The Court system in the USA

In the United States each state is served by the separate court systems, state and federal. Both systems are organized into three basic levels of courts – trial courts, intermediate courts of appeal and a high court, or Supreme Court. The state courts are concerned essentially with cases arising under state law, and the federal courts with cases arising under federal law.

In all state court systems, there are two types of judicial functions: trials and appeals. A trial court has original jurisdiction; that is, the power to determine the facts of the case and apply the law to them. An appellate (or appeals) court hears appeals from the trial court and thus has appellate jurisdiction. While all states have a supreme court, an appellate court of last resort, the majority of states also have an intermediate court of appeals which handles most of the appeals from the trial courts.

The federal system also consists of three levels – district courts (trial); intermediate court of appeals (circuit court of appeals); and Supreme Court (U.S. Supreme Court). The jurisdiction of federal courts is set out in the Constitution.

The Supreme Court is the highest judicial organ of the USA and the Supreme Court Building is in Washington. The Supreme Court consists of the Chief Justice of the US and eight Associate Justices. They are all appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. The Supreme Court has the right to declare unconstitutional any law passed by Congress or any order issued by the President. This right of veto is widely used to block the passage of any progressive bills. The USA is divided into eleven judicial circuits and each one is served with a Federal Court of Appeals. As a rule the Court of Appeals sits with three judges on the bench. There are about 94 district courts in different parts of the US. The district courts are the lowest ones in the Federal court system. Most of the criminal and civil cases are tried by these courts, so this is a place where litigation begins.The district court is the only Federal court where trials are held, juries are used, and witnesses are called. There are about two hundred district judges in the USA. Cases tried in the district court may be appealed in one of the eleven Courts of appeal and in the Supreme Court. The main job of courts of appeal is to review cases appealed from trial courts to determine if the law was correctly interpreted and applied. The decision of the Supreme Court is final.

The state courts are organized in a system that looks like the system of Federal Courts with a Supreme Court at the top. In most of the states the lowest courts are the magistrates, or police courts.

Task 2. Find in the text the English equivalents for the words below. Compose your own sentences to show that you understand the meaning of the words above.

головний суддя, схвалювати, округ, склад суду, судочинство, існувати, приймати закон, віддавати (наказ).

Task 3. Write a synonym or a short explanation for each of the following words. Use the dictionary if you need it.

Senate; Bill; Chief Justice; Associate Justice; President; Congress; litigation; witness.

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Дата добавления: 2015-07-19