The American Court System 美国法院系统

The American Court System 美国法院系统

（Three-level Court Systems）

Unlike most countries in the world, actually, there are fifty-two court systems in America—one for each of the fifty states, one for the District of Columbia, plus a federal[?fed?r?l]system—similarities abound. The state court systems are established according to the constitution of each state. The federal courts are not superior [su:?pi?ri?, sju:-] to the state courts; they are simply independent systems of courts, which derives its authority from Article 3, Section2, of the U.S. Constitution. Although state court systems differ, Exhibit3-1 illustrates the basic organizational structure characteristic of the court system in many states. The exhibit also shows how federal court system is structured.

与世界上大多数的国家不同，事实上，美国拥有52个法院系统——50个州每州一个，还有一个是哥伦比亚特区，再加上一个联邦法院系统——它们都是相似的。美国州的法院系统是依据各州的宪法而确立的。联邦法院不是各州的最高法院；他们是相对独立的法院系统，联邦法院起源的依据是美国联邦宪法第三条第二款的授权。虽然各州的法院系统各有不同，如图表3-1所阐释的各州法院的基本组织结构特征。这个图标同样显示出了联邦法院系统是怎样构成的。

1. State court System 州法院体系

Typically, a state court system will include several levels, or tiers, of courts. State courts may include (1) trial courts of limited jurisdiction[?d?u?ris?dik??n], (2) trial [?trai?l]courts of general jurisdiction, (3) appellate courts, and (4) the state’s highest court (often called the state supreme court). Generally, any person who is a party to a lawsuit has the opportunities to plead the case before a trial court and then, if he or she loses, before at least one level of appellate court. Finally, if a federal statute or federal constitutional issue is involved in the decision of the state Supreme[su:?pri:m, sju:-]Court, that decision can be further pleaded before the Federal Supreme Court.

就典型的来说，美国州的法院体系有若干个层级或审级。州法院体系可能包括(1)拥有有限司法管辖权的初审法院,(2)具有普遍管辖权的初审法院,(3)上诉法院,(4)各州的最高法院。一般来说，案件的任何一方当事人都有申请初审法院予以审理案件的权利，而后，如果他或她败诉，还可以将案件上诉至上诉法院。最后，如果州最高法院的判决涉及到联邦制定法和联邦宪法性的事项，那么，这个判决还可以被上诉至联邦最高法院。

a. Trial Courts 初审法院

Trial courts are exactly what their name implies, courts in which trials are held and testimony[?testim?ni]taken. State trial courts have either general or limited jurisdiction. Trial courts that have general jurisdiction as to subject matter may be called county, district, superior[su:?pi?ri?, sju:-], or circuit[?s?:kit]courts. The jurisdiction of these courts is often determined by the size of the county in which the courts sit. State trial courts of general jurisdiction have jurisdiction over a wide variety of subjects, including both civil disputes and criminal prosecutions. In some cases, trial courts of general jurisdiction may hear appeals from courts of limited jurisdiction.

初审法院正如其名称所述，是进行审判和采集证据的法院。州初审法院有普遍和有限司法管辖权之分。拥有普遍管辖权的初审法院就受理的诉讼标的的不同分别叫做郡县法院，地

区法院，高级法院和巡回法院。这些法院所拥有的司法管辖权范围是该法院所在郡县的大小来决定的。具有普遍管辖权的州初审法院对各种事物都有管辖权，包括民事争议和刑事指控。在某些案件中，具有普遍管辖权的州法院可以受理具有有限司法管辖权的法院的上诉案件。

Some courts of limited jurisdiction are called special inferior [in?fi?ri?] trial courts or minor judiciary[d?u:?di??l] courts. Small claims courts are inferior trial courts that hear only civil cases involving claims of less than a certain amount, such as $5,000 (the amount varies from state to state). Suits brought in small claims courts are generally conducted informally, and lawyers are not even allowed to represent peoples in small claims courts for most purposes. Another example of an inferior trial court is a local municipal[mju:?nisip?l]court that hears mainly traffic cases. Decisions of small claims courts and municipal courts may be appealed to a state trial court of general jurisdiction.

