Pennsylvania Law
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Pennsylvania Law
The law of Pennsylvania consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory and case law. The ''Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes'' form the general statutory law. Sources The Constitution of Pennsylvania is the foremost source of state law. Legislation is enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, published in the '' Laws of Pennsylvania'', and codified in the ''Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes''. State agency regulations (sometimes called administrative law) are published in the ''Pennsylvania Bulletin'' and codified in the ''Pennsylvania Code''. Pennsylvania's legal system is based on common law, which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of the Supreme Court, Superior Court, and Commonwealth Court, which are published in the '' Pennsylvania State Reports'' and the ''Pennsylvania Reporter''. Municipalities may also promulgate local ordinances. In addition, there are also several sources of persuasive authority, which are not binding ...
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio to its west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest, New York to its north, and the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east. Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous state in the nation with over 13 million residents as of 2020. It is the 33rd-largest state by area and ranks ninth among all states in population density. The southeastern Delaware Valley metropolitan area comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the state's largest and nation's sixth most populous city. Another 2.37 million reside in Greater Pittsburgh in the southwest, centered around Pittsburgh, the state's second-largest and Western Pennsylvania's largest city. The state's su ...
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Pennsylvania Statutes At Large
Pennsylvania Session Laws is an 18 volume collection of laws Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1809. The first volume was published electronically in 2001; volumes 2 to 18 printed in the years spanning 1896 to 1915. Volume I See also * ''Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes'' * '' Purdon's Pennsylvania Statutes'' * Law of Pennsylvania The law of Pennsylvania consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory and case law. The ''Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes'' form the general statutory law. Sources The Constitution of Pennsylvania is the forem ... References {{reflist Government of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania law ...
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Commonwealth Court Of Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania is one of Pennsylvania's two intermediate appellate courts. The Commonwealth Court's headquarters is in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with jurisdiction over administrative and civil public law. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania is the other intermediate appellate court in the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System, having jurisdiction over criminal and private civil cases. The jurisdiction of the nine-judge Commonwealth Court is limited to appeals from final orders of certain state agencies and certain designated cases from the Courts of Common Pleas involving public sector legal questions and government regulation. The Commonwealth Court also functions as a trial court in some civil actions by or against the Commonwealth government and cases regarding statewide elections (42 Pa.C.S. §§ 761–764). Article V, section 4 of the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitution created the Commonwealth Court. Acts enacted in 1970 set up the court. Judges are ...
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Superior Court Of Pennsylvania
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania is one of two Pennsylvania intermediate appellate courts (the other being the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania). It is based in Harrisburg. Jurisdiction The Superior Court hears appeals in criminal and most civil cases from the Courts of Common Pleas and on matters involving children and families. Cases are usually heard by panels of three judges sitting in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, or Pittsburgh, but may also be heard ''en banc'' by nine judges. Although different panels of three judges may sit to hear appeals, there is only one Superior Court (that is, Pennsylvania is not divided into appellate territories). Superior Court Judges Superior Court judges are elected in statewide elections. The term of a Superior Court Judge is 10 years. After serving 10 years, judges may hold their seats if they win a retention vote. Voters have the right to retain or reject (vote out of office) Superior Court judges in Pennsylvania. Superior Court jud ...
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Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as the "Supreme Court" of Pennsylvania were made official in 1722 upon its reorganization as an entity separate from the control of the royal governor. Today, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania maintains a discretionary docket, meaning that the Court may choose which cases it accepts, with the exception of mandatory death penalty appeals, and certain appeals from the original jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Court. This discretion allows the Court to wield powerful influence on the formation and interpretation of Pennsylvania law. History The Original Pennsylvania constitutions, drafted by William Penn, established a Prov ...
