Statutory Law Define Common Law. Include Examples

¶ … Statutory Law

Define Common law. Include examples and what U.S. Constitution amendments were implemented to protect the rights of businesses and organizations.

Common law is based upon the decisions from previous court cases. They are binding in all legal proceeding. These rulings establish consistency and stability in the way decisions are made within the U.S. legal system. A good example of this occurred with Rehberg v. Paulk. In this Supreme Court decision, the chief investigator to a grand jury testified as to what they discovered. After the grand jury decided not to peruse charges, is when Paulk filed a civil claim against this individual. They allege that this party was conspiring with the District Attorney using false information. Moreover, the investigator knowingly lied to the grand jury in order to secure an indictment. ("Rehberg v. Paulk," 2011) (Edline, 2007)

The Federal District Court refused to dismiss the motion because of the actions taken by the investigator. While the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that he had absolute immunity based upon provisions from the Civil Rights Act of 1871. This law has a stipulation which says that anyone who is testifying in a legal proceeding has immunity from their testimony. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision. This is based upon previous decisions which upheld these protections including: Burns v. Reed, Kalina v. Fletcher, Forrester v. White and Pierson v. Ray. These findings are showing how the American justice system is built upon case precedent and the way it is applied. ("Rehberg v. Paulk," 2011) (Edline, 2007)

Two amendments which were designed to protect the rights of businesses and organizations are the First and Fourteenth Amendment. The First Amendment ensures that news outlets have the right to express their opinions freely without fear of persecution. While the Fourteenth Amendment, is providing businesses the same kind of protection under the law as the average citizen. This is because they are considered to be an individual person from a legal perspective and are entitled to these rights. (Edline, 2007)

Define statutory law. Include examples and what U.S. Constitution amendments were implemented to protect the rights of businesses and organizations.

Statutory law is an act of the legislature. That is designed to provide further guidance about the scope and activities of firms (from a legal perspective). A good example of this can be seen with the bankruptcy laws. Under these guidelines, firms have a number of options when going into the process to include: chapters 7, 11 and 13. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is when there is no possibility of a firm being able to successfully rectify their financial situation. This is when they will declare bankruptcy and the use the law to have some kind of orderly liquidation of the business. Chapter 11 is when a corporation is seeking to restructure in order to reduce or eliminate its debts. Chapter 13 occurs with sole proprietorships, it allows these businesses to reorganize in a similar manner. The only difference is based upon the fact that they are unincorporated. This is showing how statutory laws are designed to offer procedures for conducting bankruptcy proceedings. (Broemmel, 2013) (Miller, 2010)