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Statutory Law Define Common Law. Include Examples Essay

¶ … 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...

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…

Sources used in this document:
References

Fifth Amendment. (2013). Cornell School of Law. Retrieved from: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fifth_amendment

Rehberg v. Paulk. (2011). U.S. Supreme Court. Retrieved from: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-788.pdf

Broemmel, M. (2013). Small Business Bankruptcy Laws. Chron. Retrieved from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/small-business-bankruptcy-laws-3453.html

Edline, D. (2007). Common Law Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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