38. Court system

1. This flexibility allows common law to deal with changes that lead to unanticipated controversies. At the same time, stare decision provides certainty, uniformity, and predictability and makes for a stable legal environment.

2. Under a common-law system, disputes are settled through an adversarial exchange of arguments and evidence. Both parties present their cases before a neutral fact finder, either a judge or a jury.

3. The judge or jury evaluates the evidence, applies the appropriate law to the facts, and renders a judgment in favor of one of the parties. Following the decision, either party may appeal the decision to a higher court.

4. Appellate courts in a common-law system may review only findings of law, not determinations of fact. Under common law, all citizens, including the highest-ranking officials of the government, are subject to the same set of laws, and the exercise of government power is limited by those laws.

5. The judiciary may review legislation, but only to determine whether it conforms to constitutional requirements. In practice, common law systems are considerably more complicated than the idealized system described above.

6. The decisions of a court are binding only in a particular jurisdiction, and even within a given jurisdiction, some courts have more power than others.

7. For example, in most jurisdictions, decisions by appellate courts are binding on lower courts in the same jurisdiction and on future decisions of the same appellate court.

Choose one paragraph from the following reading that best suits each statement.

39. The early royal courts in england

1. For a time after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the king himself sat to hear cases involving royal interests and the court was called coram rege (Latin for "before the king").

2. When the king began delegating authority to administer justice, the tribunal he appointed was called Curia Regis, the King's Court. Out of the Curia Regis came the three royal common-law courts.

3. The first offshoot was the Exchequer, which originally collected taxes and administered the king's finances, but by 1250 was exercising full powers as a court.

4. Next to develop as a separate court was Common Pleas, a court probably established by Henry II during the latter half of the twelfth century to hear cases not involving the king's rights.

5. The remaining part of the Curia Regis reviewed decisions of the Common Pleas by issuing writs of error. This court, later known as the King's Bench, also heard cases involving the king's interests, particularly criminal matters and cases involving high noblemen.

6. For many years the work of the court was written as if proceedings before it were before the king himself. The common-law courts competed with the Chancery, which exercised Equity jurisdiction, and their struggles shifted the division of authority at various times.

7. They were consolidated with the other high courts of England by the Judicature Acts in the late nineteenth century.

Choose one paragraph from the following reading that best suits each statement.