Statutory Law
Statutory law is also known as enacted law. It is the law that comes to us from the legislature of our elected representatives. Statutes govern matters ranging from defining certain actions as crimes, to specifying procedures for the sale of real property, to allowing individuals to sue for workplace discrimination, to collecting taxes to support the operations of government. Enacted law is created at the federal, state, and local levels of government.
Federal Statutes
Federal statutes usually address matters of national interest.
Sometimes these statutes are exclusive and have no state counterpart.
The enforcement and interpretation of these statutes is entirely within the federal system. An example of an exclusive federal statute is the National Labor Relations Act.
Other federal statutes are concurrent with state statutes. The enforcement and interpretation of concurrent statutes can be in federal court or in state court. An example of a concurrent statute is a federal anti-discrimination statute. Many states have their own anti-discrimination statutes.
The enforcement and interpretation of the federal statute can be made by a federal court or by a state court that is also hearing matters related to an alleged violation of the state statute.
State Statutes
Each state has its own set of statutes. These statutes govern the activities of the citizens of the state. Statutes reflect the judgment of the state legislature about what legal rules best fit the needs of the citizens of that state.
Non-resident persons present in the state are subject to the statutes in that state. Presence in a state is not limited to physical presence — acts such as entering into a contract with a person from another state can subject a non-resident to the laws of that state.
Many state statutes are designed to accomplish specific objectives of importance to the citizens of that state. Other state statutes are enacted to resolve specific disputes that arise between citizens of the state.
Because of these differing purposes, state statutes vary from state to state. Different states might have different interests or a different solution to a problem. Thus, the specific statutes of a state are only enforceable within the territorial jurisdiction of the state.
Alert
The differences in state law sometimes lead to “choice of law” questions. These are disputes where it is not clear which state's law should apply. Differences in state law can significantly affect the rights of the parties. Many written contracts between citizens of separate states contain choice of law provisions to avoid just this dispute.
Local Ordinances
City councils or county governing boards establish local ordinances, to cover matters of specific local interest such as zoning issues, licensing requirements for liquor sales, and snow removal regulations. The state government specifically delegates to local government the authority to pass certain ordinances. Other ordinances are enacted to fill gaps in state statutes. In all cases, local ordinances that conflict with state statutes are invalid.
Uniform Laws
The differences between state statutes on a particular subject can make it difficult to anticipate the consequences of a course of action. For example, a business that orders supplies from a manufacturer in another state cannot know whether the damages for breach of that contract are governed by the law of the state of the buyer or the state of the manufacturer. This is especially troublesome when one state allows significantly greater protection for the buyer. Discrepancies in state law are often found in the fields of commercial transactions, enforcement of child support obligations, and probate procedures.
Essential
Many areas of the law fall exclusively into one category of statutory law or another. Intellectual property issues, such as copyright, trademark, or patent infringement, are controlled exclusively by federal statutes. Probate law, on the other hand, is almost entirely governed by state statutes. Many areas of the law overlap the three sources of statutory law — a real estate transaction is regulated by state law, but can present federal issues of pollution abatement as well as local ordinance issues of zoning or building code compliance.
One response to these discrepancies is the creation of uniform laws. Uniform laws are the product of discussions among judges, lawyers, and legal scholars who are interested in minimizing the disruptions created by variations in state statutes. Model statutes were generated in specific areas where variations in state statutes create troublesome issues of interpretation.
Uniform laws are not laws at all until a state legislature enacts them as a statute. Of course, each state is free to adopt, reject, or change any portion of a uniform law. Surprisingly, however, the variation between proposed uniform laws and the actual statutes enacted by state legislatures are minor. Legal practitioners are able to advise clients that provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code and the Uniform Probate Code are the same in the states that have adopted them.
