Constitution Day 2022: Condoleezza Rice on Democracy and American Institutions

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Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, but its detailed rules were developed by professional jurists and were highly sophisticated. In medieval England, royal courts developed a body of precedent which later became the common law. A Europe-wide Law Merchant was formed so that merchants could trade with common standards of practice rather than with the many splintered facets of local laws. The Law Merchant, a precursor to modern commercial law, emphasised the freedom to contract and alienability of property.

• Strategic lawyering by a team of Harvard Law students led Veterans Affairs to change its long-standing benefits policy that largely excluded surviving partners of LGBTQ+ veterans.
• The current legal infrastructure in the People’s Republic of China was heavily influenced by Soviet Socialist law, which essentially inflates administrative law at the expense of private law rights.
• I call the relevant facts “law-determining practices” rather than “legal decisions” because the term “decisions” tends to suggest judicial decisions in particular.
• For instance, the Quran has some law, and it acts as a source of further law through interpretation, Qiyas , Ijma and precedent.
• The constitutions of certain Muslim states, such as Egypt and Afghanistan, recognise