Law clerk

A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Unlike the court clerk and the courtroom deputy, both of whom are administrative staff for the court, a law clerk assists the judge in making legal determinations. Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who performed at or near the top of their class. Studies have shown clerks to be influential in the formation of case law, through their influence upon judges' decisions. Working as a law clerk generally opens up career opportunities.

In many nations, clerk duties are performed by permanent staff attorneys or junior apprentice-like judges, such as those that sit on France's Conseil d'État. In English courts, they are known as Judicial Assistants. The European Court of Justice uses permanent staff attorneys (Referendaires) and the Stagiaires (young law graduates). Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Brazil have notable clerk systems.

While there has been relatively little inquiry comparing law clerks across nations, some research has been done comparing clerkship practices in the U.S. with other nations' courts. In some countries the position of law clerk does not exist.

Law clerk (parliamentary)

A law clerk, sometimes called parliamentary counsel, is an officer in some parliamentary systems. The law clerk is charged with providing advice on legal issues and parliamentary procedure to the Speaker and members of the chamber. The position is neutral and non-partisan.

In some systems, the law clerk is a separate officer responsible to the clerk of the chamber. In other systems, the duty to provide legal advice is part of the duties of the clerk of the chamber.

See also

External links

Law

Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common law jurisdictions. Private individuals can create legally binding contracts, including arbitration agreements that may elect to accept alternative arbitration to the normal court process. The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, and the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people.

A general distinction can be made between (a) civil law jurisdictions (including Catholic canon law and socialist law), in which the legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates their laws, and (b) common law systems, where judge-made precedent is accepted as binding law. Historically, religious laws played a significant role even in settling of secular matters, which is still the case in some religious communities, particularly Jewish, and some countries, particularly Islamic. Islamic Sharia law is the world's most widely used religious law.

Law (disambiguation)

Law is a set of norms, which can be seen both in a sociological and in a philosophical sense.

Law, LAW, or laws may also refer to:

Media and entertainment

Anime and Manga

Games

Literature and publications

Canon law

Canon law is the body of laws and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (Church leadership), for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church (both Latin Church and Eastern Catholic Churches), the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the individual national churches within the Anglican Communion. The way that such church law is legislated, interpreted and at times adjudicated varies widely among these three bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a canon was originally a rule adopted by a church council; these canons formed the foundation of canon law.

Etymology

Greek kanon / Ancient Greek: κανών,Arabic Qanun / قانون, Hebrew kaneh / קנה, "straight"; a rule, code, standard, or measure; the root meaning in all these languages is "reed" (cf. the Romance-language ancestors of the English word "cane").

Canons of the Apostles

The Apostolic Canons or Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles is a collection of ancient ecclesiastical decrees (eighty-five in the Eastern, fifty in the Western Church) concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, incorporated with the Apostolic Constitutions which are part of the Ante-Nicene Fathers In the fourth century the First Council of Nicaea (325) calls canons the disciplinary measures of the Church: the term canon, κανὠν, means in Greek, a rule. There is a very early distinction between the rules enacted by the Church and the legislative measures taken by the State called leges, Latin for laws.