{"id":699,"date":"2015-04-23T17:28:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T17:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/masterybusiness1xngcxmaster\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=699"},"modified":"2017-07-18T20:56:11","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T20:56:11","slug":"reading-criminal-versus-civil-law","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wmopen-introbusiness\/chapter\/reading-criminal-versus-civil-law\/","title":{"raw":"Statutory vs. Common Law","rendered":"Statutory vs. Common Law"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Outcomes<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Define\u00a0statutory law<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Define common law<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"section\">At both the federal and state levels, the law of the United States can be traced back to the common law system of English law, which was in force in the American colonies during\u00a0the time of the Revolutionary War. Since then, U.S. law has diverged greatly from its English roots\u00a0both in terms of substance and procedure. The main departure\u00a0occurred when the United States ratified the Constitution in 1789. In effect,\u00a0the Constitution and federal statutes and\u00a0laws made in furtherance of the Constitution were established as \u201cthe supreme Law of the Land.\" From that point on, the law of the land was no longer based on legal practices in England but became distinctly American and home grown. When the individual states ratified their state constitutions, the state legislatures obtained\u00a0the power to establish state law, or the \"Law of the State.\" Together, this collection of federal and state laws constitutes\u00a0something we often refer to as the \"body of law.\" This body of law governs the behavior of individuals, businesses, and even governments.\u00a0Just like the human body, the \"body of law\" is comprised of multiple parts, each performing an individual function while simultaneously working together as a whole. In this section, we will examine two of the most fundamental types of laws, followed by nearly\u00a0every nation in the world: <strong>statutory<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>law<\/strong> and<strong>\u00a0common law.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"title editable block\">A <strong>statute<\/strong> is a law passed by a legislature; and\u00a0<strong>statutory law<\/strong> is the body of law resulting from statutes. A statute\u2014or the statutory law\u2014may also be referred to as <strong>legislation<\/strong>. One of the benefits of statutory law is that whether it's federal or state law, it's a written law that you can locate and read at\u00a0the law library or online. This is not true of common law, which is also known as \"unwritten law, because it's not collected in a single source.<span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"title editable block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2016\/10\/25215312\/3028317639_107190ee32_b.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-8029 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2016\/10\/25215312\/3028317639_107190ee32_b-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of four bottles of beer\" width=\"250\" height=\"374\" \/><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"title editable block\">Suppose you are headed over to a friend's house to watch football on Sunday, and on your way you stop in at the local supermarket to buy some beer and pretzels for the gang. You carry\u00a0your six-pack and snacks up to the counter to pay, and\u00a0the clerk tells you that she's sorry, but she can't\u00a0sell you the beer. At first you think it's because she suspects\u00a0you're underage, but before you can show her your ID, she explains that she can't\u00a0sell alcohol before noon because (1) it's Sunday and (2) you are in the State of North Carolina. Shocked, you think she's joking until she refers you to the following NC Statute: N.C. General Statute 18B-1004(c) states, \u201cIt shall be unlawful to sell or consume alcoholic beverages on any licensed premises from the time at which sale or consumption must cease on Sunday morning until 12:00 noon on that day.\u201d No amount of begging or pleading will get you the\u00a0beer, because the owner of the supermarket knows that if she violates N.C. General Statute 18B-1004(c), the store's ABC license could\u00a0be revoked and its alcohol sales ended\u00a0<em>permanently<\/em>. This is an example of statutory law.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"section\">\r\n<p class=\"title editable block\">However, when the federal and state constitutions were written, it wasn't possible to anticipate and include every possible law in those\u00a0documents. For instance, in 1789 there was no reason to write\u00a0laws prohibiting people from operating motor vehicles while intoxicated, because there were no motor vehicles yet\u2014people still rode horses. Instead, the Constitution made provisions for law to evolve as society evolved. In 1803, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall stated that \u201c[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.\u201d\u00a0This kind of judge-made law is <strong>common law<\/strong>. Case law\u00a0is developed by judges, courts, and similar tribunals, and, over time, the decisions in individual cases establish precedents for future cases. <strong>Precedent<\/strong> means that the decisions judges have made in earlier cases guide how future cases are decided. In\u00a0common law systems, this principle is called <strong>stare<\/strong> <strong>decisis<\/strong>, and it has a binding effect on judges and courts: Stare decisis holds\u00a0that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar results.\u00a0If the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from previous cases, judges have the authority and duty to make law by creating precedent. Thereafter, the new decision becomes precedent and will bind future courts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7902\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2016\/10\/21151402\/US_Marshals_with_Young_Ruby_Bridges_on_School_Steps.