Whois & Analysis for justicesystems.com

A court is a tribunal, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law.

In both common law and civil law legal systems, courts are the central means for dispute resolution, and it is generally understood that all persons have an ability to bring their claims before a court.

Similarly, the rights of those accused of a crime include the right to present a defense before a court.

Attorney at law or attorney-at-law, usually abbreviated in everyday speech to attorney, is the preferred term for a practising lawyer in certain jurisdictions, including South Africa (for certain lawyers), Sri Lanka, and the United States.

In Canada, it is used only in Quebec.

The term has its roots in the verb , meaning to transfer one's rights and obligations to another.

Case law is the set of existing rulings which made new interpretations of law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents.

In some countries, such as the United States, the term is exclusively used for judicial decisions of selected appellate courts, courts of first instance, and other bodies discharging judicial functions.

In other countries, such as most European countries, the term is applied to any set of rulings on law which is guided by previous rulings, for example, patent office case law.

These interpretations are distinguished from statutory law which are the statutes and codes enacted by legislative bodies; regulatory law which are regulations established by governmental agencies based on statutes; and in some states, common law which are the generally accepted laws carried to the colonies and former colonies of England (USA, Australia, etc).

Trials and hearings which are not selected as 'courts of first impression' do not have rulings that become case law; therefore, these rulings cannot be precedents for future court decisions.