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| the principle that the judicial system treats all who come before it equally under the law without regard to gender, race, class, religion, or anything else. |
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| the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law. |
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| the system of law that relies on the contest between each advocate representing his or her party's positions and involves an impartial person or group of people, usually a jury or judge, trying to determine the truth of the case. |
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| a legal right that the accused in criminal trials has in many modern countries. |
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| the primary feature of which is that laws are written into a collection, codified, and not determined, as in common law, by judges. |
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| refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply. |
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| a type of jury that determines whether there is enough evidence for a trial. |
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| an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence. |
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| part of jury instructions in all criminal trials, in which the jurors are told that they can only find the defendant guilty if they are convinced "beyond a reason- able doubt" of his or her guilt. |
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| an agreement or resolution of a dispute. |
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| Preponderance of Evidence |
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| a standard of proof that must be met by a plaintiff if he or she is to win a civil action. |
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| the right to hear a case for the first time as opposed to appellate jurisdiction when a court has the right to review a lower court's decision. |
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| the power of a court to review decisions and change outcomes of decisions of lower courts. |
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| an unwritten political custom in the United States whereby the president consults the senior U.S. Senator of his political party of a given state before nominating any person to a federal vacancy within that Senator's state. |
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| a theory of judicial interpretation that encourages judges to limit the exercise of their own power. |
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| a political term used to describe judicial rulings that are suspected to be based upon personal and political considerations other than existing law. |
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| the doctrine in democratic theory under which legislative and executive action is subject to invalidation by the judiciary. |
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| a landmark case in United States law. It formed the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution. |
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| an order by a higher court directing a lower court, tribunal, or public authority to send the record in a given case for review. |
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