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Pennsylvania Law
The law of Pennsylvania consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory and case law. The ''Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes'' form the general statutory law. Sources The Constitution of Pennsylvania is the foremost source of state law. Legislation is enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, published in the ''Laws of Pennsylvania'', and codified in the ''Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes''. State agency regulations (sometimes called administrative law) are published in the ''Pennsylvania Bulletin'' and codified in the ''Pennsylvania Code''. Pennsylvania's legal system is based on common law, which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of the Supreme Court, Superior Court, and Commonwealth Court, which are published in the ''Pennsylvania State Reports'' and the ''Pennsylvania Reporter''. Municipalities may also promulgate local ordinances. In addition, there are also several sources of persuasive authority, which are not binding ...
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Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes
Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes is an unofficial consolidation of the statutes of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state of the United States of America. Overview Pennsylvania's statutes are organized into seventy-nine topic groups, ranging from "Aeronautics" to "Zoning," spread across one hundred and seven volumes. An alternate publication, "Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes Annotated," includes the text of statutes, as well as cross-references, footnotes, and commentary developed over two centuries. The annotated version is comparable to the ''United States Code Annotated.'' In 2007, the Pennsylvania General Assembly struck a deal with Thomson West to post an unofficial version of the statutes for free online, making it the last state to freely provide its statutes online. See also * Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes * Law of Pennsylvania The law of Pennsylvania consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory and case law. The '' Pennsylvania ...
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Superior Court Of Pennsylvania
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania is one of two Pennsylvania intermediate appellate courts (the other being the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania). It is based in Harrisburg. Jurisdiction The Superior Court hears appeals in criminal and most civil cases from the Courts of Common Pleas and on matters involving children and families. Most appeals are decided on the submission of briefs only. However, when the parties request oral argument, those sessions are usually heard by panels of three judges sitting in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, or Pittsburgh, but the court also hears some appeals "en banc," i.e., with nine judges. Sometimes, special argument panels sit in other counties around the Commonwealth. Although different panels of three judges may sit to hear appeals, there is only one Superior Court (that is, Pennsylvania is not divided into appellate territories). Judges Superior Court judges are elected in statewide elections. The term of a Superior Court Judge is 10 yea ...
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Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Judiciary of Pennsylvania, Unified Judicial System. It began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as the "Supreme Court" of Pennsylvania were made official in 1722 upon its reorganization as an entity separate from the control of the List of colonial governors of Pennsylvania, colonial governor. It claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania maintains a Discretionary review, discretionary docket, meaning that the Court may choose which cases it accepts, with the exception of mandatory Capital punishment in Pennsylvania, death penalty appeals, and certain appeals from the original jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, Commonwealth Court. This discretion allows the Court to wield powerful influence on ...
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Legal Opinion
In law, a legal opinion is in certain jurisdictions a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling. Opinions are in those jurisdictions usually published at the direction of the court, and to the extent, they contain pronouncements about what the law is and how it should be interpreted, they reinforce, change, establish, or overturn legal precedent. If a court decides that an opinion should be published, the opinion may be included in a volume from a series of books called law reports ('reporters' in the United States). Published opinions of courts are also collectively referred to as case law, and constitute in the common law legal systems one of the major sources of law. Memorandum opinion Not every case decided by a higher court results in the publication of an opinion; in fact, many cases do not, since an opinion is often published only when the law is bein ...
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Case Law
Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is a law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of a legal case that have been resolved by courts or similar tribunals. These past decisions are called "case law", or precedent. ''Stare decisis''—a Latin phrase meaning "let the decision stand"—is the principle by which judges are bound to such past decisions, drawing on established judicial authority to formulate their positions. These judicial interpretations are distinguished from statutory law, which are codes enacted by legislative bodies, and regulatory law, which are established by executive agencies based on statutes. In some jurisdictions, case law can be applied to ongoing adjudication; for example, criminal proceedings or family law. In common law countries (including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Austral ...
