100+ Legal Trivia Questions & Answers

Question: What is the general legal term for a set of rules enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior?

Answer: Law

Question: Who defined law as “the prophecies of what the courts will do in fact”?

Answer: Oliver Wendell Holmes

Question: What name is given to the study of law’s nature, asking “what is law?”

Answer: Analytic jurisprudence

Question: Who, in The Concept of Law, argued that law is a “system of rules”?

Answer: H. L. A. Hart

Question: What does the legal term “stare decisis” refer to in the common law system?

Answer: Doctrine of precedent

Question: Which legal professional would pursue a JD at Harvard Law School before arguing cases?

Answer: Lawyer

Question: Which branch of constitutional law concerns the validity of legislation under a constitution?

Answer: Judicial review

Question: What legal system divides rules into primary and secondary in Hart’s theory?

Answer: Rule-based system

Question: Which famous person said that law is “the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction”?

Answer: John Austin

Question: Which term refers to the question “what should law be?” in jurisprudence?

Answer: Normative jurisprudence

Question: Which law school acronym is commonly used by law students after graduation?

Answer: JD

Question: What legal trivia asks “what is law?” in the context of defining its essence?

Answer: Analytic jurisprudence

Question: Which legal professional writes judicial opinions that form precedent?

Answer: Judge

Question: What answer did Ronald Dworkin give when describing law as an “interpretive concept”?

Answer: To achieve justice

Question: Who believed law reflects “universal laws of nature” in natural law theory?

Answer: Immanuel Kant

Question: Which legal term describes laws imposed by an autocrat without legislature?

Answer: Decree

Question: What landmark term did Thomas Aquinas use for law as a rational ordering for the common good?

Answer: Promulgation

Question: Which U.S. Supreme Court decision first established judicial review?

Answer: Marbury v. Madison

Question: What legal term describes rules made by a legislature?

Answer: Statute

Question: Which legal professional role interprets and applies the law in court?

Answer: Judge

Question: Which ancient code, inscribed on stone, is one of the earliest legal documents?

Answer: Code of Hammurabi

Question: Around 1760 BC, which Babylonian king codified laws that became a landmark case in legal history?

Answer: Hammurabi

Question: Which legal trivia question asks about the first Sumerian law code by Ur-Nammu?

Answer: Around 22nd century BC

Question: What state law system in ancient Athens distinguished divine law, human decree, and custom?

Answer: Thémis, nomos, díkē

Question: Which Roman emperor’s legal action codified centuries of Roman law into the Corpus Juris Civilis?

Answer: Justinian I

Question: In which century was the Justinian Code rediscovered at Harvard Law School-supported excavations?

Answer: 11th century

Question: Which medieval English legal document forced King John to accept limits on royal power?

Answer: Magna Carta

Question: What answer do we give for the origin of the English common law under Henry II?

Answer: Unified judicial system

Question: Who was the first scholar to collect and teach the common law as a coherent system?

Answer: William Blackstone

Question: Which landmark case on negligence emerged from Donoghue v Stevenson in 1932?

Answer: Neighbor principle

Question: What case involved a snail in ginger beer and established duty of care in tort?

Answer: Donoghue v Stevenson

Question: Which North Carolina case in 1829 allowed physical punishment of enslaved people?

Answer: State v. Mann

Question: Which legal trivia asks about the first code to govern merchants across medieval Europe?

Answer: Law Merchant

Question: What question do historians ask about the relationship between canon law and common law?

Answer: How did canon law influence English courts?

Question: Which legal action did the Ottoman Mecelle represent?

Answer: First attempt to codify Sharia

Question: In 2001, which U.S. Supreme Court decision affected searches of a mobile phone camera?

Answer: Riley v. California

Question: Which 2015 supreme court decision recognized same-sex marriage across all U.S. states?

Answer: Obergefell v. Hodges

Question: What time period saw Japan import the German Civil Code to modernize its legal system?

Answer: Late 19th century

Question: Which civil rights activist argued before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education?

Answer: Thurgood Marshall

Question: Which legal document formed the basis for French civil law in 1804?

Answer: Napoleonic Code

Question: Which branch of criminal law regulates the definition and punishment of offenses?

Answer: Criminal law

Question: What legal term describes a crime’s required “guilty mind”?

Answer: Mens rea

Question: What question defines the “guilty act” in criminal cases?

Answer: Actus reus

Question: Which body performs judicial review of state law for constitutionality?

Answer: Supreme Court

Question: What official title does the head of the U S Supreme Court hold?

Answer: Chief Justice

Question: Who is the current Chief Justice of the United States?

Answer: John Roberts

Question: In which U.S. city is the Supreme Court Building located?

Answer: Washington, DC

Question: Which legal trivia asks about the Right to counsel in criminal cases?

