The Four Major Legal Systems In The United States

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Abstract
Law and the legal systems go hand-in-hand. Without law, there would be no need for legal systems. We would have a chaotic society doing their own thing and not worrying about any type of reaction to their action.
Our American legal system was built as a fundamental right system in the United States. Each nation around the world has its own distinct legal system. Understanding legal systems and the social environments of other nations, sharpens our knowledge of our own legal system here in the United States.
This paper will talk about the four major legal systems of the world and how law is interpreted within that legal system. Developing laws within legal systems is like building a house. Every sturdy house must have a solid …show more content…
Under this system, laws are spread widely and there is no individual place that you can find the official statement of law in whole, (The Common Law and Civil Traditions, n.d.). This could be because there are so many sources of law that are attributed to common law. For instance, the United States uses eight major components of law: Federalism, dividing the state and federal government; multiple sources of law, such as the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, statutes, and administrative regulations; judicial decisions; public and private laws dealing with torts, personal injuries, contracts, real property and family law; civil and criminal law; substantive and procedural law; and remedies, such as judgments, restitution, monetary and compensatory damages, and …show more content…
The term civil law derives from the Latin words ius civile, which was applicable to all Roman citizens during the reign of Emperor Justinian from the 6th Century, (The Common Law and Civil Traditions, n.d.). It can be referred to as the Boman Law, Romano-Germanic law or Continental Civil Law, (Neubauer & Meinhold, 1991, p. 19). Civil law began using written law that was codified in the early 20th century. Since civil law uses a codified system, lawyers and judges abstract concepts rather than actual cases when interpreting the law. In other words, judges and lawyers tend to look for an answer to a legal problem through the provisions of the code rather than to prior court precedent. Therefore, it is the judge who brings the formal charges, investigates the matter and decides the case on the established codified set of laws, (The Common Law and Civil Law Traditions, n.d.). What is distinct about the civil legal system from the common law system is: (1) That the judge dominates the court hearing instead of the prosecutor by calling witnesses and asking questions; (2) Judges are career bureaucrats and are not practicing lawyers; (3) There is no jury involved, but for serious crimes would include the judge and laypeople to form a mixed tribunal, (Neubauer & Meinhold, 1991, p.
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