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One or two volumes are passed every year. These are called the statute law, which means simply law enacted by a legislature.

Common Law. We have also a large and most important body of law which was never thus enacted by any legislature. It is called common law, which means that it originated as common usage. That is the way all English law began, by the courts enforcing the general customs of honest business and orderly life. Gradually general rules developed which all the judges followed. It is of ancient origin and was taken over in full by our colonies when they split from England. This law is contained in the decisions of judges, and it is still growing as our courts interpret old laws to meet new conditions.

This system makes our laws flexible, more easily bent to meet new necessities. It also makes for justice, since so many of our laws are the slow growth of many centuries of custom and experience rather than the opinions of any one group of men.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SECTION 1

1. Against whom is a civil wrong done and against whom is a crime committed?

2. What are the parties to a suit?

3. What does the plaintiff seek to get in a civil suit?

4. Who is the plaintiff in a criminal suit?

5. Who is the lawyer for the plaintiff in a criminal trial?

6. What is a fine and why is it imposed?

SECTION 2

7. What does the coroner do?

8. When can the police make an arrest and when can a private

citizen?

9. What is an alias and how can the police discover that a prisoner

is using one?

10. What are a prisoner's rights when arrested?

11. Up to what point is a man presumed to be innocent?

12. What is a writ of habeas corpus?

13. How does the Constitution protect it, and when may it be sus

pended?

14. What cases can a justice of the peace try?

15.

Describe an arraignment.

16. What is bail and who can give it?

17. What evidence does a grand jury hear and what does its indictment do?

18. How does the grand jury protect the innocent? 19. How can a defendant plead in a criminal trial?

20. What is a subpoena and why must it be obeyed?

21. Could any part of a trial be held in secret or without the defendant present?

22. What does the trial jury do and of how many members does it consist?

23. How is it chosen?

24. What are talesmen and what are challenges?

25. What does a witness swear to do?

26. What is the crime of swearing falsely called?

27. Why is a witness allowed only to answer questions and not volunteer anything?

28. Why are there rules of evidence?

29. Can you give an example of hearsay?

30. What is direct examination and what is cross-examination?

31. What is circumstantial evidence?

32. What is an alibi?

33. May a defendant testify in his own behalf? Must he?

34. What is the judge's charge and what does it contain?

35. What questions are left entirely to the jury to decide?

36. In what cases must a jury be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt?

37. What are the two verdicts that a jury may bring in?

38. What happens if a jury cannot agree?

39. Do all States require all twelve jurors to agree in order to bring in a verdict?

40. What kind of questions are raised on appeal?

41. What are the six chief protections insured a defendant in a criminal suit by the Constitution?

42. What is prison reform and how does an indeterminate sentence

operate?

43. Why are children's courts created?

44. Describe how they are conducted?

45. When a prisoner is released on parole what happens?

SECTION 3

46.

How does a civil trial differ from a criminal trial?

47. Must there be a jury in a civil trial?

48. What does a judgment give a successful plaintiff?

49. How does an injunction differ from a judgment for money damages?

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51. What is the distinction between common and statute law?

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SECTION 2

4. Have you ever seen a court-room or witnessed a trial?

5. What other kinds of evidence are apt to be deceptive besides hearsay? How about testimony of a near relative or some one deeply interested?

6. If you were cross-examining a witness how would you try to trip him up?

7. Do you think a boy accused of any misconduct in school has a right to be heard in his own defense?

8. Have you ever seen a jail? Do you know how convicts used to be dressed and how they are dressed now? What was the lockstep?

SECTION 3

9. Can you think of any cases in which money damages are not sufficient reparation?

CHAPTER XIX

THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION

The Critical Period. We are apt to think that the Revolution made the United States, and that after the dark days of Valley Forge and the other heroic hours of the War of Independence, all was plain sailing. Nothing could be further from the fact. The Revolution won independence for the colonies and made possible a united America. But for six long years, from 1783 to 1789, it was touch and go whether such a union would be achieved or whether the States would break apart into separate and weak nations to drift into disorder and probable absorption by some foreign power.1

Articles of Confederation. The trouble lay with the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777 and made effective in 1781, under which the States constituted not a firmly united nation but little more than a league. "A firm league of friendship" was the phrase used in the Articles. The Congress which it created, like the Continental Congress which it succeeded, had neither the power to raise an army nor the power to raise money by taxation. It could order the States to furnish troops and money, but it could not enforce its orders.

With the war over and the peace treaty signed in 1783 the States went from bad to worse. The jealousy

1 NOTE. You will find an absorbing narrative of these years in John Fiske's "Critical Period of American History."

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