Speaking about the peculiarities of the US legislative system, it is essential to keep in mind some social and historical features of the formation of American society. Thus, it is not surprising that American law is quite different from the European foundations of law.

If you want to understand why American law stands out among the legislations of other countries, keep reading this article.

The Common Law

The first important feature that needs to be mentioned when talking about the characteristics of American law is that it belongs to the so-called common law system. It is believed that this system is based on the formation of the law in accordance with the preferences and court decisions, although, in fact, such laws make up only a small part of all legislation in the United States.

We suppose you do not want to rely on superficial judgments about the difference but prefer to understand the problem deeply. In that case, you will need to know that, in fact, the absence of the civil code and reliance on the precedents are those points that can be challenged and are not the main ones.

A Historical Aspect

In order to understand the reason why the English and European legislative systems developed in different ways, it is necessary to turn to history. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, England was invaded by the Normans and, consequently, the country got influenced by them, including laws. In Europe, on the contrary, people turned to classical Roman legislation and built a modern system on this model.

These historical developments have resulted in the laws being developed in different ways. Since then, the roles of the precedent were not the same for English (American) and European laws.

The Role Of Moral Values

The last and perhaps the most important difference between American and European law is the different mentality. Americans value democracy and equality the most. These values are reflected in all spheres of life, including legislation. Perhaps that is why the European judicial system can strongly depend on the personality of judges, whereas in America, the most important role cannot be assigned to the elite, who get too much power by moving up the career ladder and making independent decisions.

Americans are convinced that during the trial, special attention should be paid to a specific case and not to the opinion of the elites.

Thus, we have described some basic characteristics of the American law that make it special compared to the European one. The last thing we want to emphasize is that when studying the peculiarities of national legislation, it is necessary to take into account the complex interaction of key factors and the centuries-old development of the society under study.