The American legal system is common law yet distinctive for judicial policymaking
Evidence
From a legal perspective, probably the most important point to note about the American system is that it is a common-law legal system. As such, it shares many features with the legal systems of Great Britain and its other former colonies. From a political perspective, the distinctive aspect of the American legal system is the courts’ involvement in policymaking. This involvement often stems from the courts’ responsibility to say what the law is, even in cases with political ramifications. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 213
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Common-law systems share features derived from English law and practice. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 106; Common law evolves incrementally and its influence across states rests on persuasion. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1434; The common law approach to statutory interpretation has many shades and variants, which license varying degrees of judicial freedom in interpretation; but a central or defining idea is that judges appropriately sensitive to legislative purposes and to the surrounding fabric of law should mold and shape statutes with something like the sensitivity and flexibility accorded to judicial precedents. In these respects, the common law approach is a precursor of the legal process school that came to dominate American interpretive theory after World War II. (+12 more)