American Legal English

  I read yesterday about the differences between the holding and the dicta in the case law.The first one is the rule of law or legal principle and the material facts that comes from the judgment while the dicta is the other statements in the decision that do not from part of the holding. The interesting part is that lawyers should be aware and read carefully to analyze what is from the holding and what is not. this process seems easy but it is very difficult which needs a lot of practise.

Outline.

Yesterday I continued the reading and this is my outline:

Precedent and Stare Decisis

1.      The definition

• the different between the civil law and the case law
  2.  The authority of precedent cases in the US legal system.
• Mandatory authority
• Persuasive authority
  3. How can American attorneys review case law?
   
                  Precedent and stare decisis are terms meaning that a court must follow the rulings of the court that is above it in the hierarchy. This pretty different from civil law where a court must follow written statutory. What surprising here is a lawyer should do a lot of reading and researching to find the case law that he can use for his client.

                                              Reference

                Debra S. Lee, Charles Hall & Susan M. Barone, American Legal English. The University of Michigan Press ed., 2d ed. 2007. 12.

 

 

American Legal English

I started to read "American Legal English.", it is introduction to the U.S. legal system. I read about a common law system, which means that the role of case law in the system is different from that in most countries where civil law is the legal system. Also I read about the U.S. Constitution and the sources of U.S. Law. It quite difficult to follow but it needs rereading to understand, so I will continue reading.

               

The question of Happiness

We were supposed to read our chosen books in the Reading class. Unfortunatly, I forgot my book, instead, I read "Happier" written by Tal Ben-Shahar. I just read few pages, it is not bad at all. the book is about the question of happiness. What is happiness? How can a person be happy? The book deals with some theories of happiness and usefulness of some techniques. For me, I don't think I would continue reading, becuase it needs someone who is realy interested with this kind of knowledge, so if you wondering what happiness is, this book could tell you the answer.

The book of choice for 4B Reading

The book that I've chosen is "American Legal English." I know it sound boring, but this is what I'm interested to read for this course because I believe that I will learn from it the basic legal system so I can be ready for academic study.