HUMANITIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY: SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS AND SEARCHING
FOR EFFECTIVE HUMANIST TECHNOLOGIES
CIENCE
SOURCES OF LAW IN THE US
1A.
2E.
Panevina
Galiullina
Abstract
This article discusses the sources of law in the United States. The purpose of this article is to give the reader some information about the four
sources of constitutional law, administrative law, statutes and common law
(which includes case law). The most important source of law is the U.S. Constitution, and everything falls Under, and is subordinate to it. In the article
much attention is paid to such notion as Federal law, state law, criminal
law, tort law, local law. Thus, at any point of time, the average American citizen should abide by the rules and regulations of several dozen different
agencies at the Federal, state and local levels, depending on current location
and behavior.
Keywords: sources of law, the constitution, the law, law, state
The law of the United States was originally largely derived from the common law of the system of English law, which was in force at the time of the
Revolutionary War. However, the supreme law of the land is the United
States Constitution and, under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause Supremacy Clause laws enacted by Congress and treaties to which the U.S. is a
party. These form the basis for federal laws under the federal constitution in
the United States, limiting the boundaries of the jurisdiction of federal law
and the laws in the fifty U.S. states and territories. [p. 77].
In the United States, the law is derived from four sources. These four
sources are constitutional law, administrative law, statutes and the common
law (which includes case law). The most important source of law is the United States Constitution, and everything falls under, and is subordinate to, it.
No law may contradict the United States Constitution. For example, if Congress passes a statute that conflicts with the constitution, the Supreme
Court may find that law unconstitutional, and strike it down.
American common law.
Although the United States and most Commonwealth countries are heirs
to the common law legal tradition of English law, American law tends to be
unique in many ways. This is because the American legal system was separated from the British system by the Revolution, and afterwards, it evolved
independently from the British Commonwealth legal systems. Therefore,
when attempting to trace the development of traditional judge-made common
law principles, that is, the few that have not already been overridden by
newer laws, American courts will look at British cases only up to the early
19th century.
Federal law.
1Alina Panevina, student, Faculty of Law Enforcement Officer’s Training, South
Ural State University, Russia.
2Elina Galiullina, student, Faculty of Law Enforcement Officer’s Training, South
Ural State University, Russia.
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RESEARCH ARTICLES
Federal law in the United States originates with the Constitution, which
gives Congress the power to enact statutes for certain limited purposes like
regulating commerce. Nearly all statutes have been codified in the United
States Code Many statutes give executive branch agencies the power to create regulations, which are published in the Code of Federal Regulations and
also carry the force of law. Many lawsuits give a federal statute or regulation
the meaning, and judicial interpretations of such meaning carry legal force
under the principle of stare decisis.
State law.
The fifty American states are separate and sovereign ones with their own
constitutions and retain plenary power to make laws covering anything not
reserved by the federal Constitution or federal statutes. Nearly all states
started with the same British common law base, although Louisiana law has
always been strongly influenced by the French Napoleonic Code, but the
passage of time has resulted in enormous diversity in the laws of the states.
Over time, state courts expanded the old common law rules in different directions (through their traditional power to make law under stare decisis),
and state legislatures passed various statutes expanding or overriding such
judge-made rules.
Unlike other common law jurisdictions, all American states have codified
some or all of their statutory law into legal codes, which was an idea borrowed from the civil law through the efforts of American lawyer David Dudley
Field. New York's codes are known as "Laws." California and Texas simply
call them "Codes." Most other states use "Revised Statutes," "Compiled Statutes", or some other name for their codes. California, New York, and Texas
have separate subject-specific codes, while all other states and the federal
government use a single code divided into numbered titles. [2, p. 56].
In some states, codification is often treated as a mere restatement of the
common law. Judges are free to liberally interpret the codes unless and until
their interpretations are specifically overridden by the legislature. In other
states, there is a tradition of strict adherence to the plain text of the codes.
In jurisdictions with uncodified statutes, like the United Kingdom, it is
much harder to determine what the current law is. One has to trace back to
the earliest relevant Act of Parliament, and then identify all later Acts which
purported to amend the earlier Act or which directly overrode it. For example, when the UK decided to create a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom,
it had to identify every single Act referring to the House of Lords that was
still good law, and then amend all of them to refer to the Supreme Court.
However, American codes are not the direct equivalents of their civil law
counterparts, and should not be confused with them. American codes do not
have complete internal logical coherence. They have been labeled mere "collections of statutes" due to the failure of all levels of government to allocate
adequate resources towards maintaining the internal coherence of the codes.
Even worse, some states were never able to reconcile the old common law
lawmaking model with the concept of codification. For example, California
codes are to be liberally construed as a continuation of the common law to
the extent that they harmonize with the common law or pre-code statutes.
This confusing compromise has created a continuing state of chaos in the
judge-made law of California statutory interpretation. [3, p. 198].
Criminal law.
In the arena of criminal law, all states have somewhat similar laws in re161
HUMANITIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY: SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS AND SEARCHING
FOR EFFECTIVE HUMANIST TECHNOLOGIES
CIENCE
gard to "higher crimes," such as murder and rape, although penalties for
these crimes may vary from state to state. Additionally, state laws dealing
with drug crimes vary widely, with some states treating possession of small
amounts of drugs as an offense and others categorizing the same offense as
a serious felony.
However, for public-welfare behavior, there is significant diversity across
the various states. For example, the laws controlling drunk driving were rather unstandardized prior to the 1990s.
Tort law.
United States tort law for personal injury tends to vary widely across the
states. For example, a few jurisdictions allow actions for negligent infliction
of emotional distress even in the absence of physical injury, but most do not.
With practically any tort, there is a "majority rule" adhered to by most states,
and one or more "minority rules."
Local law.
States have delegated lawmaking powers to a number of agencies, counties, cities, and special districts. And all the state constitutions, statutes and
regulations are subject to judicial interpretation like their federal counterparts.
Thus, at any given time, the average American citizen is subject to the
rules and regulations of several dozen different agencies at the federal, state,
and local levels, depending upon one's current location and behavior.
References:
[1] The Y.M. Belson, Lebanese K. E. History of state and law of the United States. L., 1982.
[2] Reshetnikov F.M. Legal systems of the countries of the world. Guide. - M. 1993.
United States of America: Constitution and legislative acts. /Comp. V.I. Lafitskiy.
- M. 1993. (Especially the introductory article by O. A. Zhidkova
[3] David R. Main legal systems of modernity. M., 1988. S. 198.
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