Court History and Purpose Paper

Court History and Purpose Paper

The civil courts resolve disputes between private parties. Civil courts provide citizens a chance to seek damages against another person, which usually involves financial situations. Small claims court is used to settle situations that involve money in the amount of $5,000 or less than $10,000 depending on state. The reason we have the courts is to help settle disputed situations that are brought into the court system in a civilized manner. The area of family law court handles situations that deal with marriage, divorce, children's rights, and child custody/visitation. Another is the tort, a civil wrong recognized by law to consider a lawsuit. It also leads to injuries that are not considered acceptable by societal standards. Another case that is handled through civil law is law of succession. This concludes how the property of a deceased loved one will to pass to another person. This is also considered a will, which is a legal document where the decease wants his property or money passed on to.

The dual court system separates the federal from state courts. The dual federalism where the only powers of the power of the federal government are those explicitly listed which being left to the states. Ours is more of a system, of cooperative federalism, meaning some of the lines between federal and state power blurred (Siegal, 2011). The states have limited jurisdiction courts such as the traffic courts, trial courts, appellate courts, and the supreme courts. The federal level there is the trial courts, appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Higher level courts control the actions and decisions of the lower courts.

The earliest know example of formal legal code was the code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi's code was also known as and assembled by the sixth Babylonian king, in 1760 B.C., the code expressed "eye for an eye" philosophy (Siegal, 2011). The twelve tablets (450 B.C.) was the first secular written legal tablet. The twelve tablets that were written were posted so all Romans could read the laws. These early codes were important because they signaled the emergence of formalized law. While it is difficult to define the term with precision, law generally refers to formal rules, principals, and guidelines that are enforced by political authority. This is what helped political authority to take dispute resolution out of the hands of citizens and into the hands of government control. It has stayed enforced through the hands of government authority and has stayed constant. Precedent is a legal principle that helps insure that the previous judicial decision are authentically considered and are incorporated into their future cases. Common law referred to the law originating from usage and custom rather than from written statues, also referred to "the common law" throughout England. Common law emerged at a time when legal codes were