Nicholas Zirpoli
Law and Society
Professor Weiss
September 25, 2015
Unit 1 Legal Systems Unit 1 explores the legal systems of the world starting with the United States. We learned things from how the government was created, to the Bill of Rights. Its all about the laws and how it affects our society as a whole. We also take a look into different governments like France, China, and Saudi Arabia and compare them with our own government. The Legal system affects our everyday life and we get a better understanding about them and how they affect us. The United States Federal Government was based off of Britain’s. It was created by the United States Constitution of 1789, which was approved by the 13 colonies of the British Crown. The document had an agreement that the 13 colonies had three branches of government. These were a legislature, executive and judiciary. They all received certain powers but each branch is superior to the others. The legislative branch is made up of two houses in congress.
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There is a doctrine that states a lower court must follow a precedent which is known as stare decisis. There are reliances on previous cases, which is important to find common cases to make sure they are still good law. Once a case has been finalized by the states highest court, it can be appealed to the Supreme Court only if there is a federal legal question. Looking into the Bill of Rights, its the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These are basically our natural born rights as a citizen of the United States. The Bill of Rights is a list of limits on government power. The people get rights ranging from freedom of speech to religion. By its terms, the Bill of Rights only confines the federal government. Although the rights have been extended to the state governments because of the fourteenth amendment put into act in