Court History and Purpose Paper

CJA 224 Court History and Purpose Paper
Introduction to Criminal Court Systems

Describe a court and its purpose.
A court is a place where justice is dispensed with. The purpose of a court is to see that the individual freedoms that all citizens have is guarded. It is also seen that the court is place were all people are treated equally this is the reason for saying that all are equal before the eyes of the law. The main purpose of the curt is to guard the rights and freedom of people and to punish those who are found guilty. Hence when disagreements between people and institutions happen, they come to court to settle the conflict .Courts is seen as a last resort to settle conflicts through trails. So it can be summed up by saying that courts are instituted to resolve disputes and also to ensure that the constitutional liberties and freedom are protected.

• Define the dual court system

The dual court system is present n the united sates. The dual court system is a court system that has a separate state court system and a federal court system. Federal courts hear criminal and civil cases related to the federal constitution while the state court system deals with state criminal and civil cases. This is the legal system of the US. The dual court system enables justice to be dispensed with quicker and that every state is empowered to take part in the justice process. Though all state courts come under the purview of the Supreme Court and the federal court, it is generally seen that this dual court system enables the legal function to be carried out very smoothly.

• Describe the role that early legal codes, the common law, and precedent played in the development of courts.

The early legal codes were generally based on certain very important common law traditions. These common law traditions were drawn from the roman laws. Common laws were the precedents to the court system. The common laws were the most important riding precedents on which the legal codes were based. These were made functional by the establishment of the royal courts throughout the country. This enabled people to get a fair hearing to their disputes. Since common law was based on functional disputes there were benches which were organized to hear and settle disputes with the common law as a guiding force for taking decisions hence the courts came into being as dispensers of justice. Precedents bind inferior courts. Law is developed on a case-by-case basis. Common Law is made by the courts, not Parliament. Law based on precedent is said to be more flexible. However, since precedents are normally binding even for the highest courts, that flexibility may conflict with the need for certainty. After all, precedents are binding because they are the law. Precedents are normally binding, but the House will deviate from a previous decision when it feels right to do.
The binding element in precedents: ratio decidendi. This means that whatever is earlier decided upon will be prevailed upon in cases which are similar. Hence a system of precedents played a major role in deciding the legal system on a country .the important features in setting the precedent was that the decision given by judges were done on existing legal principles. The judges applied the rules of that were earlier prevalent. The precedent is usually dependent upon the hierarchy on the court system in the country If a precedent is overruled then it ceases to be a precedent

• Identify the role of courts in criminal justice today.

Today structures of court have evolved out of a necessity to dispense justice in the most complex of manners. The paradigm shift in cases, complexity of cases, new kinds of evidence gathering and the different kinds of criminal postings that court here have necessitated that the criminal justice system keeps itself attuned to the growing needs of justice. The growth of forensic sciences and the evidences that could be collected from such sources have made criminal justice system very technologically adept.

The courts have the most important role to play in punishing the guilty and those who are found abetting crime. The law and order and the fear of punishment comes from the court system. The U.S. Department of Justice security authorities, are required in collecting and publishing hate crime statistics permitting the federal prosecution making it to be illegal by force or by threat of force, injury, intimidated with anyone engaging in some of the specified protected activities, of their race, color, religion, or national origin thus affecting the victim’s attempt to engage in federally protected activities

References:

http://peisker.net/ffa/2-Precedent.htm