BCOR 320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Due Process, Deductive Reasoning, Substantive Law
Document Summary
Juris prudence- a general reference to the law. Laws can be focused on our duty to each other. Positive law: law that comes down from the sovereign. This is congress and the president in the us. Natural la(cid:449): assu(cid:373)es that there is la(cid:449) beyo(cid:374)d the positi(cid:448)e la(cid:449). We just k(cid:374)o(cid:449) (cid:449)hat s right a(cid:374)d (cid:449)ro(cid:374)g. if there is a law that conflicts with natural law, it is the same as no law at all. Legal realism: the idea that judges are people too and can have biases. Knowing the structure of the law is important. In the us, the primary source of the law is constitutions. Every state has one, plus the one for the federal government. This means laws can be different in various states. It goes down to counties, cities, etc. but these are generally referred to as ordinances. If a state statute conflicts with a federal statute, the federal statute wins.