Institution juridique américaine (document en anglais)

American legal Institutions

Section 1 : Overview of the US Legal System and the US Constitution :

I. The US Constitution :

The Constitution is the fundamental law of the federal U.S. government. This is an important landmark document for the whole Western world because it is one of the oldest constitutions in the world (after that of Corsica and Saint-Martin).

The U.S. Constitution was written in September, the 17th of 1787 by 55 delegates who met in Philadelphia during the Constitutional Convention. This Constitution came into force in 1789 and is still used today.

George Washington ( The US President from 1789 to 1797), James Madison ( President from 1809 à 1817 ) and Alexander Hamilton participated in writing the Constitution.

The framers of the Constitution were especially concerned with limiting the power of the government and with safeguarding of liberty of the citizens. The separation of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, the check exercised by each branch on the other and the explicit guarantees of individual liberty were all designed to strike a balance between authority and liberty.

II. The Bill of Rights :

The Bill of Rights is the name given to the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution. They limit the power of the U.S. federal government. These limitations serve to protect the natural rights of liberty and of property including freedoms of religion, speech, a free press, free assembly, and free association, as well as the right to keep and bear arms.

Some states as New York, Virginia, New Memphis, Massachusetts or Maryland, did not want to ratify the Constitution if it did not include the Bill of Rights because they feared that the new government too powerful.

III. The “Common Law” :

The “Common Law” is a design, which marks the rule of court decisions, the jurisprudence

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