolving law enforcement disputes. In other words, lawyers must not only be concerned about the possibility of multiple legislative packages affecting their clients, but also be aware of the possibilities that arise from multiple independent judicial systems operating in the same geographic region. Sometimes a client can be beneficial by hearing a case in federal court rather than state court, or vice versa. Federal laws and treaties, as long as they are constitutional, anticipate conflicting state and territorial laws in all 50 U.S. states. States and territories. [6] However, the scope of federal pre-emption rights is limited because the scope of federal power is not universal. In the dual sovereign system[7] of American federalism (actually tripartite[8] due to the presence of Indian reserve states, the plenary sovereigns each have their own constitution, while the federal sovereign has only the limited supreme authority enumerated in the Constitution.

9] States may grant their citizens more extensive rights than the federal Constitution as long as they do not violate federal constitutional rights. [10] [11] So U.S. Law (especially the true „living law“ of contract law, tort law, property law, criminal law and family law, which the majority of citizens experience on a daily basis) consists mainly of state law, which can vary considerably from state to state. [12] [13] In the American system of separation of powers, as described in the various constitutions, the legislature creates laws in the form of laws. In general, to create a law, a legislature submits a bill to the legislative chamber to which it belongs; Once the bill receives a positive vote in each legislative house and the signature of the Chief Executive of the judiciary, it becomes a law enacted.28 The United States of America uses a federal system of government. As anyone who follows American politics can tell you, federalism means different things to different people. However, the legal definition of a state is as follows: There are four main sources of law in the U.S. legal system, namely constitutions, laws, regulations, and jurisprudence. Responsibility for the main sources of law is divided between the three branches of government, namely the judiciary, the legislative and the executive. There are various sources of law in the U.S.

legal system. The Constitution of the United States is fundamental; American law and common law must not conflict with its provisions. Congress creates the legal law (with the signature of the president), and the courts will interpret the constitutional law and the law. Where there is no constitutional or statutory law, the courts work in the common law domain. The same applies to the law in the fifty states, each of which also has a constitution or a fundamental law. Check. There are a number of rules that govern our behavior in the United States. The authority for these rules comes from several places.

The main source of law we have is the U.S. Constitution, followed by federal, state, and local laws, and then the regulatory authority of federal agencies. Finally, our customary law system links all other sources of law and prevents them from coming into conflict with each other and ensures consistency in the application of the law. The choice of law is important for the legal researcher, because in some cases, parts of several legal rules are applied to the same facts. For example, a criminal defendant who is prosecuted under state law may make a federal constitutional defence. In such a case, the way the parts of the law interact with each other changes depending on the court system hearing the case. However, before we can go into more detail about the interaction between the parties of law, we must examine where these parties or sources of law come from by examining the other key characteristic of the United States. Legal system: separation of powers. Of the three sources of law, constitutional law is considered the highest and should not be superseded by either of the other two sources of law. According to the principles of federal supremacy, the federal or U.S. Constitution is the primary source of law, and state constitutions cannot replace it. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Federal Supremacy are discussed in Chapter 2, „The Legal System in the United States,“ and Chapter 3, „Protection of the Constitution.“ The judiciary typically comprises several levels of courts, with a Supreme Court at the top, courts of first instance at the bottom, and one or more levels of an interlocutory court in between, although the names of the different courts vary depending on the jurisdiction.

At the federal level, the U.S. Supreme Court acts as a high court, district courts serve as the usual entry point into the system, and appellate courts (sometimes called circuit courts) combine the two.32 Constitutional powers generally extend to the entire judicial system.33 Of course, even if a lawyer sets a precedent, it serves only as an organ of persuasion. She can always choose to use it, especially if it contains facts similar to her controversy. Moreover, some cases may be more convincing than others. In general, the higher the place, the better. In addition, cases in the judicial system of the jurisdiction, whose law has been chosen as a choice of law, tend to be better than cases from other judicial systems. Although they are not binding because they can be technically overturned, previous cases of the same court dealing with the current controversy would be the highest persuasive force, as courts usually try to avoid overturning their previous decisions. Published legal opinions are written by judges and can be lengthy. They may also contain more than one case law, depending on the number of issues addressed. Pleadings reduce a court`s opinion to the essentials and can contribute to understanding the most important aspects of the case. Standard short formats may vary, but a format that lawyers and paralegals often use is explained in the next paragraph.

Once the president signs a bill (or Congress vetoes it), it is turned over to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), where it receives a law number and is prepared for publication as a leaflet law. [39] Public laws, but not private laws, are also cited by the OFR. At the end of each session of Congress, ballot laws are compiled into bound volumes called United States Statutes at Large, and they are known as session laws. Laws are a chronological arrangement of laws in the exact order in which they were promulgated. As Federal Judge Alex Kozinski pointed out, at the time of drafting the Constitution, there was simply no binding precedent as we know it today. [43] Judicial decisions were not reported consistently, accurately, and faithfully on both sides of the Atlantic (journalists were often content to rewrite or publish decisions they did not like), and the United Kingdom lacked a coherent judicial hierarchy before the end of the 19th century. [43] Moreover, eighteenth-century English judges subscribed to the now outdated theories of natural law, which were believed to exist independently of what individual judges said.