Court History and Purpose

Court History and Purpose

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Court History and Purpose

The courts play a very important role in the criminal justice world. A court is defined as a unit
of the judicial branch of government in which cases are decided upon, laws are questioned and disputed
with facts brought to light. A statute or a constitution gives the court this type of legal authority.
(Siegel, Schmalleger, & Worrall, 2011, p.4) The courts are divided into civil courts and criminal courts.
Civil courts hear cases in which there is not criminal action like divorces and probate cases. Criminal
courts hear cases where someone has committed a crime.
In our country, we have two types of court systems. We have the federal court system and the
state court system. This is known as the dual court system. When our country was founded, it was
decided that it was best to have separate court systems. This way, states would have authority in their
own territory without involvement of the federal court system. In turn, the states would not have
authority in cases in which federal laws had been broken. This is how the court system still is today.
(Siegel, Schmalleger, & Worrall, 2011, p.5).
Early legal codes, common law and precedent all laid good foundations for the judicial system.
Early legal codes were quite harsh, and usually more revengeful. The earliest known example of legal
code is the Code of Hammurabi in 1760 B.C. If you were found to be a thief or were the recipient of
stolen property, then the punishment was death. Some early codes were not as harsh. For example, if
you were to marry a woman without a marriage contract, then the woman is not considered to be the
man's wife. ("Code Of Hammurabi", n.d.).
The concept of common law stems from what happened after the Norman conquest in 1066.
Once new territories were won, King William wanted to take control of the legal systems. When a
judge would make a decision, it was written down and used by other judges. Since certain ideas and
decisions were shared among judges, these ideas were considered to be a commonality in the legal

Court History and Purpose

system, and therefore referred to as common law. These laws do not come from constitutions or
statutes. When judges have previously made a decision on a case, common law or not, and the issue
comes up again, this decision is considered and brought into future cases. This is known as precedent.
(Siegel, Schmalleger, & Worrall, 2011, p.8-9)
In today's society, courts still play an important role in the criminal justice system. They make
sure that laws are upheld and that disputes are resolved. The courts are also responsible for protecting
people and they reinforce the ideas of what is and what is not acceptable in our society. Laws are
constantly evolving and changing with the times as necessary, but people have always needed a way to
hold people accountable for doing wrong things. (University of Phoenix, 2011) In criminal courts,
people are held accountable for criminal actions and are punished in a wide variety of ways. Nowadays,
society tries more to aim for rehabilitation of offenders and you can see this in sentences that the judges
hand to offenders. In most cases, the court system does everything they can and examines evidence
presented very carefully to insure that they do not put the wrong person behind bars. No one wants to
go to court unless you are getting paid to do so, therefore the court itself is a crime deterrent for some.
We rely on our court system and judges to hand out sentences that are appropriate for crimes that have
been committed as well as hear non criminal cases and judge these cases efficiently and fair for all
parties involved. We rely on the prosecutors and defendants in a case to present their sides honestly and
effectively and when a jury is involved, they are expected to hear both sides and present their
conclusion to the judge. A court is a very complex unit with a large amount of work to do.
As you can see, our criminal justice system would not be effective at all without the courts.
Society heavily relies on the courts to keep our society fair and make sure that people are accountable
for their actions.

Court History and Purpose

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References

Siegel, L. J., Schmalleger, F., & Worrall, J. L. (2011). Courts and Criminal Justice in America.
Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

Code of Hammurabi. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.commonlaw.com/Hammurabi.html

University of Phoenix. (2011). CJi History and Organization of the Courts [Multimedia]. Retrieved
from University of Phoenix, CJA224 website.