Criminal justice - Assignment Example

In 1934, the Supreme Court was given the authority to draft rules of federal procedures. The Judiciary Act also had a provision for the establishment of circuit and districts. The circuit courts were later abolished in 1911 (Schmalleger, 243). Congress later established a District Court for each state that had jurisdiction over maritime and admiralty cases along with minor criminal and civil cases. The president was given the power to appoint an Attorney General for each district and for other new states that were to be established.

A dual court system is whereby the judicial system is administratively divided into two systems independent of the legislature and executive. The two systems are the federal court system and the state court system. The reason for this judicial system is that it was expensive and time consuming for federal courts to listen to individual cases that affected only a few people. The state courts were created so that these case are heard and judged on quickly and efficiently. The federal and the state court systems are divided into the following layers.

Special jurisdiction courts which handle only specific kind of cases like the tax and bankruptcy courts and the family courts. The other layers of the judicial system include the Trial Court, the Appellate Court and the Supreme Court. There exists a number difference between the state court and the federal court systems. One is that state courts are established by the state while the federal courts are created by the federal government. On jurisdiction, state courts have a wider jurisdiction over the cases that they could hear, unlike the federal courts which are limited to specific cases listed in the constitution or provided by Congress.

State courts handle criminal cases for crimes committed within the borders of the state while crimes committed across state borders are dealt