Judicial system of United States - Term Paper Example

­Judicial System of United s The Judicial system of United s is well known for having a much sophisticated and well defined judicial system in the whole world .The main highlight of this judicial system is that it smoothly operates in a country which is large and diverse in geographical boundaries. According to (Silverman)“Every day thousands of people, including law enforcement officers, lawyers, judges, government officials and ­even accused criminals, take part in this system, hoping to settle disputes and work for justice.

” In this judicial system, every state is handled by a separate set of courts relating to federal law which handles legal needs of people regularly. However, the legal system of United State is a bit complicated as several states and federal courts are involved in the whole legal process. The Judicial system of U.S is established in 1787, and it has a separation of powers which administrates the justice of every state in the country. It consist of the Supreme Court, local magistrates and magistrates .

The central authority of these legal bodies are prosecutors, who are responsible for making decisions against criminal and civil acts .At the state level, the U.S. attorney take control of the Justice department and the trials are managed by the federal prosecuting attorneys who are placed by the President .United States has 94 judicial districts and various civil and criminal cases are considered in their federal courts. The attorney generals are the highest authority at the state level and them mainly deals with the civil cases.

As per (Fine)“The U.S. Constitution establishes a system of federalism under which the federal government is granted limited authority, with all remaining authority left to the states. This model of shared powers defines the relationship between the federal and state courts”. U.S. Judicial system is mainly comprised of multiple authoritative courts. In this the federal system is the major one, then there is other integrates system which is based on geographical level and there is local courts concerning with each different states of the country.

However Supreme Court has the highest power in relation to federal law and in concern with local courts they have their own ultimate authority called Supreme Courts which handles their law matters. In case of statutory matters or federal constitutional matters, the federal courts have final power to determine whether the state law disregards the federal law system. The functioning of U.S. judicial system is not simple as the sources of law are multiple and any court can be called for interpreting a law of another jurisdiction.

More over, any court can be asked to hear a particular case and apply their law and come to a decision on civil or criminal cases. Surprisingly, the federal judiciary and the state judiciary have taken a shape of a pyramid in its hierarchy level. The courts at entry level on federal and state level are called trial courts and evidence is presented here before a case is preceded. The top most level of pyramid is occupied by the U.S. Supreme Court for federal law and state Supreme Court for state level respectively.

In his book (Neubauer,24) writes that ,“Judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys are the most important actors in the courts house. Defendants and victims are also important because they are the sources of cases for the courts”. The federal courts are called as Article III courts, as they have the authority to perform judicial review and also get protection from the article III of the U.S. constitution. The courts at the lowest level are the American district courts where the trials are performed.

The Supreme Court has power’s which are discretionary in nature and a minimal amount of cases are brought here are in real considered by the court. The U.S. federal judicial districts have 94 in number and there is at least one district court in each district. But if the districts are large with more population then it can have more than one district court. The number of judges rests on the population and size of the district and same is the case with the workload of the specific districts.

Although each district court is handled by number of judges the cases are ruled by a single judge. Basically, the U.S. Supreme court consists of nine justices and they are the one who hear the cases, and decide upon them. With regard to the U.S. courts of appeal, justice has the power to join the majority or write his own decision. There is also something called the specialized federal appeal court which has jurisdiction over appeals in regard to all district courts. With all this complicated and complex nature, U.S. judicial system is still the most admired and distinctive legal system in the world.

References Fine, Toni. "How the U.S. Court System Works." www.lawyerintl.com. Lawyer INTL, 2008. Web. 21 Mar 2011. . Neubauer,, David. America's Courts and the Criminal Justice System . 3rd ed.,. California: Wadsworth, 2010. 24. Print Silverman, Scott. "How the Judicial System Works." www.people.howstuffworks.com. How Stuff Works, Inc., 2011. Web. 21 Mar 2011. .