Expository Essay on Key Terms in Criminal and Civil Law

Introduction

Every society has laid down principles that its members ought to follow in their day to day interaction,and thus the policies govern the people's conduct and harmony and smooth running of a society. On violation of the implemented laws, the courts make verdicts on the kind of penalties to be imposed.

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First of all, the term law can be defined as all the rules which govern behavior implemented within a certain region or state and have to be observed by every occupant of that territory or the citizens (Law, 2015). A law is simply the rules put in place by governing and judicial bodies in which people are required to relate to in their daily lives. There are different bodies of law such as, common Law which is the body of law that holds its grounds on judicial decisions in a jurisdiction (Joppke, 2017). Common law is the traditional law of a certain region generated by magistrates when making verdicts on individual cases and disputes.Procedural Lawis a facet of the legal system which deals with the methodological procedures and practices and defines the phases for applying the criminal and civil law (Teubner, 2018). It is a law which governs the court's practices and the approach taken by an individual and the court in enforcing their rights in all court levels.

The other one is the statute law which is the body of law consisting of inscribed laws implemented by a legal body (Middleton, 2016). Statute law has to be based on a legal body unlike constitutional laws founded on a state's constitution. Substantive Law addresses the areas of law which create the duties obligations and rights of individuals, what they ought to do and what is forbidden(Teubner, 2018). Its focus is on individual's responsibilities and their relationship with the state.Secularin legal terms is the universal moral law which highlights the legal and ethical rule through which human behavior is governed or evaluated (Joppke, 2017).Secular is something ecclesiastical, that is, relating to the affairs of the current world.Amendment means the changes one makes to revise the wordings or meanings of legislation (Law, 2015). The term amendment means modifying existing laws while maintaining the original stand.Repeal is the termination of past existing law or policy by enacting a new policy which will completely withdraw the previous law (Law, 2015). In simple terms to repeal a law could mean to take it back.Cite is means to quote cases which have been judged during legal arguments (Law, 2015). Citing means, one refers to the previous ruling in connected cases.

Codified laws are those confined within a single code instead of being alienated between the statute law and the common law (Gibbons, 2014). Laws that have been arranged and labeled within a certain jurisdiction.Precedent is a principle of law or a rule which has been generated from past rulings by a court or higher authorities like the supreme or courts of appeal (Pelc, 2014). Precedents are law principles made by courts and used for future purposes in making judgments for other similar cases.Foresee ability is the ability to make early perceptions in law to constrain a party's accountability to certain acts which could be dangerous (Stone, 2017). It means that an individual of sound mind is in a position to foresee or anticipate the eventual detrimental outcomes of their behavior.Willful Blindness is a term used in criminal law referring to a person's behaviors by intentionally failing to be told about issues which could make the individual accountable for a criminal offense (Stone, 2017). It is to purposefully become ignorant of information or behaviors which could be likely illegal such as engaging in drug trafficking. Lastly, an appellant is the person who moves a case that has been judged in a smaller jurisdiction court to one of a higher jurisdiction to get a review (Law, 2015). Someone who does not feel satisfied with the verdicts of a lower level court and seeks for extraassessment of the case from higher courts.

The highest law in most states is the constitution,and in the United States, this can only go through modifications by amendments passed by two-thirds of state legislatures or the Congress (Jewel, 2017). Failing to abide by the laws of a state can lead one to face state actions like fines, imprisonment or civil liability or face the judicial system which can enforce even harsher criminal penalties like a death sentence. The key producers of common law are the judiciary enlisted from the highest performing lawyers in a jurisdiction who lay down the law on issues to do with torts, contracts, and property. On the other hand, statutory laws are approved by houses of assembly, parliaments, and legislatures to find solutions to unresolved problems and validate prevailing laws. Judges use procedural laws to getguidance on how to handle criminal or court proceedings by providing step by step plans on dealing with different cases and come up with the best verdict. Magistrates use the substantive law to dictate the type of punishment to be enforced on an individual being convicted of drug trafficking.The sharia law is one of the secular laws which most governments try to incorporate into their judicial systems before achieving justice to parties in certain cases mostly involving civil issues such as marriage in the Islam community.

After a verdict is given, an appellant can move to a higher court to get reviews concerning his or her case if not satisfied with the rulings made by the lower level court in the jurisdiction.That is why in several advocate's offices, there is always a shelf of books; that is a confirmation that the legal officers are practicing precedent in that room. The books contain a history of several cases heard in different court levels, thus legal assistants and lawyers spend most of their time going through the books searching for similar cases to the ones at hand, others have taken advantage of technology and use online databases for research. The repeal of a law is different from the amendment of law since the later means making changes in the already existing law with a part of the original law still in place while the former involves the complete abolition of the law. Citing of cases is mostly applied in instances of child custody and maintenance cases where references are made to verdicts of the divorce case. In several states, law jurisdictionsare codified, in a solitarystate instead of being separated within the lawsmade from the judge's verdicts and laws passed by the parliament. The foresee ability part of possible cause can be conventional by proving that the offender should have thought of his acts as being injurious to other people before committing the offense.Drug traffickers behave in a willfully blind manner when told of their illegal involvements and ignorantly go on with their activities caring less of being apprehended and facing the law.

References

Gibbons, J. P. (2014). Language and the Law. Routledge.

Joppke, C. (2017). Secular law and Sharia: accommodation and friction. In the Transformation of Citizenship, Volume 2(pp. 45-60). Routledge.

Law, J. (Ed.). (2015). A dictionary of law. OUP Oxford.

Middleton, J. (2016). Statutory Interpretation: Mostly Common Sense. Melb. UL Rev., 40, 626.

Pelc, K. J. (2014). The politics of precedent in international law: A social network application. American Political Science Review, 108(3), 547-564. Jewell, M. (2017). The politics of reapportionment. Routledge.

Stone, J. (2017). Consent, Knowledge,and Precaution: A Critical Analysis of the Criminalization of the Reckless Transmission of HIV and Other Serious Diseases.

Teubner, G. (2018). Substantive and reflexive elements in modern law. In The law and society canon (pp. 73-119). Routledge.