POLS 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Precedent, Amicus Curiae
Document Summary
Rule of law (article iii of the constitution) that laws exist, we follow them, and they are enforced by the government. Judicial branch of government (most poorly defined branch of government) Jurisdiction: congress gets to decide the outline of all other courts. Congress can do this to deal with specialized tasks (courts for things like terrorism, divorce, etc. ) Common law vs. code law: common law judges would ride circuits (go from town to town) making decisions and report back what they did (america follows british tradition) Precedent (when something has a long legal rights history) like when an abortion law doesn"t include anything about incest, rape, or life of the mother. An abortion bill must include these three things or it won"t pass. Stare decisis let the decision stand . Contested opinions that lead to big arguments and end in sort of a stasis until a decision is reached: code law judges are bureaucrats.
