obligations and rights of people under the Constitution plus all of the laws passed by congress , state legislatures and local governments .
Layer 2 is Case Law . This includes actual cases where the law is applied , and where precedents are set for future applications of The Law . Case Law is the ongoing record of how the rules of Layer 1 are applied in specific cases .
Example : You loan your neighbor your lawn mower . He promises to return it . He doesn ’ t . He says , “ It ’ s mine now . Get lost !”
That evening , you sneak into his yard and grab it . As you are headed back to your house , the police spot you . Your neighbor accuses you of trespassing and stealing “ his ” mower . You are arrested and charged with trespass and theft .
At trial , you produce receipts , proving the mower was yours , but the prosecutor insists that you had no right to take the law into your own hands , and the crime of trespassing should still be applied . The judge acquits you of theft , and concludes that your neighbor should not be allowed to protect his theft of your mower by the shield of the law of trespass . You are fully acquitted .
The details , law and charges are written up in his decision , and his acquittal of you of the crime of trespassing is now a precedent for future lawyers in court to argue the circumstances of your case before judges and juries in similar cases .
This write up of your trial is Case Law . All those books you see on the shelves in lawyers ’ offices ? Those are the writeups by judges of decisions made in specific actual cases , both locally and across the country . Those extensive books are case law .
The Talmud has several facets . Some deal in the minutiae of religious practices , building a fence around the Torah and then a fence around a fence . It includes superstition . It includes anti Yeshua texts . However , it also includes a legitimate compendium of case law which sometimes is very good application .
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