Law and the american revolutio
Law and the american revolutioEnglish law, structure and traditions, was the basis for the early American justice system. The biggest influence on American law was English common-law or judge made law as it is sometimes called. English Common-law is legal precedent based on judges rulings in different courts in England such as: "Kings Bench which dealt with crimes, the Court of Common Pleas which dealt with disputes over property and personal injuries, and the Court of Exchequer which had jurisdiction over disputes arising out of tax collection". Less serious crimes were normally disposed of in what English and early America called local courts, a.k.a. Justice of the Peace. We also borrowed from the English court system a court that handled disputes of small amounts of money this is what we call today Small Claims Court. The English also had various other local courts that the colonies used as well.
Codified laws or that is to say laws that are written down in a book of codes or body of laws were used by some of the more organized colonies. These codified laws were also loosely based on English law not to say that we took their laws and directly copied them down but suffice to say that most were directly related to English law. The colonies put their own spin on these laws and created new laws to fit their needs. Trial by jury, grand jury indictments, and procedures like cross-examination, evidentiary procedures were also used by English and colony court systems. Other rights like innocent until proven guilty and the right to know the charges that have been levied against you were also taken from the English court system. Although, some English courts were not obligated to use these fundamental rights.
Although, they followed many procedures and copied many court systems from the English the colonies did not use all of them especially the procedures or court systems they felt were unjust or could easily be corrupted. Take for instance "the Court of Star Chamber, where defendants could be subjected to torture, might not be informed of the exact charges against them, lawyers had no right to cross examine witnesses and defendants received no jury trials". Because England had no written or codified law the colonies could not simply bring them to the New World. Some states did use English charters that gave them a good beginning at a cohesive government system to use as a guide. Although, colonies like the Pilgrims at Plymouth also, Rhode Island and Connecticut, which were founded by exiles from Massachusetts, did not have charters. They had to establish written rules to govern themselves.
American constitutional wisdom and political ideas stemmed from English traditions and forms of government. Since the colonies were far removed from England and its authority the colonies were left to fend for themselves for the first fifty or so years. At the time colonists...
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