Legal System Basics: Crash Course Government and Politics #18

Summary

In this episode of Crash Course Civics, Craig explores the basics of the U.S. legal system, focusing on the roles and functions of courts. He explains how courts settle disputes, interpret laws, and create expectations for future actions. The video also covers the structure of the federal court system, the difference between trial and appellate courts, and the distinction between statutory and common law. Additionally, it delves into the types of law—criminal, civil, and public—and how they interact within the broader legal framework.

Takeaways

• ⚖️ The law affects everyone, not just those involved in criminal justice.
• 🏛️ Courts have three basic functions: settling disputes, interpreting laws, and creating expectations for future actions.
• 👑 Historically, kings settled disputes, but as states grew, specialized officials took over this role.
• 📜 The U.S. federal court system is separate from other government branches, hierarchical, able to perform judicial review, and judges are appointed for life.
• ⚖️ In the U.S. and England, common law, which is based on past court decisions, plays a significant role alongside statutory law.
• 🏛️ Trial courts determine facts and apply relevant laws, while appeals courts handle questions of law and make decisions that influence common law.
• 🕵️ Criminal law deals with disputes between the government and individuals, while civil law involves disputes between individuals or between individuals and the government.
• 🔍 Most criminal cases happen at the state level, with some federal crimes like tax evasion and racketeering.
• 💼 Civil cases often involve contracts, property, and personal injuries, with outcomes usually involving monetary damages.
• 🇺🇸 The U.S. legal system’s adaptability allows statutes to evolve with society, exemplifying federalism in action.

Q & A

What are the three basic functions of courts according to the script?

The three basic functions of courts are to settle disputes, interpret laws, and create expectations for future actions.

Why is interpreting the law important in the court system?

Interpreting the law is important because it clarifies what the law means and how it applies in specific situations, ensuring that everyone understands the expectations and legal consequences.

How does the script describe the federal court system's separation from other branches of government?

The federal court system is described as being separate from other branches of government to ensure judicial independence, preventing the executive or legislative branches from having undue influence over court decisions.

What is the significance of the hierarchical structure of the federal court system?

The hierarchical structure means that decisions made by lower courts can be appealed to higher courts, allowing for review and possible reversal or affirmation of those decisions.

What is judicial review and why is it an important feature of the federal court system?

Judicial review is the power of federal courts to review laws passed by Congress and state legislatures, as well as executive actions, to ensure they are constitutional. It is important because it acts as a check on the legislative and executive branches.

Why are federal judges appointed for life, and how does this impact their role?

Federal judges are appointed for life to preserve their independence from political pressures, allowing them to make decisions based on the law rather than political considerations.

What is common law, and how does it differ from statutory law in the U.S. legal system?

Common law consists of past court decisions that set precedents for future cases, while statutory law refers to laws written and passed by legislatures. In the U.S., both types of law are used, with common law being particularly influential in shaping legal interpretations.

How do trial courts and appeals courts differ in their functions?

Trial courts determine the facts of a case and apply the law to those facts, while appeals courts review the application of the law in trial courts without re-examining the facts. Appeals courts focus on whether legal procedures were followed correctly.

What are the two main types of law discussed in the script, and what can they sometimes become?

The two main types of law are criminal law and civil law. Under certain circumstances, they can morph into public law, especially when government powers or citizens' constitutional rights are involved.

Why is the adaptability of the American legal system important, according to the script?

The adaptability of the American legal system is important because it allows statutes and laws to evolve and stretch to accommodate the growing and changing needs of American society.

Outlines

00:00

📜 Introduction to the Law

Craig introduces Crash Course Civics by discussing the law and its pervasive impact on daily life. He humorously contrasts legal topics with thermodynamics and stresses that laws are everywhere, influencing more than just criminal justice. Examples like software licenses and plane tickets are given to illustrate the omnipresence of legal principles.

05:01

⚖️ The Three Functions of Courts

Craig explains the three fundamental functions of courts: settling disputes (historically handled by kings), interpreting laws, and creating expectations for future actions. Courts ensure fair business practices by punishing dishonesty and establishing clear interpretations of laws, which leads to consistency and predictability in society.

🏛️ The Structure of the U.S. Court System

Craig outlines the four main characteristics of the federal court system. Federal courts are separate from other government branches, hierarchical with the Supreme Court at the top, capable of judicial review, and federal judges are appointed for life with secured salaries to maintain independence from political influence.

📚 Statutory vs. Common Law

Craig distinguishes between statutory law, which consists of written laws made by legislatures, and common law, which is based on prior court decisions (precedents). In the U.S. and England, common law plays a significant role alongside statutes. He emphasizes that court decisions shape the common law, which constrains future rulings in the same jurisdiction.

