Jennifer Jones
March 1, 2013
Dr. Adams
CJ/224
Law Opinion Paper

When looking at the creation of U.S Laws we can clearly see that part of this is from the Bill of Rights which is our first ten commandments. In the United States our criminal law is entirely a product of the constitutional authority and the legislative bodies. These same legislative and constitutional authority figures also affect our common law or case law interpretation and the regulatory agency decisions. Our U.S constitution is responsible for creating our Congress and giving them the lawmaking power. They also describe the procedural laws that can dictate how substantive laws are to be administered. This important because it sets limits on what can be defined as a crime. The criminal laws are the products of the lawmaking bodies which have the constitutional authority. Looking at the federal statues, they were as well enacted by our Congress. Our state statutes were enacted by our state legislatures. Common law or case law decisions are the byproduct made by trial. Common law is also known as a case law or precedent, developed by judges. The appellate court judge can make laws whenever they seem fit in a particular case. This decision is becomes a potential bases or gives precedent for future outcomes of related cases. It is primarily the written decisions of the appellate court judges a court judge has the potential to decide the precedent. The decisions made by appellate judges are normally in writing, and the Common Law is what these decisions become. The court’s location decides if a precedent is binding; the main use of these precedents guides future decisions. This is called a stare decisis which is a Latin for “to stand by decided cases.” The job of attorneys is to research and find legal precedents to support their arguments, the success of their cases can depend on this. In today’s laws which are made by legislature in all states; common law is rarely used. Unfortunately there is no federal criminal common law. Our criminal laws are the result of a political process which rules are created by human beings. Since these laws are created by us they prohibit or regulate the behavior of others. If we did not have most of these laws today we would have more crime and violence in our world. The evolution of the Courts can be traced back to as early as 1691 in New York State. It is believed to be the oldest continuing court of general jurisdiction in our U.S. This court is originally known as Supreme Court of Judicature and was given jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases. This court was empowered to hear appeals from local courts, which now has changed. The bench was consisted of a Chief Justice and three Associate Justices. During the colonial period the New York Assembly and royal governors were in conflict over authority in the jurisdiction and procedure of court. Many people claimed that the New York Assembly and the English common law defined that jurisdiction and procedure. Basic notions of the English common law was adopted to the state and in part to our country through the workings of the Supreme Court. When I look at our laws here in Texas I believe there are a couple that could be tweeked and up held more. I think that the child abuse law needs to have more things added that constitute abuse of a child and that the penalties need to be stiffer. I do not believe that as a community we up hold the laws of child abuse, this is seen because there are so many children who do not get justice. On the other hand I also realize that there is a lot of people that cry wolf and too many people may be convicted that are innocent. This is when we see just how imperfect our justice system can be for people. When we look at our laws for murder we can see that some of the verdicts can be very harsh to very extreme. I think that if someone wants to get away with particular crimes they can. I believe that if we lived in a perfect world everyone would be happy and safe. But unfortunately we live in a crazy world and there is an abundance of crime and not enough prisons to hold our guilty parties. In conclusion we have found that the evolution of our courts dates back as far as 1691. And that our laws were created then and have evolved with our cultures. We have also found that our common law heritage is what sets our precedent for future cases, and that our U.S court history has evolved around common law. As long as we have crime we will always need our justice system, and as long as our world grows we need to make sure we change our laws accordingly.