一些有限管辖权的法院被称为特殊低级法院或者是次级法院。小额索赔法院都是只听取包括数额在某一特定范围内如5000美元以下索赔的民事案件的低级法院（这个一定数额各州不尽相同）。小额索赔法院受理的诉讼案通常都采用的是非正式审理，并且在许多事项上,甚至不允许律师代表出庭。低级初审法院的另一种形式是主要负责处理交通案件的地方市镇法庭。小额索赔法院和市镇法院的判决可以上诉至具有普遍管辖权的州初审法院。

Other courts of limited jurisdiction as to subject matter include domestic relations courts, which handle only divorce actions and child-custody [?k?st?di] cases, and probate courts.

另外，有限管辖权法院还包括根据受理的诉讼标的不同包括只处理离婚的诉讼，子女监护权案件的家庭关系法院和遗产检验法庭。

b. Courts of Appeals 上诉法院

Every state has at least one court of appeals (appellate court, or reviewing court), which may be an intermediate appellate court or the state’s highest court. About three-fourths of the states have intermediate appellate courts. Generally, courts of appeals do not conduct new trials, in which evidence is submitted to the court and witnesses are examined. Rather, an appellate court panel of three or more judges reviews the record of the case on appeal, which includes a transcript of the trial proceedings, and determines whether the trial court committed an error.

每一个州都至少有一个上诉的法院（上诉法院或者是重审法院），它可能是居中仲裁的上诉法院或者是州的最高法院。大概有3/4的州都有仲裁法院。通常来说，上诉法院不受理新的案件，因为新的案件需要收集证据和询问证人。相反，上诉法庭将有三名或更多的法官重审案件在上诉阶段的纪录，包括检查初审诉讼程序中的副本，并对初审是否有误做出裁决。

Usually, appellate courts do not look at the questions of fact (such as whether a party did, in fact, commit a certain action, such as burning a flag) but at questions of law (such as whether the act of flag-burning is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution). Only a judge, not a jury, can rule on questions of law. Appellate courts normally defer to a trial court’s findings on questions of fact because the trial court judge and jury were in a better position to evaluate[i?v?ljueit]testimony[?testim?ni]—by directly observing witnesses’ gestures[?d?est??], demeanor [di?mi:n?], and nonverbal behavior during the trial. At the appellate level, the judges review the written transcription of the trial, which does not include these nonverbal elements.

通常，上诉法院不审查事实问题，（例如事实上，一方当事人是否做了某种行为，如烧国旗），但是可以审查法律问题（例如烧国旗这种行为是否是美国联邦宪法第一修正案中有

关言论自由的一种表现形式）。只有法官，而非陪审团成员，才可以对法律问题做出裁决。正常情况下，在事实问题的查明上，上诉法院要尊重初审法院的意见，因为初审法院的法官和陪审团在调查证据的时候处在一个更有力的位置上——他们可以在审理中直接观察证人的姿势，行为举止，还有非语言的动作。在上诉阶段，法官重审的是初审法院提供的书面纪录，这当中当然不包括那些非语言的要素。

An appellate court will challenge a trial court’s finding of fact only when the finding is clearly erroneous [i?r?uni?s] (that is, when it is contrary to the evidence presented at trial) or when there is no evidence to support the finding. If a jury concluded that a manufacturer’s product harmed the plaintiff but no evi dence was submitted to the court to support that conclusion, the appellate court would hold that the trial court’s decision was erroneous.

上诉法院只有当发现初审法院所查明的事实明显错误（也就是，审判中发现查出的“事实”与证据所证明的相反）或者根本就没有证据支持这些“事实”时，才能对其事实问题提出质疑。如果陪审团得出结论认为一个商家的产品对原告造成了损害，但是法庭却不能提供相应的支持这个结论的证据，上诉法院就将裁定初审法院的这个判决错误。

c. State Supreme[su:?pri:m, sju:-](Highest) Courts 州最高法院

The highest appellate court in a state is usually called the supreme court but may be called by some other names. For example, in both New York and Maryland, the highest state court is called the court of appeals. The decisions of each state’s highest court on all questions of state law are final. Only when issues of federal law are involved can a decision made by a state’s highest court be overruled by the United States Supreme Court.

州的最高上诉的法院被叫做最高法院，但其实也有其他的名字。比如，在纽约州和马里兰州，州最高法院叫做上诉法院。各州的最高法院的判决对于所有问题的审理都是终局的。只有当州最高法院的判决涉及到了联邦法律问题的时候，联邦最高法院才能够将其推翻。