Where was the laws made in US?

Answer 1

I am going to attempt to answer your question briefly, however ,I must inform you that I am not qualified to practice law in the U.S.A. , but in Nigeria, England and Wales. Nevertheless the legal traditions in the U.S.A. derives from common law, i.e. law as developed in England, and which roughly operates in most English speaking countries today. You will find therefore that the legal systems in countries as diverse as Australia, New Zealand Kenya, Uganda, Scotland and indeed most English speaking countries have much in common. For example you will find that all courts in these jurisdictions operate and uphold the principle of stare decisis. That in the interpretation of case law there is a hierarchy of courts. That within the decisions of the courts the judgments will be interpreted under the principle of ratio decidendi etc

With regard to your question the simple answer in theory is this : -

A. The grund norm i.e. the fundamental law or the root of all law in the U.S.A. is the Constitution of the United States of America. From that law derive all other laws in the U.S. if you wish to go that far. You will need to study constitutional theory in order to appreciate it's effect. Next you have derived from the aforsaid constitution....

B. The legislature i.e. The laws in the form of enactments made by [ in the U.S.A ] the lower house ... the house of representatives and ratified by the upper house the congress signed by the president. This is the highest law. They can declare that a man should be known as a woman , that black should become white. In theory they can do any thing. Then you have...

C. The Supreme court, whose function theoretically is to interpret the laws made by the legislature. It really does not take much imagination to see that in the exercise of this office, the Supreme Court Justices add interpretations to the actual wording of the law which the legislators perhaps never intended.This is inevitable, for as you can imagine the legislators can never envisage what real experience in the[ real ] world the law will through up when making the laws.These interpretations then become incorporated into the law, and lower courts down the line are obliged to follow the subsequent interpretation that has now been given by the higher courts to the initial enactment.

Now, this roughly in very broad outline is where the laws come from. But I do need to add that the various branches of the law such as criminal law, contract, torts, commercial law , banking law, property law etc, often have very ancient and interesting history behind them, you want to read the case for example of Donoghue V. Stevenson a locus classicus in tort. International legal obligations also are binding on states and quasi state entities at public international law and play a role in the domestic law of sovereign states ask any French , English or German about the effect membership of the European Union has had on their domestic everyday life. In this regard the U.S.A. has perhaps been wise in avoiding obligations under treaties and hence its refusal to sign up to the International Criminal Court or the Kyoto agreement. As a Federal state the task of making law has been largely delegated to the component states making up the U.S.A. , but regarding major commercial , criminal or what is often designated as exclusive areas of the law the Federal Government still has exclusive jurisdictional authority, note again that the individual states have more leeway and freedom that in a unitary state. At the very local level your town councils will perhaps be making laws dealing with relatively simple matters such as dog fouling on the pavemant, littering, noise etc , but even here they would be exercising their power in deference to the higher legislative, executive and court order within the country. Essentialy they can only exercise whatever power they have in deference to Washington.