ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical development of the US legal system. It describes the court apparatus, and federal and state court proceedings. The chapter considers the role of the legal profession, comments upon crime and punishment, and concludes with attitudes to the legal system. The legal system is founded on customs brought to the US by European colonists. Many elements were English, such as the common law, parliamentary/royal statutes and judges. The two most important sources of contemporary US law are common law and statutory law. State and local courts constitute a large, complicated and individualistic system. They have a wider jurisdiction than federal courts and much heavier workloads. Opinion polls between the 1970s and the 1990s suggested that crime, guns, violence, gangs, assaults and drugs consistently appeared as leading concerns among Americans and were reflected in high crime statistics. The ownership and legal control of guns in the US are controversial issues with conflicting opinions from different interest groups.
