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Statutory law

 
US History Encyclopedia: Statutory Law

Statutory Law, as distinguished from constitutional law and the common law, is that body of law laid down by a legislature. Both the U.S. Congress and state legislatures enact statutes either by bill or by joint resolution. Federal statutes take precedence over state statutes, and state statutes are superior to the common law. Statutory law is inferior to constitutional law, and courts exercise the power of judicial review when they declare statutes unconstitutional. Statutory law is codified under titles describing the areas of action to which they appertain, and these titles are grouped together in codes. The administrative branch of government enforces statutory law often through the promulgation of administrative rules and regulations that have the effect of law as long as they lie within the limits set by the statutes.

Bibliography

Burton, Steven J. An Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning. 2d ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1995.

Hart, H. A. L. The Concept of Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.

Rantoul, Robert, Jr. "Oration at Scituate. Delivered on the Fourth of July, 1836." In Perry Miller, ed., The Legal Mind in America: From Independence to the Civil War. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1962.

Walker, Harvey. Law Making in the United States. New York: Ronald Press, 1934.

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Politics: statutory law
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(stach-uh-tawr-ee)

A law or group of laws passed by a legislature or other official governing bodies. (Compare common law.)

WordNet: statutory law
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: the body of laws created by legislative statutes


Wikipedia: Statutory law
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Statutory law or statute law is written law (as opposed to oral or customary law) set down by a legislature (as opposed to regulatory law promulgated by the executive branch or common law of the judiciary). Statutes are enacted in response to a perceived need to clarify the functioning of government, improve civil order, to codify existing law, or for an individual or company to obtain special treatment. Examples of statutory law comprehend traditional civil law and modern civil code systems in contrast to common law.

Statutes may originate with national, state legislatures or local municipalities. Statutes of lower jurisdictions are subordinate to the law of higher.

The term codified law refers to statutes that have been organized ("codified") by subject matter; in this narrower sense, some but not all statutes are considered "codified." The entire body of codified statute is referred to as a "code," such as the United States Code, the Ohio Revised Code or the New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated. A common example of an uncodified statute (in this narrow sense) would be the section or sections of an Act of Congress that provides for the effective date of the Act, or effects on individual parties. The substantive provisions of the Act could be codified (arranged by subject matter) in one or more titles of the United States Code while the "effective date" provisions—remaining uncodified—would be available by reference to the United States Statutes at Large. Another meaning of "codified law" is a statute that takes the common law in a certain area of the law and puts it in statute or code form.

Another example of statutes that are not typically codified is a "private law" that may originate as a private bill, a law affecting only one person or a small group of persons. An example was divorce in Canada prior to the passage of the Divorce Act of 1968. It was possible to obtain a legislative divorce in Canada by application to the Canadian Senate, which reviewed and investigated petitions for divorce, which would then be voted upon by the Senate and subsequently made into law. In the United Kingdom Parliament, private bills were used in the nineteenth century to create corporations, grant monopolies and give individuals attention to be more fully considered by the parliament. The government may also seek to have a bill introduced unofficially by a backbencher so as not to create a public scandal; such bills may also be introduced by the loyal opposition — members of the opposition party or parties. Sometimes a private member's bill may also have private bill aspects, in such case the proposed legislation is called a hybrid bill.

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US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Politics. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Statutory law" Read more