Every business day, courts throughoutthe United States render decisions thattogether affect many thousands ofpeople. Some affect only the parties toa particular legal action, but others adjudicate rights, benefits, and legalprinciples that have an impact on virtually all Americans. Inevitably, manyAmericans may welcome a given ruling while others — sometimes manyothers — disapprove. All, however, accept the legitimacy of these decisions,and of the courts’ role as final interpreter of the law. There can be nomore potent demonstration of thetrust that Americans place in the ruleof law and their confidence in the U.S.legal system.The pages that follow survey thatsystem. Much of the discussion explains how U.S. courts are organizedand how they work. Courts are centralto the legal system, but they are notthe entire system. Every day acrossAmerica, federal, state, and localcourts interpret laws, adjudicate disputes under laws, and at times evenstrike down laws as violating the fundamental protections that the Constitution guarantees all Americans. Atthe same time, millions of Americanstransact their day-to-day affairs without turning to the courts. They, too,rely upon the legal system. The youngcouple purchasing their first home,two businessmen entering into a contract, parents drawing up a will to provide for their children — all requires the predictability and enforceablecommon norms that the rule of lawprovides and the U.S. legal systemguarantees.This introduction seeks to familiarize readers with the basic structureand vocabulary of American law.Subsequent chapters add detail, andafford a sense of how the U.S. legalsystem has evolved to meet theneeds of a growing nation and itsever more complex economic andsocial realities.