What makes national law greater than state law?

Answer 1

All Federal Laws are superior to state law (in the United States anyway). The US Constitution states that it, all federal laws, and treaties signed by the US are the "supreme law of the land" and therefore override state laws.

Answer 2

This is a tricky question. The constitution gives all power that is not enforced by the federal government to the states.

However, if a state law and a federal one are different, the federal law will supercede the law of the state most of the time.

Unlike the vast majority of other nations, the United States is a Federation, which means that both the Federal and State governments are given distinct areas of sovereignty, which CANNOT be overridden by the other. Thus, in certain areas, only state laws are applicable (that is, no federal law can be passed, and if one is, it is invalid (unconstitutional)). In other places, Federal law is supreme, and, while states can also pass laws in those areas, the Federal law is supreme (per the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution).

In addition, the US Supreme Court has now extended virtually all protections of the US Constitution which were originally applied only to Federal actions to include State actions, too. So, if a right is protected by the US Constitution, neither the Federal NOR any State law can contravene it. This may sound intuitive, but has been far from a settled issue in constitutional law, and only slowly have SCOTUS extended the Constitutional protections to include state governments' actions.

Finally, the Constitution itself is the Supreme Law of the U.S., and no law, federal or state or local or otherwise, can contravene it - that is, in any conflict between the Constitution and a law of any sort, the Constitution is supreme and voids the other law.

Answer 3

All federal laws are superior to state law (in the United States anyway). The US Constitution states that it, all federal laws, and treaties signed by the US are the "supreme law of the land" and therefore override state laws.

Answer 4

The law of the United States comprises many levels[1] of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States. The Constitution sets out the boundaries of federal law, which consists of acts of Congress,[2] treaties ratified by the Senate,[3] regulations promulgated by the executive branch,[4] and case law originating from the federal judiciary.[5] Federal law that conflicts with the Constitution is invalid.

The Constitution and federal law are the supreme law of the land, thus preempting conflicting state and territorial laws in the 50 U.S. states and in the territories.[6] However, the scope of federal preemption is limited because the scope of federal power is not universal. In the unique dual-sovereign[7] system of American federalism (actually tripartite[8] because of the presence of Indian reservations), states are the plenary sovereigns, while the federal sovereign possesses only the limited supreme authority enumerated in the Constitution.[9] Indeed, states may grant their citizens broader rights than the federal Constitution as long as they do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights.[10][11] Thus, most U.S. law (especially the actual "living law" of contract, tort, property, criminal, and family law experienced by the majority of citizens on a day-to-day basis) consists primarily of state law, which can and does vary greatly from one state to the next.[12][13]

At both the federal and state levels, the law of the United States was originally largely derived from the common law system of English law, which was in force at the time of the Revolutionary War.[14][15] However, U.S. law has diverged greatly from its English ancestor both in terms of substance and procedure, and has incorporated a number of civil law innovations.

From Wikipedia

Answer 5

Because the US Consititution declares that to be so.