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Legitimate Domination
○ Domination: “the probability that certain specific commands (or all commands)
will be obeyed by a given group of persons.”
■ For domination to last, depends upon belief in legitimacy of command and
its source
○ 3 types of Domination
■ Traditional: submission to those privileged by historical convention
■ Charismatic: belief in the extraordinary/sacred qualities of an individual
■ Rational-legal: patterns of rules and those elevated to positions of
authority ny the rules right to issue commands
What is a Law?
○ 3 elements:
■ Coercion - necessary to enforce compliance
■ Authority - legitimacy to enforce
■ Consistency application ○ Rule of Law: all are equal before law and none are immune from it
■ This is the fundamental fairness expectation of the judicial system
● Replacement of arbitrary rule and privileges
■ “That’s not fair” is a tacit reference to rule of law
Legal System
○ Plaintiff: individual or organization that brings a complaint to court
○ Defendant: the individual or organization that a complaint is brought
Criminal law
○ Criminal law: branch of law that regulates the conduct of individuals, defines
crimes, specifies punishments for criminal acts
■ Government charges individual with violating a statute that has been
enacted to protect public health, safety, morals, or welfare
○ Most cases arise in state and municipal courts
○ Standard: guilty beyond a reasonable doubt
■ Reasonable doubt: when an individual cannot say with certainty that a
person is guilty or a specific fact exists
● Doubt that would cause a reasonable person to hesitate before
acting in a manner of importance
● The prosecution must convince the jury there is no other
reasonable explanation that can come from the evidence
presented at trial
■ Reasonable doubt is the highest standard of proof used in court
Civil law
○ Second broad category of law
■ Deals with disputes that do not involve criminal penalties
■ Plaintiff is the party that has been legally wronged
■ Involves disputes among individuals, groups, corporations and other
private entities
● Or disputes between litigants and the govt.
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Losers in civil cases cannot be fined/sent to jail, but may be required to
pay monetary damages for their actions
○ Standard: either
■ Clear and convincing evidence
■ A preponderance of the evidence
Legal System: Precedent
○ Deciding cases
○ court s apply statues (law) and legal precedents
■ Precedent: prior cases whose principles are used by judges as basis for
their decision in present case
● Applied under doctrine of decisis
○ Literally translates from Latin as “let the decision stand”
○ Courts are hesitant to overturn precedent