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Judicial Review
Judicial review is a process under which a government's executive, legislative, or administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. In a judicial review, a court may invalidate laws, acts, or governmental actions that are incompatible with a higher authority. For example, an executive decision may be invalidated for being unlawful, or a statute may be invalidated for violating the terms of a constitution. Judicial review is one of the checks and balances in the separation of powers—the power of the judiciary to supervise (judicial supervision) the legislative and executive branches when the latter exceed their authority. The doctrine varies between jurisdictions, so the procedure and scope of judicial review may differ between and within countries. The judiciary in United States has been described as having unusually strong powers of judicial review from a comparative perspective. General principles Judicial review can be understood in the context o ...
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English Law
English law is the common law list of national legal systems, legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly English criminal law, criminal law and Civil law (common law), civil law, each branch having its own Courts of England and Wales, courts and Procedural law, procedures. The judiciary is judicial independence, independent, and legal principles like Procedural justice, fairness, equality before the law, and the right to a fair trial are foundational to the system. Principal elements Although the common law has, historically, been the foundation and prime source of English law, the most authoritative law is statutory legislation, which comprises Act of Parliament, Acts of Parliament, Statutory Instrument, regulations and by-laws. In the absence of any statutory law, the common law with its principle of ''stare decisis'' forms the residual source of law, based on judicial decisions, custom, and usage. Common law is made by sitting judges who apply both United Kingdom l ...
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Reception Statute
A reception statute is a statutory law adopted as a former British colony becomes independent by which the new nation adopts, or receives, the English common law (and in some cases the statute law) before its independence to the extent not explicitly rejected by the legislative body or constitution of the new nation. Reception statutes generally consider the English common law dating prior to independence, as well as the precedents originating from it, as the default law because of the importance of using an extensive and predictable body of law to govern the conduct of citizens and businesses in a new state. All US states have either implemented reception statutes or adopted the common law by judicial opinion, but there is a special case of partial reception for Louisiana. Initial reception of English common law In '' Commentaries on the Laws of England'', Sir William Blackstone described the process by which English common law followed English colonization: In other words, ...
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Gazette
A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name ''The Gazette''. Etymology ''Gazette'' is a loanword from the French language, which is, in turn, a 16th-century permutation of the Italian ''gazzetta'', which is the name of a particular Venetian coin. ''Gazzetta'' became an epithet for ''newspaper'' during the early and middle 16th century, when the first Venetian newspapers cost one gazzetta. (Compare with other vernacularisms from publishing lingo, such as the British '' penny dreadful'' and the American '' dime novel''.) This loanword, with its various corruptions, persists in numerous modern languages (Slavic languages, Turkic languages). Government gazettes In England, with the 1700 founding of ''The Oxford Gazette'' (which became the '' London Gazette''), th ...
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Administrative Law
Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rulemaking (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), adjudication, and the enforcement of laws. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law. Administrative law deals with the decision-making of administrative units of government that are part of the executive branch in such areas as international trade, manufacturing, the environment, taxation, broadcasting, immigration, and transport. Administrative law expanded greatly during the 20th century, as legislative bodies worldwide created more government agencies to regulate the social, economic and political spheres of human interaction. Civil law countries often have specialized administrative courts that review these decisions. In the last fifty years, administrative law, in many countries of the civil law tradition, ...
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Regulation
Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For example: * in government, typically regulation (or its plural) refers to the delegated legislation which is adopted to enforce primary legislation; including Land-use planning, land-use regulation * in economy: regulatory economics * in finance: financial regulation * in business, industry self-regulation occurs through self-regulatory organizations and trade associations which allow industries to set and enforce rules with less government involvement; and, * in biology, gene regulation and metabolic regulation allow living organisms to adapt to their environment and maintain homeostasis; * in psychology, self-regulation theory is the study of how individuals regulate their thoughts and behaviors to reach goals. Forms Regulation in the ...
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