Ch. 1 Intro to Law and Legal Reasoning

Question 1

What is a breach?

Answer 1

breaks, or fails to perform in the contract

Question 2

What is ethics?

Answer 2

the study of what constitutes right or wrong behavior

Question 3

What are secondary sources of law?

Answer 3

books and articles that summarize and clarify the primary sources of law

Question 4

What is Constitutional Law?

Answer 4

law as expressed in the constitution

Question 5

What is statutory law?

Answer 5

laws enacted by legislative bodies at any level of government

Question 6

What are ordinances?

Answer 6

statutes (laws, rules, or orders) passed by municipal or county governing units to govern matters not covered by federal or state law

Question 7

What are uniform laws?

Answer 7

model laws for the states to consider adopting

Question 8

What does administrative law consist of?

Answer 8

rules, orders, and decisions of administrative agencies

Question 9

What is an administrative agency?

Answer 9

federal, state, or local government agency established to perform a specific function

Question 10

What is an executive agency?

Answer 10

agencies at the national level under the executive branch that is subject to the authority of the president who has the power to appoint and remove their officers

Question 11

What is an independent regulatory agency?

Answer 11

agencies at the federal level where the presidents power is less pronounced. the officers serve fixed terms and cannot be removed without just cause.

Question 12

What is case law?

Answer 12

the rules of law announced in court decisions

Question 13

What is common law?

Answer 13

a body of general rules that applied throughout the English realm.

Question 14

What is a remedy?

Answer 14

the legal means to enforce a right or redress a wrong

Question 15

What are damages?

Answer 15

an amount given to a party whose legal interests have been injured

Question 16

What are equitable maxims?

Answer 16

propositions or general statements of equitable rules

Question 17

What is a defense?

Answer 17

an argument raised by the defendant (party being sued) indicating why the plaintiff (suing party) should not obtain the remedy sought

Question 18

What is judge-made law?

Answer 18

when judges decide legal controversies

Question 19

What is a precedent?

Answer 19

a decision that furnished an example or authority for deciding subsequent cases involving identical or similar legal principles

Question 20

What is a reporter?

Answer 20

volumes where cases are reported

Question 21

What is stare decisis?

Answer 21

the practice of deciding new cases with reference to former decisions. it means “to stand on decided cases”

Question 22

What is a binding authority?

Answer 22

any source of law that a court must follow when deciding a case

Question 23

What is public policy?

Answer 23

governmental policy based on widely held societal values

Question 24

What is legal reasoning?

Answer 24

the reasoning process used by judges in deciding what law applies to a given dispute and then applying the law to the specific facts or circumstances of the case

Question 25

What is an allege?

Answer 25

a claim that the defendant committed at tort

Question 26

What are cases on point?

Answer 26

previously decided cases that are similar to the one under consideration

Question 27

What is linear reasoning?

Answer 27

reasoning that proceeds from one point to another with the final point being the conclusion

Question 28

What is reasoning by analogy?

Answer 28

to compare facts at hand to those in another case and to present the same rule of law to the present case.

Question 29

What is jurisprudence?

Answer 29

learning about different schools of jurisprudential though and discovering how the approaches to law characteristic of each school can affect decision making

Question 30

What is legal positivism?

Answer 30

believing that there can be no higher law than a nations positive law

Question 31

What is legal realism?

Answer 31

law is just ones of many institutions in society and that it is shaped by social forces and needs

Question 32

What is substantive law?

Answer 32

consists of all laws that define, describe, regulate, and create legal rights and obligations

Question 33

What is procedural law?

Answer 33

consists of all laws that delineate the methods of enforcing the rights established by substantive law

Question 34

What is civil law?

Answer 34

spells out the rights and duties that exist between persons and betweens persons and their government as well as the relief available when a persons rights are violated

Question 35

What is criminal law?

Answer 35

it is law concerned with the wrongs committed against the public as a whole

Question 36

What is cyberlaw?

Answer 36

the emerging body of law that governs transactions conducted via the internet