Download 1. The law

Chapter 12
The Law, Police and
Military
◎Learning objectives:
After completing this part, students
should familiarize themselves with
The law, police and military.
◎Focal points:
1. The US law
2. The US legal system
3. The police
4. The military
1. The law
The law of the United States consists of
many levels of codified (编纂的) and
uncodified forms of law.
The Sources of Law
constitutional law
statutory law
administrative regulations
the common law (which includes case
law)
1.1 The Constitution
The Constitution is the supreme law of
the United States. It is the foundation
and source of the legal authority
underlying the existence of the United
States of America and the federal
government of the United States.
Facts and Figures
the oldest written constitution
adopted on September 17, 1787
amended twenty-seven times
The first 10 amendments to the
Constitution, called the Bill of Rights
1.2 The Levels of Law
The law of the United States was originally
largely derived from the common law
system of English las.
1.2.1 Federal law
Federal law originates with the
Constitution, which gives Congress the
power to enact statutes for certain limited
purposes like regulating interstate
commerce. Nearly all statutes have been
codified in the United States Code. Many
statutes give the executive branch
agencies the power to create regulations
1.2.2 State law
The fifty American states are separate
sovereign states with their own state
constitutions, state governments, and
state courts (including state supreme
courts).
1.2.3 Local law
States have delegated lawmaking powers
to thousands of agencies, townships,
counties, cities, and special districts.
◎Question to ponder:
What is the structure of the
American legal system?
Hints 
Hints
The United States Constitution，the foundation of
the federal government of the United States, is the
basis of the U.S. legal system. The Constitution is
the supreme law of the United States. All other law
falls under and is subordinate to that document. No
law may contradict the Constitution. Within the
federal structure, each state has its own constitution,
statutes made by its own legislature, and a body of
case law created by its own courts. So it can be said
that instead of one uniform set of laws America has
fifty one a set of laws for each of the fifty states and
one for the federation.
2. The Police
The United State, based on federalism,
does not have a national police force and
national criminal law. It is the responsibility
of the state and local governments to keep
public peace and order. Each of the fifty
state legislatures determines its own crime
policy separately. Some states choose to
have the death penalty while others avoid
it. An exact definition of a national crime
policy is difficult.
2.1 The FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the
investigative arm of the US Department of
Justice.
2.2 The CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is
an independent government organization,
founded under the National Security Act of
1947.
◎Kaleidoscope
The September 11th attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon are widely
regarded as terrorist acts. There is
evidence of CIA involvement. See Michael
Ruppert's Suppressed Details of Criminal
Insider Trading Lead Directly into the CIA's
Highest Ranks.
The CIA has been a terrorist organization from its
beginnings, when it included a large number of
former Nazis — former members of the Gestapo and
the Nazi military intelligence (such as Reinhard
Gehlen). Unlike smaller terrorist organizations such
as ETA the CIA does not normally engage in
terrorism by sending its employees to plant bombs,
etc. Rather, it tends to act through intermediaries
and agents, sometimes making use of U.S. military
personnel.
That the CIA is a terrorist organization is
clear from its record of terrorist activities
(sometimes called "counterinsurgency" or
"low intensity conflict"). Here are just a
few examples:
During the Vietnam war the CIA conducted
Operation Phoenix, an assassination
program. The goal was not only to
eliminate those Vietnamese who might
oppose the U.S. (which in practice meant
most of the population of Vietnam) but
also to terrorize the entire population of
South Vietnam and to suppress opposition
to the occupying U.S. forces. Over 20,000
Vietnamese were murdered, often at
random.
The CIA organized and financed (with the
profits from its cocaine smuggling) the
activities of the Contras in Nicaragua, who
murdered tens of thousands of civilians,
and tried to disrupt the economy, in an
attempt to destabilize the legitimate
Sandinista government. (For this the U.S.
was condemned in the World Court for
engaging in international terrorism, and it
rejected a U.N. security council resolution
calling upon it to observe international
law.)
The CIA also recruited a mercenary army
in Vietnam (financed by profits from the
CIA's heroin smuggling), particularly from
among the Hmong villagers, which was
used to terrorize the civilian population
and to prevent them from assisting the
Viet Cong.
The CIA planned and organized the
military coup d'etat in 1973 in Chile which
overthrew the legitimately elected
government of Salvador Allende (because
he would not implement economic policies
designed in Washington to favor American
corporations doing business in Chile) and
brought to power the regime of General
Augusto Pinochet; this regime abducted,
tortured and killed thousands of Chilean
citizens in an attempt to suppress
opposition.
The CIA organized and supported the
Turkish government's persecution of its
Kurdish minority during the 1990s,
resulting in tens of thousands of deaths
and millions of refuges; the aim being the
suppression of Kurdish culture and the
elimination of Kurdish demands for a
separate state.
3.The Military
The U.S. military is one of the largest
militaries in terms of number of personnel.
It draws its manpower from a large pool of
volunteers
43 percent of world military expenditures
large quantities of advanced and powerful
equipment
armed services of the US
The Army
Navy
Marine Corps
Air Force
Coast Guard
The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world.
The U.S. Navy also has the world's largest
carrier fleet, with 11 in service and one
under construction.
US Army
warcrafts
A US aircraft carrier
The United States was the first country in
the world to develop nuclear weapons,
and is the only country to have actually
used them as weapons in the bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.
Research and Presentation
What are the US Military’s contributions to
the international peacekeeping efforts?