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POLS 404 Final Flashcards

1
Q

What is Civil Law?

A

A codified legal system that relies on legal codes and statutes that function as the primary source of law, and judges apply rather than create law.

Examples include France and Germany.

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2
Q

What is Common Law?

A

A judge-centered system where precedent (stare decisis) dominates, allowing judicial decisions to shape law.

Examples include the U.K. and the U.S. except Louisiana.

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3
Q

What does Public Law govern?

A

It governs state-individual relationships, including constitutional, administrative, and criminal law.

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4
Q

What is Private Law?

A

It regulates disputes between private parties through contracts, torts, and property law.

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5
Q

What is Declaratory Theory?

A

A judicial philosophy asserting that judges merely declare existing law rather than create it.

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6
Q

What is Natural Law?

A

Universal moral principles inherent in human nature that should guide legal systems.

An example is human rights.

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7
Q

What is Legal Positivism?

A

The view that law derives validity from proper enactment rather than moral content.

Key figures include Hobbes and Austin.

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8
Q

What is Legal Realism?

A

The belief that judicial decisions reflect personal and social factors beyond formal rules.

Notable proponents include Holmes and Frank.

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9
Q

What is Calder v. Bull (1798)?

A

An early SCOTUS case that rejected natural law challenges to legislation. It helped define what kinds of laws count as “ex post facto.”

It started an important debate: Should judges be able to overturn laws just because they seem unfair, or only when they clearly violate the Constitution?

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10
Q

What is Brutus XI?

A

An Anti-Federalist paper warning against judicial supremacy under Article III.

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11
Q

What is Federalist 78?

A

Hamilton’s defense of judicial independence and review power.

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12
Q

What is Marbury v. Madison (1803)?

A

A landmark case that established judicial review in U.S. constitutional law.

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13
Q

What is Judicial Review?

A

The authority of courts to invalidate unconstitutional government actions.

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14
Q

What does Article III establish?

A

It established the federal judiciary, as well as its jurisdiction and tenure.

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15
Q

What is Original Jurisdiction?

A

The court’s authority to hear cases first, such as SCOTUS for interstate disputes.

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16
Q

What is Appellate Jurisdiction?

A

The authority to review lower court decisions.

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17
Q

What is Certiorari?

A

SCOTUS’s court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. .

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18
Q

What is ‘Certworthiness’?

A

Qualities of a case that merit SCOTUS review, such as circuit splits and constitutional importance.

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19
Q

What are Presidential Agendas in judicial nominations?

A

Motivations behind nominations include personal loyalty, partisan goals, and policy ideologies.

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20
Q

What is the role of Ideology in Confirmations?

A

Senators assess a nominee’s ideological beliefs to predict how they might rule on key issues.

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21
Q

What is the tension between Independence and Accountability?

A

The conflict between judicial autonomy and democratic responsiveness.

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22
Q

What are criticisms of Judicial Elections?

A

Concerns include politicization, campaign financing, and low voter knowledge.

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23
Q

What is the Crime Control Model?

A

A model that emphasizes efficiency and public safety through swift punishment.

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24
Q

What is the Due Process Model?

A

A model that prioritizes defendant rights and procedural safeguards.

