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Business Law and the Legal Environment

v3.0 Don Mayer, Daniel Warner, George Siedel, and Jethro K. Lieberman

Chapter 1 Introduction to Law and Legal Systems

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should:

  1. Understand why humans have laws—what is “law”?

  2. Distinguish among the different philosophies of law—schools of legal thought—and explain their relevance.

  3. Understand some basic concepts and categories in U.S. law.

  4. Identify the sources of law, and which laws have priority over other laws.

  5. Understand some basic differences between the U.S. legal system and other legal systems.

Law has different meanings and functions. Philosophers and others have puzzled over “justice” and law for centuries; several different “schools of legal thought” have emerged. In this chapter, we look at those different “schools” and consider how social and political dynamics interact with the ideas that animate the various schools of legal thought. We will also look at the five typical sources of law in the United States and how some of those sources have priority over others, and we will set out some basic differences between the U.S. legal system and other legal systems.