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How History Has Impacted U.S. Law

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Submitted By keelygibbons
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How History has Impacted United States Law
Keely Gibbons-Bassett
Walden University
How History has Impacted United States Law
The United States is not a very old country so we have had the advantage of the history and wisdom from all of the great nations that have been in existence for millennia. When a group first decides to form a society, one of the most importance things to the survival and growth of that group is the set of laws in which they live by. In early times, it was an unwritten set of laws that people lived by, it was understood what was expected and what would happen if a person broke a law.
Eventually, the Romans saw need to put the laws down in writing so everyone could understand what was expected and it wasn’t left up to much to word of mouth learning. After some time, Napoleon decided to adapt a set of written laws and it was called the Napoleonic Code and is still used today.
In England in roughly 1066 A.D. developed after the Norman Conquest, common law came to be decided by Judge’s decisions in court cases, and eventually came the birth of “stare decisis”, which means to stand by the decisions previously made. This concept has had a huge impact on the legal system in England as well as the United States.
In the United States, there are four primary sources of laws: Constitutions (both federal and state), statutes, court decisions, and administrative regulations. Looking over these sources, it’s easy to see how history has had its hand in the development of each. Our federal constitution seems to have a lot of the same basic principles and ideas as the Napoleonic Code, such as stating all men are equal, giving religious freedoms, and civil rights along with many others. (Napoleonic Code, 2014.) The stare decisis is very, very common to our very own Supreme Court which is law that is based on court decisions. The Supreme Court looks at the validity of law based on our constitution and looks at other decisions previously made from similar cases.
The United States has had the benefit of other nations figuring out what needs to be done and how it should be done. We have gained the knowledge without having to have the personal experiences of what happens without law and without written laws. We have also been given the knowledge of how to implement laws and how to be fair. The United States isn’t without flaw and we are a nation that must do much more growing, but because of the experiences of past nations, we were given a head-start on how to get it right.

References * Goldman, A., & Sigismond, W. (2014). Business Law: Principles and Practices (9th ed.).South-Western: Cengage Learning. * Napoleonic Code. (2014). Encyclopædia Britannica,

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