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25
What is the Adversarial System?
A party-driven litigation system with a neutral judge, common in the U.S. and U.K.
26
What is the Inquisitorial System?
A judge-led investigation system common in Europe.
27
What is Plea Bargaining?
Negotiated guilty pleas that resolve over 90% of criminal cases.
28
What is a Class Action?
A representative lawsuit for numerous similarly-situated plaintiffs.
29
What are Contingency Fees?
Attorney compensation based on a percentage of the case outcome.
30
What is Third-Party Funding?
It is the process where third party funders provide money to a plaintiff or plaintiff's counsel in exchange for a cut of the proceeds resulting from the underlying litigation or settlement.
31
What is Tort Reform?
A movement aimed at limiting civil liability through measures like damage caps and stricter standards.
32
What is Standing?
The capacity of a party to bring a lawsuit in court. To have standing, a party must demonstrate a sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action being challenged.
33
What is Ripeness?
The requirement that a case must present actual current harm, not hypothetical future injury.
34
What is Mootness?
A situation where a case becomes non-justiciable when resolution no longer affects the parties.
35
What is Amicus Curiae?
Briefs submitted by 'friends of the court' providing supplemental arguments.
36
What is Textualism?
An approach focusing strictly on statutory language, associated with Scalia.
37
What is Purposivism?
Purposivism is a legal theory that a court’s statutory interpretation should reflect the statute’s original purpose.
38
What is Dynamic Interpretation?
Dynamic interpretation refers to the approach of interpreting laws and statutes in a way that considers their evolving context and societal changes, rather than adhering strictly to their original meaning.
39
What is Interpretivism?
The view that interpretation of the Constitution should be limited to its text and history, associated with Berger.
40
What is Noninterpretivism?
The legal philosophy that argues courts can go beyond the text of the Constitution and the original intentions of its Framers to enforce constitutional norms that may not be explicitly stated.
41
What is the Legal Model?
A judicial behavior model where judges decide based solely on legal factors.
42
What is the Attitudinal Model?
A model suggesting that judicial decisions reflect personal ideology, associated with Segal & Spaeth.
43
What is the Strategic Model?
A model where judges consider institutional constraints in their decisions, associated with Epstein & Knight.
44
What are Legislative Checks on the Judiciary?
Mechanisms such as impeachment, jurisdiction stripping, and constitutional amendments.
45
What are Presidential Checks on the Judiciary?
Powers including appointment authority and enforcement discretion.
46
What is Majoritarianism?
The principle of judicial deference to democratic majorities.
47
What is Media Inaccuracy?
The oversimplification of complex legal reasoning in news coverage.
48
What is Public Choice Theory?
Applies economic principles to political decision-making, analyzing how government officials, voters, and interest groups behave in self-interested ways that may not align with public good. Explains regulatory capture and inefficient policies.
49
What is Majoritarianism in Judicial Policy Making?
Courts defer to majority preferences expressed through democratic processes.
50
What is Countermajoritarianism in Judicial Policy Making?
Courts protect minority rights against majority will (e.g., civil rights rulings).
51
What is the Interpreting population in Judicial Impact Concepts?
Judges/authorities who clarify laws.
52
What is the Implementing population in Judicial Impact Concepts?
Officials who enforce rulings.
53
What is the Consumer population in Judicial Impact Concepts?
Directly affected parties.
54
What is the Secondary population in Judicial Impact Concepts?
Indirectly affected groups/media.
55
What does Acceptance Decision and Behavioral Response refer to?
Whether affected parties comply with court rulings (acceptance) and how they adjust behavior in response.
56
What are criticisms of American Tort Law?
Excessive litigation, frivolous lawsuits, unpredictable jury awards, high insurance costs, and 'defensive medicine' by doctors.
57
What are Legal Remedies in Civil Law?
Compensation (damages) or court orders (injunctions) to resolve private disputes, unlike criminal punishment.
58
What is the importance of Juries in Criminal Law?
Safeguard against government overreach by ensuring community judgment in guilt determinations (6th Amendment right).
59
What are the differences between Criminal and Civil Litigation?
Criminal: State vs. defendant, burden of proof 'beyond reasonable doubt,' penalties like imprisonment. Civil: Private parties, 'preponderance of evidence' standard, remedies like damages.
60
What are common Lawyer Stereotypes?
Wealthy, manipulative, adversarial.
61
What is the reality of being a Lawyer?
Most work in modest-paying roles, focus on problem-solving, with ethical constraints.
62
What is the balance in Judicial Selection?
Balance between judicial impartiality (life tenure for federal judges) and democratic responsiveness (elections for many state judges).
63
What is the current structure of the American Judiciary?
Hierarchy: District courts (94) → Courts of Appeals (13 circuits) → Supreme Court. Specialized courts: Tax Court, Federal Claims, etc.
64
What is Test Case Litigation?
Strategic lawsuits to establish precedent or challenge laws (e.g., Brown v. Board for desegregation).
65
What is Stare Decisis?
'Stand by things decided' - precedent-binding principle ensuring legal consistency.
66
What is Jurisdiction?
A court's authority to hear cases (geographic, subject-matter, or hierarchical limits).
67
What is the Case or Controversy Requirement?
Mandates that federal courts can only hear actual disputes between parties, ensuring that they do not issue advisory opinions or address hypothetical situations.
68
What is Justiciability?
Legal criteria making an issue suitable for judicial resolution (standing, ripeness, mootness).
69
What is unique about American Political Culture and Judicial Power?
Unique public reliance on courts to resolve policy disputes (vs. legislative solutions in other democracies), rooted in distrust of concentrated power.
70
What is Adversarial Legalism?
Distinctive U.S. tendency toward litigious, procedure-intensive conflict resolution with active judicial oversight of government.

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