Functions, Dysfunctions, and Assumptions within the US Legal System

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the United States legal system, beginning with various definitions of law from different legal scholars and then focusing on the federal system of the USA, highlighting the division of powers between the central and local governments. It elaborates on the functions of the American legal system, emphasizing the establishment of standards and the protection of rights and liberties. The essay also addresses key dysfunctions within the system, such as the collapse of the rule of law, inconsistencies in prison populations relative to crime rates, and discrimination against black individuals. It concludes by examining the assumptions underlying the legal system, particularly how personal biases can impact legal decisions, and stresses the need to eliminate discrimination to ensure justice and security for all citizens. Desklib offers more solved assignments and study resources for students.

Legal System of United States
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Definition of law
There have been several definitions of law by various authors. According to the positivistic
definition of law provided by John Austin, ‘Law is the aggregate set of rules set by a man as
politically superior or sovereign to men, as political subjects’. This definition provides that
law is a set of regulations and legislations that are to be provided by the people regardless of
their stature or economic status. Further, according to Hans Kelsen law can be said as a
normative science. According to the definition provided by Hans Kelsen, law does not
explain or describe the occurrence of something, that is, it does not describe what must
happen or occur. Rather than this, law defines certain rules and regulations that must be
abided by everyone living in the society or country (Pashukanis, 2017). Additionally, few
authors provided a sociological definition of law. The definition given by Rudolph Von
Ihering defines law as assurance or the guarantee by the power of constraint of the state,
regarding the lives existing in the society. In other words, as per this definition law is a form
of guarantee. Again, few authors provided realists definition of law in terms of judicial
processes. Oliver Wendell Holmes states that ‘law is a statement of the circumstances in
which public force will be brought to bear upon through courts’. Thus, it can be said that law
is basically defined as the set of legislations and rules which are required to be followed by
the people living in the country (Kelsen, 2017).
The American legal system
The United States of America (USA) follows a federal government system. It can be said that
federalism has different meanings for different people and there are different opinions for
federalism. However, a legal definition has been provided for a federal state. As per the
definition, a federal state can be called a composite state where the sovereignty is segregated
between central and local governments of the different states. It can be said as a union where
many states are involved and control of managing external relations is vested in the central
government (Thompson, 2017).
In the federal system or as the definition has been provided here, there is one key point that
must be understood about a federal system is that in this system there are two governments
segregated and they share the law making process or the sovereignty over the same region or
territory. The share in law making and the power of the governments is different in case of
different states and the central and local governments divide their law making powers
differently. For instance, in America, the laws and regulations of taxation are partially share
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with the states and partially it is vested in the central government. Further, there are various
other enumerated federal power of the country such as borrowing credit of the US, regulating
the interstate commerce and also the commerce and trading with Indian Tribes or Foreign
Nations.
In the administrative regulations, the constitutions have mandated the separation of powers
and the different parts of the system are provided the power in different aspects. In United
States, at the Federal level, the President of the United acts as the chief executive and at the
state level, the role of chief executive is played by the governor. Hence, it can be said that the
federal system of the US is a well developed federal system with a proper and systematic
division of powers (Thompson, 2017).
Functions of the American legal system
There are several functions of the American legal system which is required to maintain order
in the society and support and protect the people. Here, few functions of the American legal
system will be discussed.
The first function of law is to establish standards. The legal system acts as a guide for the
people and prescribes a minimal acceptable behaviour in the society. For instance, crimes
aren’t tolerated in the society. In other words, it has been determined by the legal system that
certain behaviours like damage to people or property will not be tolerated and will be
regarded as a criminal offence.
Another function of law in US is protecting the rights and liberties of the people. The statutes
and constitutions of the United States as well as its constituent states provide for the various
rights and liberties of the people. The legal system of the United States has the function of
protection of these various liberties and rights from violations or irrational and unreasonable
intrusions by organisations, people or even the government.
Dysfunctions of American law
There are few key system’s dysfunctions in the American law. First is that the rule of law
collapsed. Explaining this it can be said that in the American law, official discretion came to
define the outcomes to criminal justice rather than the judgements of the juries or the legal
doctrines. Another dysfunction of the law is that from the end of the twentieth century, the
US legal system experienced a decline in the population of prisons whereas there was a
growing rate of crime in the country. Again, there was a steep rise in the prison population. It
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has thus been seen that the US legal system has been one of the most lenient justice systems
in the world at one time and then again, the it became the harshest by the century’s end. The
third dysfunction in the system is the discrimination against black suspects as well as black
victims. The discrimination against the blacks whether they are suspects or victims have been
growing worse where it is more necessary to increase legal protection for civil rights. There
have been many instances where a great number of black drug offenders have been punished
whereas the white drug offenders have been ignored. Similarly, many black people have been
victimised by violent white people and these cases of violence have gone unpunished. Hence,
it is necessary to eliminate the discrimination factor from the system and provide everyone
with equal treatment, whether in justice or in punishment (Bradley, 2015).
Assumptions and impact on legal system
The assumptions of the legal system are that it is assumed that the criminal justice system is
based on decisions which are made on the guidelines provided by the Constitution and that
the decisions are supported and guided by fair-minded judges and juries of peers. However,
in reality the decisions are also based on the personal backgrounds of the suspects and
victims, gender, race, appearance. This impacts the legal system adversely as people
gradually will fail to trust the system and in getting justice. The issues related to
discrimination needs to be completely eliminated from the justice system of the USA in order
to ensure people that they are secure in the country (Bradley, 2015).
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References
Bradley, C. A. (2015). International law in the US legal system. Oxford University Press,
USA.
Kelsen, H. (2017). General theory of law and state. Routledge.
Pashukanis, E. (2017). The general theory of law and Marxism. Routledge.
Thompson, J. D. (2017). Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative
theory. Routledge.
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