GOVT 2306 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Tort Reform, Adversarial System, Damages
8 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Variation in treatment raises serious questions as to issues of unequal access and fairness in the judicial system. Law = the union of primary and secondary rules in a state or other official enterprise intended to govern the conduct of subjects and officials. Law is authoritative it carries a certain legitimacy that separates it from something else. Legitimacy for laws generally comes from the state. Profound difference between the state telling one to do something versus your roommate. The state is the only entity that can legitimately use force. Precedent differs from common law in that it can apply to anything ie a convention of how the supreme court functions. Rules law made by agencies; rules are reviewable by the courts just as statutes are. Each state maintains an elaborate criminal and civil court system. State courts are society"s primary peacekeeping agents: they enforce the rules of the game.
