•The Illinois appellate court, citing a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, says that "Perhaps we could never succeed in intelligibly defining the kinds of matter we understand to be embraced within the shorthand description of battered woman's syndrome." Why not? Would you be able to formulate an effective legal description of "battered woman's syndrome"? If so, what would it be?

I entirely agree with the statement given by the Illinois and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. We can never successfully define battered woman's syndrome few sentences formed by words. Battered woman's syndrome involves much more than objective words. The elements of battered woman's syndrome involves violence and physical and emotional distress caused by the violence. One …show more content…
•What important differences exist between the facts of this case and of the 1989 North Carolina case of State v. Norman? Why are those differences significant?

Yes, indeed, both Evans and Norman were victims of domestic abuse; both of them were regularly beaten by their husbands. However, the State v. Norman case and State v. Evans case have outstanding differences. First, Norman shot Norman's husband while he was asleep. Norman's husband was not an immediate threat to Norman's life, whereas Evan's husband was continuously beating Evans and was threatening Evans to kill Evans by breaking Evans's …show more content…
Raison d'etre is a Latin word which literally means "reason to be". In other words, raison d'etre means, "reason for the existence." In addition, the court has stated, "the law is a system whose raison d'etre is justice." Simply put, the Illinois court claims the law is a system with the purpose of carrying out justice. With this claim in mind, I will paraphrase what the Illinois court said. The law needs to be up to date with circumstances and the treatment of law, because the law constantly changes based up on people's need. The law needs to be dynamic to certain degree. In this case, the law needs to be up to date with the understanding of battered woman's syndrome. The Illinois court adds if the law fails to keep up with the comprehension of battered woman's syndrome, the law, then, will fail to meet its purpose to carry out justice. Instead, the law will pursue the injustice due to misguided reasoning. Yes, I do believe the Illinois court has considered Norman's case as well when the Illinois court wrote this portion of the opinion. The written opinion applies to Norman's case too; Norman's case does not apply to battered woman's syndrome. Therefore, if Norman's case is taken as self-defense, the law fails to carry out justice with its misguided