This section focuses on the U.S. legal system and its processes. The material presented is designed to help you meet the following objective.

The United States legal system is based on English common law, which historically relied on judicial decisions in developing laws. Common law largely depends on precedent, the recorded judicial decisions already made in similar cases. Judges hearing cases decide which precedents should be applied and thus have great individual power in shaping the law. In other words, judicial decision establishes a principle that is then followed by other courts or judicial bodies. However, it is possible for a precedent to be overruled, should a court case go on to a higher jurisdiction.

Common law is an adversarial system, a contest between two parties moderated by a judge. Juries are also a feature of common law. "A jury of ordinary people without legal training decides on the facts of the case. The judge then determines the appropriate sentence based on the jury’s verdict" (The Common Law, n.d., par. 3). Juries usually consist of 12 people. In Florida, jurors are randomly selected from a list of licensed drivers or people who possess a Florida Identification Card who are older than 18 and reside in the jurisdiction. In a trial, "[e]mphasis is on the oral testimony of witnesses, although documents also are presented as evidence. Lawyers have responsibility for preparing the case; the trial judge performs no investigation of the case prior to trial. Lawyers, acting as adversaries, take the lead in questioning the witnesses at trial, while the judge acts essentially as a referee" (Messite, par. 22).

Judicial independence is a prominent feature of the United States legal system. Many laws have been created by judicial decisions, "especially in such important areas as the law of property, contracts and torts" (Messite, n.d., par. 8). (Torts are an area of law dealing with civil wrongs recognized as grounds for a lawsuit.) Common law is generally not considered to be codified as is civil law—the type of legal system found in Continental Europe, Latin America, and most of Africa. Even so, much law has been codified in the United States, including an internal revenue code at the federal level and, often, penal and commercial law at the state level. "[I]t must be noted that many statutes and rules simply codify the results reached by common or ‘case’ law. Judicial decisions interpreting constitutions and legislative enactments also become sources of the law themselves, so in the end the basic perception that the American system is one of judge-made law remains valid" (Messite, par. 10).