🧑‍⚖️ Types of Courts and Their Functions

Craig explains the two types of courts: trial courts, which handle original jurisdiction and determine facts, and appeals courts, which review questions of law. Trial courts focus on evidence and facts, while appeals courts decide if the law was applied correctly without re-examining facts. He humorously notes that most cases never go to trial but are settled out of court.

📑 The Importance of Appeals Courts

Craig emphasizes that most common law is created by appeals courts, whose decisions hold more weight due to their broader jurisdiction. Appeals courts shape the legal landscape by interpreting laws and setting precedents that future courts must follow.

🔍 Understanding Different Types of Law

Craig introduces the three types of law: criminal law, civil law, and public law. Criminal law, typically derived from statutes, deals with crimes against the state, while civil law handles disputes between individuals. Public law arises when government authority or citizens' rights are involved. He humorously likens public law to the Incredible Hulk, smashing abuse of power.

⚖️ Criminal Law and Civil Law

Craig elaborates on criminal and civil law, noting that criminal laws are written statutes and involve prosecution by the government. Civil law pertains to disputes between individuals or between individuals and the government. He mentions that most criminal cases are handled at the state level, while civil cases often result in monetary compensation instead of imprisonment.

📜 Statutory and Common Law in Practice

Craig summarizes the complexity of the U.S. legal system, highlighting the coexistence of statutory and common law. Federalism allows for both state and federal laws, with statutory laws typically taking precedence at the federal level. He concludes by noting the adaptability of American law to societal changes, using a humorous comparison to Bruce Banner's elastic pants.

Keywords

💡Law

Law refers to a system of rules created and enforced by governments or other institutions to regulate behavior. In the video, the law is portrayed as something that affects everyone, not just in criminal justice but in various aspects like business and contracts. Courts interpret, apply, and enforce the law, creating expectations for future behavior.

💡Courts

Courts are the institutions responsible for settling disputes, interpreting laws, and creating expectations for future actions. The video explains that courts in the U.S. handle different functions, such as determining who is right in a dispute and applying the law to specific situations. Courts are essential to the legal system, both at the state and federal levels.

💡Statutory Law

Statutory law refers to written laws enacted by legislatures. The video emphasizes that these laws are prevalent in both state and federal legal systems. Examples include penal codes that define crimes like murder. In the U.S., statutes are a primary form of law, though they are sometimes complemented by common law.

💡Common Law

Common law is a body of unwritten laws based on judicial decisions and precedents. The video contrasts common law with statutory law, explaining that common law evolves through court rulings. It becomes especially important in appeals courts, where decisions set precedents for future cases.

💡Precedent

Precedent is a legal principle that arises from past court decisions. It is a key component of common law, as future courts are generally required to follow the rulings established by previous courts. In the video, the concept of precedent is described as a way to maintain consistency and predictability in the legal system.

💡Federal Courts

Federal courts are part of the U.S. judiciary, separate from state courts, and handle cases related to federal law and the Constitution. The video outlines key characteristics of the federal court system, including its hierarchical structure, independence, and the power to perform judicial review. Federal courts set many important legal precedents.

💡Appeals Courts

Appeals courts review decisions made by lower courts to ensure the correct application of the law. The video highlights that appeals courts do not re-examine facts but instead focus on legal interpretations and procedural issues. Their decisions often shape common law by setting important precedents.

💡Criminal Law

Criminal law deals with crimes and their punishments. The video explains that criminal laws are mostly statutory, written by legislatures, and enforced by the government. Cases under criminal law involve the prosecution (the government) and the defendant (the accused individual). Common examples include murder and tax evasion.

💡Civil Law

Civil law governs disputes between individuals or between individuals and the government that do not involve criminal charges. The video describes civil cases as involving issues like contracts, property, and personal injury. In civil cases, the plaintiff seeks to remedy a wrong, usually by seeking compensation from the defendant.

💡Judicial Review

Judicial review is the power of courts to examine laws passed by legislatures and executive actions to determine their constitutionality. The video identifies this as one of the federal courts' key functions, ensuring that laws and actions comply with the U.S. Constitution and protecting citizens' rights.

Highlights

Introduction to the basics of the legal system, emphasizing that the law affects everyone, not just those involved in criminal justice.

Explanation of the three basic functions of courts: settling disputes, interpreting laws, and creating expectations for future actions.

Discussion on the role of state courts, highlighting that most legal action occurs at the state level rather than federal.