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-7902 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2016\/10\/21151402\/US_Marshals_with_Young_Ruby_Bridges_on_School_Steps-300x229.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of U.S. marshals with young Ruby Bridges on the steps of the William Frantz Elementary School. \" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" \/><\/a> William Frantz Elementary School, New Orleans, 1960. \"After a Federal court ordered the desegregation of schools in the South, U.S. marshals escorted a young Black girl, Ruby Bridges, to school.\"[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn <em>Brown v. Board of Education<\/em>, the landmark\u00a0case concerning racial segregation in U.S. public schools, the Supreme Court ultimately handed down a decision that established a new legal precedent. At the heart of the case was the contention that the separate school systems for blacks and whites were inherently unequal and thus violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.\r\n\r\nAfter the case was reheard in 1953, Chief Justice Warren was able to persuade all of the justices to support a unanimous decision declaring segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. On May 14, 1954, he delivered the opinion of the Court: \"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. . .\"\r\n<p class=\"title editable block\">Although it would be\u00a0many years before all U.S. public\u00a0schools were desegregated, the Supreme Court's ruling\u00a0in\u00a0<em>Brown<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>was the legal turning point that paved the way for the this change. Under common law, the precedent it established was that separate educational facilities for different races are inherently unequal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Check Your Understanding<\/h2>\r\nAnswer the question(s) below to see how well you understand the topics covered above. This short quiz does <strong>not<\/strong> count toward your grade in the class, and you can retake it an unlimited number of times.\r\n\r\nUse this quiz to check your understanding and decide whether to (1) study the previous section further or (2) move on to the next section.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/assessments.lumenlearning.com\/assessments\/2989\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Outcomes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Define\u00a0statutory law<\/li>\n<li>Define common law<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"section\">At both the federal and state levels, the law of the United States can be traced back to the common law system of English law, which was in force in the American colonies during\u00a0the time of the Revolutionary War. Since then, U.S. law has diverged greatly from its English roots\u00a0both in terms of substance and procedure. The main departure\u00a0occurred when the United States ratified the Constitution in 1789. In effect,\u00a0the Constitution and federal statutes and\u00a0laws made in furtherance of the Constitution were established as \u201cthe supreme Law of the Land.&#8221; From that point on, the law of the land was no longer based on legal practices in England but became distinctly American and home grown. When the individual states ratified their state constitutions, the state legislatures obtained\u00a0the power to establish state law, or the &#8220;Law of the State.&#8221; Together, this collection of federal and state laws constitutes\u00a0something we often refer to as the &#8220;body of law.&#8221; This body of law governs the behavior of individuals, businesses, and even governments.\u00a0Just like the human body, the &#8220;body of law&#8221; is comprised of multiple parts, each performing an individual function while simultaneously working together as a whole. In this section, we will examine two of the most fundamental types of laws, followed by nearly\u00a0every nation in the world: <strong>statutory<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>law<\/strong> and<strong>\u00a0common law.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"title editable block\">A <strong>statute<\/strong> is a law passed by a legislature; and\u00a0<strong>statutory law<\/strong> is the body of law resulting from statutes. A statute\u2014or the statutory law\u2014may also be referred to as <strong>legislation<\/strong>. One of the benefits of statutory law is that whether it&#8217;s federal or state law, it&#8217;s a written law that you can locate and read at\u00a0the law library or online. This is not true of common law, which is also known as &#8220;unwritten law, because it&#8217;s not collected in a single source.<span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"title editable block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2016\/10\/25215312\/3028317639_107190ee32_b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8029 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2016\/10\/25215312\/3028317639_107190ee32_b-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of four bottles of beer\" width=\"250\" height=\"374\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"title editable block\">Suppose you are headed over to a friend&#8217;s house to watch football on Sunday, and on your way you stop in at the local supermarket to buy some beer and pretzels for the gang. You carry\u00a0your six-pack and snacks up to the counter to pay, and\u00a0the clerk tells you that she&#8217;s sorry, but she can&#8217;t\u00a0sell you the beer. At first you think it&#8217;s because she suspects\u00a0you&#8217;re underage, but before you can show her your ID, she explains that she can&#8217;t\u00a0sell alcohol before noon because (1) it&#8217;s Sunday and (2) you are in the State of North Carolina. Shocked, you think she&#8217;s joking until she refers you to the following NC Statute: N.C. General Statute 18B-1004(c) states, \u201cIt shall be unlawful to sell or consume alcoholic beverages on any licensed premises from the time at which sale or consumption must cease on Sunday morning until 12:00 noon on that day.\u201d No amount of begging or pleading will get you the\u00a0beer, because the owner of the supermarket knows that if she violates N.C. General Statute 18B-1004(c), the store&#8217;s ABC license could\u00a0be revoked and its alcohol sales ended\u00a0<em>permanently<\/em>. This is an example of statutory law.