Administration
The federal territory comprises 50 states with equal rights and the federally administered District of Columbia (D. C., with the federal capital Washington). The individual states are predominantly divided into counties, to which, apart from a few large cities, all municipalities (parishes) belong; Alaska has a division into divisions (districts), Louisiana calls the districts corresponding to the counties Parishes. The local divisions (municipalities, special districts, school districts, townships) are of great importance for the American understanding of democracy. There is a dualism in administration: Federal laws are implemented by federal authorities with their own administrations, laws of the individual states by corresponding administrative authorities. In the course of cooperative federalism, there is an exception to the federal contract administration.
State division of the USA
| Administrative unit (abbreviation, post office) | Area(in km 2) | Residents (in 1,000, as of 2015) | Residents(per km 2) | capital city | |
| States | |||||
| Alabama (Ala., AL) | 131 414 | 4,859.0 | 37 | Montgomery | |
| Alaska (Alas., AK) | 1 481 210 | 738.4 | 0.5 | Juneau | |
| Arizona (Ariz., AZ) | 294 285 | 6,828.1 | 23 | Phoenix | |
| Arkansas (Ark., AR) | 134 843 | 2,978.2 | 22nd | Little rock | |
| Colorado (Col. 1), CO) | 268 602 | 5,456.6 | 20th | Denver | |
| Connecticut (Conn., CT) | 12 547 | 3,590.9 | 286 | Hartford | |
| Delaware (Del., DE) | 5 059 | 945.9 | 187 | Dover | |
| Florida (Fla., FL) | 139 657 | 20 271.3 | 145 | Tallahassee | |
| Georgia (Ga., GA) | 149 962 | 10 214.9 | 68 | Atlanta | |
| Hawaii (Ha., HI) | 16 633 | 1,431.6 | 86 | Honolulu | |
| Idaho (Id., ID) | 214 294 | 1,654.9 | 8th | Boise | |
| Illinois (Ill., IL) | 143 947 | 12 860.0 | 89 | Springfield | |
| Indiana (Ind., IN) | 92 886 | 6,619.7 | 71 | Indianapolis | |
| Iowa (Ia., IA) | 144 688 | 3 123.9 | 22nd | Des Moines | |
| California (Calif., CA) | 403 895 | 39 144.8 | 97 | Sacramento | |
| Kansas (Kans., KS) | 211 880 | 2 911.6 | 14th | Topeka | |
| Kentucky (Ky., KY) | 102 886 | 4,425.1 | 43 | Frankfort | |
| Louisiana (La., LA) | 112 814 | 4,670.7 | 41 | Baton Rouge | |
| Maine (Me., ME) | 79 924 | 1,329.3 | 17th | Augusta | |
| Maryland (Md., MD) | 25 312 | 6,006.4 | 237 | Annapolis | |
| Massachusetts(Mass., MA) | 20 304 | 6,794.4 | 335 | Boston | |
| Michigan (Mich., MI) | 147 108 | 9,922.6 | 68 | Lansing | |
| Minnesota (Minn., MN) | 206 170 | 5,489.6 | 27 | Saint Paul | |
| Mississippi (Miss., MS) | 121 477 | 2,992.3 | 25th | Jackson | |
| Missouri (Mon., MO) | 178 397 | 6 083.7 | 34 | Jefferson City | |
| Montana (Mont., MT) | 376 944 | 1,032.9 | 3 | Helena | |
| Nebraska (Nebr., NE) | 199 080 | 1,896.2 | 10 | Lincoln | |
| Nevada (Nev., NV) | 284 422 | 2,890.8 | 10 | Carson City | |
| New Hampshire(N.H., NH) | 23 225 | 1,330.6 | 57 | Concord | |
| New Jersey (N.J., NJ) | 19 209 | 8,958.0 | 466 | Trenton | |
| New Mexico (N. Mex., NM) | 314 280 | 2,085.1 | 7th | Santa Fe | |
| New York (N. Y., NY) | 122 272 | 19,795.8 | 162 | Albany | |
| North Carolina (N.C., NC) | 126 149 | 10 042.8 | 80 | Raleigh | |
| North Dakota (N.D. 2), ND) | 178 630 | 756.9 | 4th | Bismarck | |
| Ohio (Oh., OH) | 106 046 | 11 613.4 | 110 | Columbus | |
| Oklahoma (Okla., OK) | 177 830 | 3 911.3 | 22nd | Oklahoma City | |
| Oregon (Oreg., OR) | 248 607 | 4,029.0 | 16 | Salem | |
| Pennsylvania (Pa., PA) | 116 064 | 12 802.5 | 110 | Harrisburg | |
| Rhode Island (R. I., RI) | 2 706 | 1,056.3 | 390 | Providence | |
