Health Care Policies

9781284151619_SLID_CH03.ppt

Chapter 3

Law and the Legal System

Chapter Overview

Considers the role law plays in everyday life
Defines law and describes its multiple sources
Discusses several key features of the legal system, including the separation of government powers, federalism, the role of courts, and due process

The Role of Law
(1 of 2)

Law’s importance in United States stems from its primary purpose: to function as the main tool with which we organize ourselves as an advanced, democratic society.
A society as sprawling and complex as ours needs formal, enforceable rules of law to provide a measure of control.

The Role of Law
(2 of 2)

The main way the law governs the many kinds of relationships in society is to recognize and establish enforceable legal rights and to create the institutions necessary to define and enforce them.
A legal right denotes a power or privilege that has been guaranteed to an individual under the law, not merely something that is claimed as an interest or something that is a matter of governmental discretion.

Defining Law

Think of “law” not just as words on a page, but as the many interacting parts that are involved in drafting those words in the first place, and in bringing them to life once they have been enacted as laws.
Consider “law” as a system that entails regularly interacting and independent parts and subparts coming together to form a functional, unified whole.

Sources of Law

Regardless of how “law” is defined, at the core of the legal system lays a body of enforceable written rules.

Constitutions

Statues

Regulations

Common law/case law

Key Features of the Legal System: Separation of Powers

One of the most important aspects of both federal and state constitutional design
The legal doctrine that supports the arrangement of shared governance
To guard against a concentration of political power, governmental powers and responsibilities are divided among three separate, co-equal branches
Includes concept of “checks and balances”

Key Features of the Legal System: Federalism

Refers to the allocation of federal and state legal authority
Under the Constitution, the federal government is one of limited powers, while the states more or less retain all powers not expressly left exclusively to the federal government

Key Features of the Legal System:
The Role of Courts

Courts have responsibility to determine what the Constitution means, permits, and prohibits.
Courts protect and enforce individual legal rights, determine whether the political branches of government have violated the Constitution, and maintain stability in the law through the application of legal precedent.
Courts are expected to uphold and enforce the constitutional right to due process, which protects individuals from arbitrary and unfair treatment at the hands of government.

Federal Court System