<\/p>\n<div class=\"section\">\n<p class=\"title editable block\">However, when the federal and state constitutions were written, it wasn&#8217;t possible to anticipate and include every possible law in those\u00a0documents. For instance, in 1789 there was no reason to write\u00a0laws prohibiting people from operating motor vehicles while intoxicated, because there were no motor vehicles yet\u2014people still rode horses. Instead, the Constitution made provisions for law to evolve as society evolved. In 1803, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall stated that \u201c[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.\u201d\u00a0This kind of judge-made law is <strong>common law<\/strong>. Case law\u00a0is developed by judges, courts, and similar tribunals, and, over time, the decisions in individual cases establish precedents for future cases. <strong>Precedent<\/strong> means that the decisions judges have made in earlier cases guide how future cases are decided. In\u00a0common law systems, this principle is called <strong>stare<\/strong> <strong>decisis<\/strong>, and it has a binding effect on judges and courts: Stare decisis holds\u00a0that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar results.\u00a0If the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from previous cases, judges have the authority and duty to make law by creating precedent. Thereafter, the new decision becomes precedent and will bind future courts.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7902\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2016\/10\/21151402\/US_Marshals_with_Young_Ruby_Bridges_on_School_Steps.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7902\" class=\"wp-image-7902 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2016\/10\/21151402\/US_Marshals_with_Young_Ruby_Bridges_on_School_Steps-300x229.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of U.S. marshals with young Ruby Bridges on the steps of the William Frantz Elementary School.\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7902\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Frantz Elementary School, New Orleans, 1960. &#8220;After a Federal court ordered the desegregation of schools in the South, U.S. marshals escorted a young Black girl, Ruby Bridges, to school.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In <em>Brown v. Board of Education<\/em>, the landmark\u00a0case concerning racial segregation in U.S. public schools, the Supreme Court ultimately handed down a decision that established a new legal precedent. At the heart of the case was the contention that the separate school systems for blacks and whites were inherently unequal and thus violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>After the case was reheard in 1953, Chief Justice Warren was able to persuade all of the justices to support a unanimous decision declaring segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. On May 14, 1954, he delivered the opinion of the Court: &#8220;We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of &#8216;separate but equal&#8217; has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. . .&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"title editable block\">Although it would be\u00a0many years before all U.S. public\u00a0schools were desegregated, the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling\u00a0in\u00a0<em>Brown<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>was the legal turning point that paved the way for the this change. Under common law, the precedent it established was that separate educational facilities for different races are inherently unequal.<\/p>\n<h2>Check Your Understanding<\/h2>\n<p>Answer the question(s) below to see how well you understand the topics covered above. This short quiz does <strong>not<\/strong> count toward your grade in the class, and you can retake it an unlimited number of times.<\/p>\n<p>Use this quiz to check your understanding and decide whether to (1) study the previous section further or (2) move on to the next section.<\/p>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"lumen_assessment_2989\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assessments.lumenlearning.com\/assessments\/load?assessment_id=2989&#38;embed=1&#38;external_user_id=&#38;external_context_id=&#38;iframe_resize_id=lumen_assessment_2989\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:400px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-699\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Revision and adaptation. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Linda Williams and Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Tidewater Community College. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Check Your Understanding. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Common Law. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Common_law\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Common_law<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Beer. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: DeusXFlorida. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/8363028@N08\/3028317639\/\">https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/8363028@N08\/3028317639\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">Public domain content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Photograph: U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Uncredited DOJ photographe. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=27473461\">https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=27473461<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":78,"menu_order":5,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revision and adaptation\",\"author\":\"Linda Williams and Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"Tidewater Community College\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"pd\",\"description\":\"Photograph: U.S. Marshals escorted Bridges to and from school\",\"author\":\"Uncredited DOJ photographe\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=27473461\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Common 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