Answer: Gideon v. Wainwright

Question: What answer did the Supreme Court give in Gideon v. Wainwright?

Answer: Right to appointed counsel

Question: Which legal professional prosecutes criminal defendants on behalf of the state?

Answer: District attorney

Question: What landmark case established Miranda rights?

Answer: Miranda v. Arizona

Question: Which legal world institution issues regulations after legislative statutes?

Answer: Executive branch

Question: Which question covers who appoints Supreme Court justices?

Answer: President

Question: What term describes the power to invalidate unconstitutional laws?

Answer: Judicial review

Question: Which person became the first female Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court?

Answer: Sandra Day O’Connor

Question: What legal system feature binds lower courts to higher courts’ decisions?

Answer: Stare decisis

Question: Which constitutional law amendment guarantees free speech?

Answer: First Amendment

Question: Which case ruled that New York’s handgun ban violated the Second Amendment?

Answer: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen

Question: What answer identifies the Supreme Court’s role in interpreting the Constitution?

Answer: Judicial review

Question: Which legal term describes an order to appear before a court?

Answer: Summons

Question: What legal term refers to enforceable promises in a contract?

Answer: Consideration

Question: Which person famously said “agreements must be kept” in Latin?

Answer: Roman jurists (pacta sunt servanda)

Question: What answer identifies the three elements of a contract under common law?

Answer: Offer, acceptance, consideration

Question: Which landmark case involved contract law and an influenza remedy advertisement?

Answer: Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.

Question: What term describes civil wrongs like negligence or defamation?

Answer: Tort

Question: Which legal trivia question covers the principle “love your neighbor”?

Answer: Donoghue v Stevenson

Question: What answer did Lord Atkin give about duty of care?

Answer: Don’t injure your neighbor

Question: Which legal document outlines land ownership and mortgages?

Answer: Deed

Question: What question defines property law’s distinction between real and personal property?

Answer: Real vs. movable

Question: Which state law system in Louisiana blends French civil law and common law?

Answer: Mixed system

Question: What term describes judicially created law in common law systems?

Answer: Case law

Question: Which answer identifies rights enforceable against the world?

Answer: Rights in rem

Question: Which famous lawyer wrote the Commentaries on the Laws of England?

Answer: William Blackstone

Question: What legal term describes the person bringing a lawsuit?

Answer: Plaintiff

Question: Which legal action involves a claim of unconstitutionality?

Answer: Judicial review

Question: Which civil rights activist successfully sued for voting rights in North Carolina?

Answer: A. Philip Randolph (NAACP cases)

Question: What question asks about the code governing canon law for 750 years?

Answer: Corpus Juris Canonici

Question: Which answer names the Sharia law source that uses analogy?

Answer: Qiyas

Question: What term describes the duty that trustees owe to beneficiaries?

Answer: Fiduciary duty

Question: Which same-sex marriage landmark case did the U S Supreme Court decide in 2015?

Answer: Obergefell v. Hodges

Question: What legal document is required to form a trust?

Answer: Trust deed

Question: Which person mixes equitable and legal ownership in trust law?

Answer: Trustee

Question: What legal term describes rights enforceable between persons?

Answer: Rights in personam

Question: Which answer identifies the principle that state executives propose legislation?

Answer: Executive initiative

Question: What time frame do most contracts use to define performance deadlines?

Answer: Specified time

Question: What question do law students often ask about moot court practice?

Answer: How to prepare briefs?

Question: Which famous lawyer argued Brown v. Board as part of the NAACP?

Answer: Thurgood Marshall

Question: What answer did the Court provide in Reynolds v. Simms regarding representation?

Answer: “One person, one vote”

Question: Which mobile phone camera search case protected digital privacy?

Answer: Riley v. California

Question: What legal action did Korematsu v. United States involve?

Answer: Japanese internment cases

Question: Which answer identifies the first comprehensive code in Germany?

Answer: Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch

Question: What question do scholars ask about the impact of the Theodosian Code and Germanic custom?

Answer: How they shaped early medieval law

Question: Which person rediscovered Roman law at the University of Bologna?

Answer: Irnerius

Question: What term describes the global spread of European civil codes in the 19th century?

Answer: Legal transplantation

Question: Which legal trivia questions series covers ancient legal codes from Egypt to India?

Answer: History of law codes

Question: Which question do law students study about the nature of law and morality?

Answer: Is law separate from morality?

Question: What answer did Joseph Raz give when defining law as an “authority”?

Answer: To mediate people’s interests

Question: Which legal world debate centers on whether constitutions are codified or unwritten?

Answer: Codification debate

Question: What term describes judges’ power to overturn unconstitutional statutes?

Answer: Judicial review

Question: Who coined the phrase that law is “the art of justice”?

Answer: Sir Edward Coke