Overview of the federal court system's characteristics: separation from other branches, hierarchical structure, judicial review, and lifetime appointment of judges.

Clarification that legislatures make laws, but courts, especially appeals courts, play a significant role in interpreting and applying these laws.

Introduction to common law, where past court decisions set precedents that influence future legal decisions.

Explanation of the difference between trial courts (courts of original jurisdiction) and appeals courts (appellate jurisdiction).

Introduction of the two main types of law: criminal law and civil law, with a humorous reference to public law as the 'Incredible Hulk' of laws.

Description of criminal law, emphasizing that most criminal cases are handled at the state level, and the government is typically the prosecution.

Explanation of civil law, where disputes between individuals or between individuals and the government are resolved, often resulting in financial damages.

Discussion on how civil or criminal cases can become public law if constitutional rights or federal laws are involved.

Summary of the adaptability of the American legal system, allowing statutes to evolve with society.

Reference to federalism, illustrating how both state and federal statutory laws coexist in the U.S.

Closing remarks on the complexity of the U.S. legal system and its ability to adapt to societal changes.

Humorous ending with references to Bruce Banner and the Hulk, tying back to the discussion of law's adaptability.

Transcripts

Hi, I'm Craig and this is Crash Course Civics and today we're gonna look at the basics of

a system that affects all our lives: the law. And no, we're not going to be talking about

the laws of thermo-dynamics. That's Hank's show. Though we will be bringing the heat, ha!

The law affects you even if you never committed a crime because there's so much more to the legal

system than just criminal justice, and even though we're going to focus mainly on courts, the law is everywhere.

If you don't believe me, read the user license on your next new piece of software, or if

you fly anywhere read the back of your plane ticket. Hopefully won't be more entertaining

than what you're watching now, but that's examples of the law.

[Theme Music]

In general, courts have three basic functions, only one of which you probably learned about in

your history class. The first thing that courts do is settle disputes. In pre-modern history

(which is way easier to understand than post-modern history), kings performed this function, but

as states got bigger and more powerful it became much easier to have specialized officials

decide important issues like who owned the fox you caught on someone else's land. Or

what does the fox say, which was disputed a lot back then.

The second thing the courts do is probably the one you heard about in school, or on television,

or perhaps while studying for the standardized test, and that's interpret the laws. This

becomes increasingly important when you actually try to read laws, or when you realize that

legislators are often not as they might be when writing laws in the first place. Take a look at the

Affordable Care Act. There are a few famous careless errors in that.

Finally courts create expectations for future actions. This is very important if you want

to do business with someone. If you know that you'll be punished for cheating a potential

business client, you're less likely to do it. Still you might, 'cause there are a lot

of jerks out there who would. Are you one of them? Don't be! At the same time if you

know that people will be punished for cheating you you're more likely to do business. And

it's courts that create the expectation that business will be conducted fairly.

Interpreting the laws can help this too, since the interpretations are public and they set

expectations that everyone can understand and know what the law means and how it applies

and then world peace. No more law breaking ever.

The first thing to remember about courts in the U.S. is that most legal action, if it

occurs in court at all, occurs in state court. And if it occurs at night, it occurs in Night Court.

Because this is mainly a series about federal government, and not Indiana government

or sitcoms about court in New York, I'm going to focus mainly on the federal court system

which has four main characteristics.

One, the federal court system is separate from the other branches of government. The

executive could do the job, just like kings used to but we have separation of powers so

we don't have to be at the mercy of kings. Have you seen Game of Thrones?

Two, the federal courts are hierarchical, with the Supreme Court at the top and turtles

all the way down. Nope -- not turtles -- sorry I meant lower courts. What this means is that

when a lower court makes a decision it can be appealed to a higher court that can either

affirm or overturn the lower court's decision.

The third feature of federal courts is that they are able to perform judicial review over

laws passed by Congress and state legislatures, and over executive actions.

And the fourth aspect of federal court system is that you should know that the federal judges

are appointed for life, and their salaries can't be reduced. This is to preserve their

independence from politics. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

Remember when I told you that the legislature makes the laws? Well, that was true, but it's

also not the whole story. Legislatures both state and national make laws and these written

laws are called statutes. In continental Europe those are pretty much all the laws they have. Statutes.

Statutes everywhere! And statues. That place is filled with art. They had the Renaissance there, y'know?

But in the U.S. and England, which is where we got the idea, we have something called

common law, which consists of the past decisions of courts that influence future legal decisions.

The key to common law is the idea that a prior court decision sets a precedent that constrains

future courts. Basically if one court makes a decision, all other courts in the same jurisdiction

have to apply that decision, whether they like it or not. The collection of those decisions

by judges becomes the common law.

