Structure and Framework of the Federal Courts - Research Paper Example

It is also out of the recognition that the constitution has for the broad nature of legal enforcement and the need to ensure that administration of justice and the enforcement of rule of law goes to the grassroots that there exists different parts and ranks of the court system, which is specifically assigned to interpret the constitution. This paper shall therefore visit the court system as the major framework that embodies the legal system and bring out the structure and role of the federal courts.

Purpose and Function of the Topic One key aspect of the legal system in the United States and most other democratic states like United Kingdom and France is the court and the structure of it. In the United States, there is what is known as the Federal Court system, which has been vested with the power of interpretation of the law at the local level2. In essence therefore, the present topic, which is stated as “the structure and framework of the federal courts” seeks to achieve three major functions and purposes.

The first purpose and function of the topic is to aid in the categorization of the federal court system. From a Congress viewpoint, the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land3. This Supreme court is overseen by a Chief Justice and eight other associate justices. But even within the Supreme Court, there are two constitutes of courts, which are the Appellate Court and Trail Courts. These bring the categorization down to smaller courts, which are made up of District Courts and Circuit Courts.

In order to ensure that there is not at any point in time overburden on the courts in the jurisdiction of justice, there are as many minor courts as possible, all of whom have been assigned special duties, cases and roles to oversee and hear. Some of these include bankruptcy courts, magistrate courts, the U.S. Court of Claims, the U.S. Court of Veterans' Appeals, the U.S. Court of Military Appeals, the U.S. Tax Court, and the U.S. Court of International Trade. The second purpose and function of the topic is to clearly outline what the differences between a State Court and a Federal Court are.

This is an important purpose to achieve with the topic because in a bid to educating the ordinary citizen of the legal system, it is very important for the citizen to have an idea of where to turn to in the event of different cases of legal concern. To this end, it would be said that unlike Federal Courts, most State Courts have very limited jurisdictions. From a legal perspective, this means that State Courts do not have as much power to trail wider range of cases as Federal Courts do4. Because of this, most judges in State Courts are appointed or elected only over a specified time frame and not for life as it is with Federal Courts.

Some of the cases that a typical State Court would trail is reflective in the name of the court. Examples are probate court, family court, traffic court, municipal court, small claims court and juvenile court. Finally, this topic seeks to expatiate on the effectiveness of the sovereignty of the various levels of the Federal Court in the legal system and structure of the country. Indeed, one of the main principles on which the legal system works is the principle of independence. This means that every court must be given maximum room to operate without any form of interference from