Mariska Nettikaden
Most of us enjoy watching the nail-biting, adrenaline-fueled crime drama television series with the powerful court room exchanges between the opposing attorneys. But how many times have you paused to wonder about the role of the legal system in the common man’s existence beyond that of serving justice and keeping order in the community?
In this piece, we will explore the bigger world of the legal system beyond the four walls of the court room with specific focus on the United States judicial system.
The United States is a federal system, with a central federal government and individual governments for each of the fifty states. The US government comprises of three wings:
The Legislative Branch
The Executive Branch
The Judicial Branch
The US Constitution establishes the Judicial Branch and empowers the Congress to not only select the number of Supreme Court Justices (at present, there are nine Supreme Court justices) but also establish district courts and courts of appeals. As with the other branches of government, each of the fifty states has their own complete judicial system (state courts) as does the United States itself (federal courts). Although there are important differences between the federal courts and between the various state court systems, they do share some common characteristics.
Historically, state courts listened and resolved to disputes between citizens and justice was handed out geographically with court systems varying from state to state (which is still the case today). The Supreme Court, which is at the top of the federal court system, listens and resolves cases that are of national attention. If one of the parties felt that the state court did not protect their rights in the case, the legal dispute could be appealed at the Supreme Court level. This way the Supreme Court serves as an appellate court.
Distinct feature
The separation of Federal and state powers remains one of the most distinctive features of the American legal system. As a consequence of this separation of Federal and state powers, the Unites States has national and state law, federal courts and state courts. One of the most notable and recognizable elements of the American legal system is its robust system of constitutional review.
This refers to the process by which a court invalidates the actions of another branch of government as being inconsistent with a higher law, and the other branch of government cannot do anything about it. This feature is particular to the legal system of the United States.
Role of juries
Juries (consisting of 12 members of the public sworn in as jurors on a case to reach an impartial verdict) are much more widely used in the United States to decide civil trials, personal injury cases and commercial disputes. This is quite unlike other countries such as Great Britain, Canada and Australia. Having juries, however, has required the U.S. to develop special procedures to govern precisely what jurors are permitted to hear and what they are permitted to decide. For example, the American legal system has sophisticated controls on what lawyers may say, how they may conduct themselves in the courtroom, and how witnesses may be handled, amongst many other procedures.
In conclusion, while Europe and the rest of the world rely on bureaucratic legal system, the US judicial system, though adversarial and litigious and maybe costlier, is more impactful for its role on the making and implementing of public policy that governs all aspects of the country and its citizens’ lives.
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