| A | B |
|---|
| criminal law | Law that regulates public conduct and sets out duties owed to society. |
| felony | criminal offense punishable by a prison sentence of more than one year in jail. |
| jurisprudence | The study of law and legal philosophy. |
| misdemeanor | criminal offense punishable by a prison sentence of one year or less. |
| civil law | regulate relations between individuals or groups of insividuals. |
| civil action | a lawsuit that can be brought by a person who feels wronged or injured by another person. |
| statutes | written laws enacted by legislatures. |
| plaintiff | the person or company harmed |
| prosecutor | the state or federal government's attorney in a criminal case. |
| beyond a reasonable doubt | the level of proof required to convict a person of a crime. |
| preponderance of the evidence | the standard of proof used in a civil suit, to win, a party must provide evidence that is more convincing than the other side's evidence. |
| limited government | limits government to powers provided to it by the people. |
| separation of powers | the division of power among the branches of government. |
| defendant | person accused of committing the crime. |
| checks and balances | the power of each of the three branches of government to limit the other branches' power, so as to prevent an abuse. |
| veto | the power of a chief executive (The president) to prevent the enactment of a bill (law). |
| judicial review | the process by which courts decide whether the laws passed by congress or state legislatures are constitutional. |
| unconstitutional | conflicting with some provision of the Constitution. |
| Bill of Rights | the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which guarantee basic individual rightsto all persons in the United States. |
| federalism | the division of powers between the states and the federal government. |
