This document provides an overview of key concepts in Chapter 1 of a textbook about law. It discusses the stages in the growth of law, the differences between common and positive law, and the origin of the US legal system from English common law. It also outlines the four sources of law - constitutions, statutes, case law, and administrative law. The document explains how conflicts between laws are resolved and compares criminal and civil laws as well as substantive and procedural law. Finally, it defines ethics and discusses civil disobedience in relation to ethical bases for laws.

1. Chapter 1
Laws & Their Ethical
Foundation
Law in Society
Mrs. Janet Wilson

2. Planning a Career in Law
 Trial Lawyer
 Let’s read & discuss p3 together…

3. Chapter 1 Objectives
1-1 Laws & Legal Systems
•Explain the stages in the growth of law
•Describe the differences between common and
positive law
•Identify the origin of the U.S. legal system

4. What is Law?
 Laws – enforceable rules of conduct in a
society that reflect the culture and
circumstances that create them
 Code – laws grouped into an organized
form

5. What is Law?
Stages in the Growth of Law
 Most societies go through 4 distinct stages in
forming their legal systems:
1. Individuals are free to take revenge for wrongs
done to them
2. A leader acquires enough power to be able to force
revenge-minded individuals to accept an award of
goods or money instead
3. The leader gives this power to a system of courts
4. The leader or central authority acts to prevent and
punish wrongs that provoke individuals to seek
revenge

6. What is Law?
 Common law – law based on the current
standards or customs of the
people, usually formed from the rules
used by judges to settle people’s disputes
 Positive law – laws dictated from above by
a sovereign or other central authority to
prevent disputes and wrongs from
occurring in the first place

7. What is the Origin of the U.S.
Legal System?
 The world’s 2 great systems of law are the
English common law and the Roman civil law
 All states, but LA, have based their legal systems
on the English common law
 Colonists from England brought the common law
system to this continent
 Let’s read about this together on p7…
 Jurisdiction – the power of a court to decide a
case
 Equity - fairness

8. Chapter 1 Objectives
1-2 Types of Laws
•Identify the 4 sources of law
•Discuss how conflicts between laws are resolved
•Compare/contrast criminal and civil laws, and
substantive and procedural law

9. What Are the Sources of Law?
 Laws in this country are created at all 3
levels of government: federal, state, and
local
 The forms these laws can take include:
 Constitutions
 Statutes
 Case law
 Administrative law

10. What Are the Sources of Law?
 Constitution – a document that sets forth
the framework of a government and its
relationship to the people its govern
 You are governed by both the U.S. and
the your state Constitution
 The U.S. Constitution is “the supreme law
of the land”

11. What Are the Sources of Law?
 Constitutions allocate powers
1. Between the people and their governments
2. Between state governments and the federal
governments
3. Among the branches of the government
 U.S. Constitution Congress
 State Constitutions state legislatures
 Both are composed of elected
representatives of the people

12. What Are the Sources of Law?
 Statute – law enacted by state or federal
legislatures
 Ordinance – pieces of legislation created
by a town or city council that are only
effective within the boundary of the local
governments that enacted them
 Case law – laws made when a court
endorses a rule to be used in deciding
court cases

13. What Are the Sources of Law?
 Stare decisis – “let the decision stand,”
doctrine requiring lower courts to follow
established case laws in deciding similar
cases
 Administrative agencies – governmental
bodies formed to carry out particular laws
 Ex) Social Security Administration, AL Dept. of
Motor Vehicles, Russell County zoning
commission

14. What Happens When Laws
Conflict?
 Sometimes laws created by different levels
of government conflict
 Remember that Constitutions are the
highest sources of law and the U.S.
Constitution is “the supreme law of the
land” (supremacy)
 Let’s read together “What’s Your Verdict?”
on p12

15. What Are the Main Types of
Law?
 Laws may be classified in the following ways:
 Civil law – allows individuals to seek legal remedies
for wrongs done to them (civil rights)
 Criminal law – defines and sets punishments for
offenses against society (death penalty)
 Procedural law – sets forth how rights/responsibilities
can be legally exercised and enforced through the
legal system (stare decisis)
 Substantive law – defines rights and
duties, concerned with rules of conduct (breach of
contract)
 Business law – covers rules that apply to business
situations and transactions

16. Chapter 1 Objectives
1-3 Ethical Bases for Laws
•Define & discuss ethics

17. Ethics and the Law
 Ethics – practice of deciding what is right
or wrong in a reasoned, impartial manner
 To make ethical decisions, we usually
must base our decisions are reason, not
emotion
 Civil disobedience –
open, peaceful, violation of the law to
protest its alleged, or supposed, injustice
 The goal is to make the legal system more
just, even it means being arrested

18. Let’s Review
• Explain the stages in the growth of law
• Describe the differences between common and
positive law
• Identify the origin of the U.S. legal system
• Identify the 4 sources of law
• Discuss how conflicts between laws are resolved
• Compare/contrast criminal and civil laws, and
substantive and procedural law

19. Silly Laws in the U.S.
 In the great state of AL:
 It is considered an offense to open an
umbrella on a street, for fear of spooking
horses.
 It is illegal to sell peanuts in Lee County after
sundown on Wednesday.
 Putting salt on a railroad track may be
punishable by death.
 It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while
operating a vehicle.

20. Any Questions?