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Legal Opinion
In law, a legal opinion is in certain jurisdictions a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling. Opinions are in those jurisdictions usually published at the direction of the court, and to the extent, they contain pronouncements about what the law is and how it should be interpreted, they reinforce, change, establish, or overturn legal precedent. If a court decides that an opinion should be published, the opinion may be included in a volume from a series of books called law reports ('reporters' in the United States). Published opinions of courts are also collectively referred to as case law, and constitute in the common law legal systems one of the major sources of law. Memorandum opinion Not every case decided by a higher court results in the publication of an opinion; in fact many cases do not, since an opinion is often published only when the law is being int ...
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Case Law
Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of a legal case that have been resolved by courts or similar tribunals. These past decisions are called "case law", or precedent. ''Stare decisis''—a Latin phrase meaning "let the decision stand"—is the principle by which judges are bound to such past decisions, drawing on established judicial authority to formulate their positions. These judicial interpretations are distinguished from statutory law, which are codes enacted by legislative bodies, and regulatory law, which are established by executive agencies based on statutes. In some jurisdictions, case law can be applied to ongoing adjudication; for example, criminal proceedings or family law. In common law countries (including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and Ne ...
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Judicial Review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompatible with a higher authority: an executive decision may be invalidated for being unlawful or a statute may be invalidated for violating the terms of a constitution. Judicial review is one of the checks and balances in the separation of powers: the power of the judiciary to supervise the legislative and executive branches when the latter exceed their authority. The doctrine varies between jurisdictions, so the procedure and scope of judicial review may differ between and within countries. General principles Judicial review can be understood in the context of two distinct—but parallel—legal systems, civil law and common law, and also by two distinct theories of democracy regarding the manner in which government should be organized w ...
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English Law
English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, been the foundation and prime source of English law, the most authoritative law is statutory legislation, which comprises Acts of Parliament, regulations and by-laws. In the absence of any statutory law, the common law with its principle of '' stare decisis'' forms the residual source of law, based on judicial decisions, custom, and usage. Common law is made by sitting judges who apply both statutory law and established principles which are derived from the reasoning from earlier decisions. Equity is the other historic source of judge-made law. Common law can be amended or repealed by Parliament. Not being a civil law system, it has no comprehensive codification. However, most of its criminal law has been codified from its common la ...
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Reception Statute
A reception statute is a statutory law adopted as a former British colony becomes independent by which the new nation adopts, or receives, the English common law before its independence to the extent not explicitly rejected by the legislative body or constitution of the new nation. Reception statutes generally consider the English common law dating prior to independence, as well as the precedents originating from it, as the default law because of the importance of using an extensive and predictable body of law to govern the conduct of citizens and businesses in a new state. All US states have either implemented reception statutes or adopted the common law by judicial opinion, but there is a special case of partial reception for Louisiana. Initial reception of English common law In ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'', Sir William Blackstone described the process by which English common law followed English colonization: Plantations or colonies, in distant countries, are eith ...
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Gazette
A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name ''The Gazette''. Etymology ''Gazette'' is a loanword from the French language, which is, in turn, a 16th-century permutation of the Italian ''gazzetta'', which is the name of a particular Venetian coin. ''Gazzetta'' became an epithet for ''newspaper'' during the early and middle 16th century, when the first Venetian newspapers cost one gazzetta. (Compare with other vernacularisms from publishing lingo, such as the British ''penny dreadful'' and the American ''dime novel''.) This loanword, with its various corruptions, persists in numerous modern languages (Slavic languages, Turkic languages). Government gazettes In England, with the 1700 founding of ''The Oxford Gazette'' (which became the '' London Gazette''), the word ...
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Administrative Law
Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of Forms of government, government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), adjudication, or the enforcement of laws. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law. Administrative law deals with the decision-making of such administrative units of government that are part of the executive branch in such areas as international trade, manufacturing, the Environment (biophysical), environment, taxation, broadcasting, immigration, and transport. Administrative law expanded greatly during the 20th century, twentieth century, as legislative bodies worldwide created more government agencies to regulate the social, economic and political spheres of human interaction. Civil law countries often have specialized administrative courts that review these decisions. In civil law ...
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