Chapter One

Types of Law

Constitutions have two functions:

o 1) Set up structure of government for the state or federal government
Separation of power: Congress has power to legislate/make laws,
executive (President) has power to execute/enforce laws, and federal
judiciary has power to interpret laws
Federalism: recognizing the states power to make law in certain areas
o 2) Prevent other units of government from taking certain actions or passing certain
laws
Statues are laws created by elected representatives in Congress or state legislature
o Uniform Acts = model statues drafted by private bodies of lawyers or scholars not
enacted until legislature enacts them
Provide state-by-state uniformity on subjects
Common Law
o Law made and applied by judges
o Made on case-on-case basis when judges encounter things not covered by statues or
other types of law
o Only at state level but state/federal court applies it
o Restatement = collections of common law and statutory rules covering various areas
of the law
o Precedents: judges begins following decisions of other judges in similar cases
State decisis (Let the decision stand) is changing/evolving to fit current
situations
o Case law reasoning which courts engage when they make and apply common law
rules
Equity
o Equity courts have procedures that are flexible, and rigid rules of law were
deemphasized in favor of general morals
o Equitable Remedies:
Injunction a court order forbidding a party to do some act or commanding
him to perform some act
Specific performances: a party is ordered to perform according to terms of
her contract
Reformation a court rewrites the contracts terms to reflect the parties
real intension
Rescission a cancellation of a contract where both parties are returned to
their pre-contractual position
Administrative Regulations and Decisions
o Obtain power to make law through a delegation (grant) of power from the
legislature
o Two types of law made by agencies: administrative regulations and agency
decisions
o Differs from statures
Body enacting laws are NOT elected
Treaties
o Made by the president with foreign governments
o Approved by 2/3 of senate

o Invalidates inconsistent state and federal laws

Ordinances
o Subordinate units that exercise functions with limited powers
Executive Orders
o When an executive branch member needs to make a law granted by legislative
delegation these are executive orders

Priority Rules

Federal supremacy
o Supreme laws of the land are the U.S. Constitution, federal laws, and treaties
Constitutions defeats other laws
When treaty conflicts with federal statute, the measure that is later in time prevails