I don't have to have a reason to punch the eagle.

I should probably point out what courts actually do and explain that there are two different

types of courts that can make civil law. What differentiates the two types of courts is

their jurisdiction, which basically means the set of cases that they're authorized to decide.

Trial courts are also called courts of original jurisdiction. These are the ones you see on

TV and they actually do two things. First, they hear evidence and determine what actually

happened when there's a dispute. This is called deciding the facts of the case. Not everything

that happened or that may be important qualifies as a fact in a court case. Those are determined

by the rules of evidence, which are complicated and would really slow down an episode of Law and Order.

After the trial court hears the facts of a case it decides the outcome by applying the

relevant law. What law they apply will depend on statutes and in some cases what other courts

have said in similar situations. In other words the common law.

You might have noticed that I've been referring to courts, not judges or juries, because not

all trials have juries. Bench trials have only a judge who determines the facts and

the law. Besides, who decides what in a court case isn't really that important. More than

90% of cases never go to court by the way, they just get settled by lawyers out of court.

But say you actually go to court and you lose. Naturally, you'd be upset.

Especially if you're a sore loser, like me. Shut up.

You have a choice. You can give up and go back to your normal, loser life or you can

appeal the trial court decision to a higher court. An appeals court that has, you guessed

it, appellate jurisdiction. Did you actually guess that? That'd be amazing.

Appeals courts don't hear facts -- who wants those -- they just decide questions of law

so you don't have to bring witnesses or present evidence, just arguments. In most cases, if

you want to bring a successful appeal, you need to show that there was something wrong

with the procedure of your trial. Maybe the judge allowed the jury to hear evidence they

shouldn't have heard, maybe one of the jurors was a cyborg.

Here's the way that these courts connect to what I was saying before about common and

statutory law. Most common law is made by appeals courts. And because appeals courts have

larger jurisdiction than trial courts, appeals decisions are much more important than trial court decisions.

So now I'm going to talk about the three types of law, and it's gonna get confusing. We should

probably go to the Thought Bubble for some nice, compelling, intriguing animations.

The two main types of law are basically the Bruce Banner of law. They're the criminal

law and civil law, but they can sometimes morph into the Incredible Hulk of laws: public law.

"Public law, smash abuse of government authority!"

If you watch TV or movies, or read John Grisham novels, you're probably familiar with criminal law.

Criminal laws are almost always statutes written by legislatures, which means that

there is an actual law for you to break. In most states the criminal laws are called the

penal codes. In a criminal dispute -- and it's a dispute because the government says you

broke the law and you will say you didn't -- the government is called the prosecution and

the person accused of committing the crime is called the defendant.

Almost all criminal cases happen at the state level and for this reason it's hard to know

exactly what is or what is not a crime in each state. Although murder is a crime everywhere.

There are also some federal crimes like tax evasion, mail fraud, and racketeering.

If you're suing someone or being sued, you're in the realm of civil law. Civil cases arise

from disputes between individuals, or between individuals and the government, when one party,

the plaintiff, claims that the other party, the defendant, has caused an injury that can

be fixed or remedied. If the plaintiff proves his or her case the defendant must pay damages.

If you lose a civil case you don't go to prison or jail in most circumstances, but you may

end up losing lots of money, and that sucks. I love money.

Cases about contracts, property, and personal injuries, also called torts, are examples

of civil law. So under certain circumstances a civil or criminal case can become public law.

This happens when either the defendant or plaintiff can show that the powers of government

or the rights of citizens under the Constitution or federal law is involved in the case.

Also if the law gets exposed to gamma rays. "Law, smash!"

For example, in a criminal case where the defendant claims that the civil rights were

violated by the police, the decision can become public law. Thanks Thought Bubble.

So those are the basics of the court system in the U.S. And you can see that there's a

lot to keep straight. There are types of courts, basically trial courts and appeals courts,

on both the state and federal level. And there are types of laws, basically statutory and common laws.

The fact that we have both state and federal statutory law is an example of federalism in action.

The U.S. unlike most other nations has both statutory and common law, but most of the

time when we're talking about federal laws we're in the realm of statutes, or maybe the Constitution.

When you study American government, most of the cases you read about are examples of appeals

and of public law. How this all works in practice is even more complicated. And the adaptability

of the American legal fabric allows statutes to stretch to fit the growing and changing American society.

Much like Bruce Banner's incredibly elastic pants. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.

I'm getting angry! Oh no! Ahhhh! I'm not wearing elastic pants! Oh no! Ahhhhh!

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