Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States

Based on insights from years of teaching first-year law students, foreign lawyers, and students of politics and policy, this problem-oriented book guides students through a comprehensive study of the United States legal system. The book starts with the conceptual framework of US law. It then guides students through the distinct sub-systems that in the aggregate constitute law in the United States: common law, equity, statutes, administrative regulations, and public-private hybrid governance. In each case it guides students through what makes each sub-system distinct with respect to its forms and practices. The student is then guided to the relationship between law and the institutions of government that create and administer law, and the legal structures for the administration of law in the United States, including the relationship between national and local law, between US and international law and legal obligations, and the extent of the power of legislatures and the people to make law. Drawing these materials together, the last section considers the role of the courts in the application of law: judicial review, methodologies of interpretation, and legitimacy.