| South Carolina (S. C., SC) | 77 976 | 4,896.1 | 63 | Columbia | |
| South Dakota (S. D. 3), SD) | 196 522 | 858.5 | 4th | Pierre | |
| Tennessee (Tenn., TN) | 106 742 | 6,600.3 | 62 | Nashville-Davidson | |
| Texas (Tex., TX) | 677 989 | 27 469.1 | 40 | Austin | |
| Utah (Ut., UT) | 212 731 | 2,995.9 | 14th | Salt Lake City | |
| Vermont (Vt., VT) | 23 954 | 626.0 | 26th | Montpelier | |
| Virginia (Va., VA) | 102 539 | 8,383.0 | 82 | Richmond | |
| Washington (Wash., WA) | 172 332 | 7 170.4 | 42 | Olympia | |
| West Virginia (W. Va., WV) | 62 355 | 1,844.1 | 30th | Charleston | |
| Wisconsin (Wis., WI) | 140 649 | 5,771.3 | 41 | Madison | |
| Wyoming (Wyo., WY) | 251 466 | 586.1 | 2 | Cheyenne | |
| Federal District | |||||
| District of Columbia (D. C., DC) | 159 | 672.2 | 4 228 | Washington | |
| 1) Also Colo.2) Also N. Dak.
3) Also S. Dak. |
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Law
The judiciary has two separate court systems, each with a full range of instances, namely the courts of the individual states and the federal courts. The federal courts are responsible for federal disputes as well as for disputes between parties from different states or countries: On the lower level are the federal district courts (United States District Courts), above the federal appeals courts (United States Circuit Courts) and the last instance is the Supreme Court (United States Supreme Court) in Washington, DC, which also reviews the constitutionality of federal and state laws in specific legal cases. All federal judges are appointed by the President for life.
Each member state has its own, mostly tripartite or bipartite court system for disputes that do not fall under the jurisdiction of the federal courts. The national judges are mostly elected by the people for a period of time. Some are also appointed by the governor or other political bodies. In both criminal and civil cases there is often a right to a decision by a jury (jury trial), whose judgments have recently been increasingly subject to constitutional scrutiny. B. when awarding high sums of damages (punitive damages).
Another special feature of procedural law is the admissibility of class actions, with which similar claims of a large number of plaintiffs can be enforced in one proceeding. There is no special jurisdiction in labor, administrative or social matters. The ordinary courts are regularly responsible, with the exception of a few special legal matters such as Lawsuits against the federal government, certain tax disputes, international commercial matters or patent matters.
The legal system is based on the judicial principles of Anglo-American common law. The only exception is the state of Louisiana whose right z. Partly still influenced by continental European, especially French influences. The legislative and thus also the judicial and administrative competence lies in principle with the federal states and only in the areas listed by the constitution that require a nationwide uniform regulation, with the federal legislature. The legislation of the member states is subject to various standardization efforts. In some legal matters, identical or similar regulations apply in a large number of member states on the basis of model laws that have been drawn up by intergovernmental commissions, for example in commercial and securities law on the basis of the Uniform Commercial Code; B. in some areas of corporate and procedural law. Death penalty provided.
