legal statutes
Written legislative rules
Legal statutes are laws enacted by legislative bodies—Congress, state legislatures, city councils.
Distinguished from case law (made by courts) and regulations (made by agencies), statutes are the written rules passed through formal legislative process: The legal statute prohibits discrimination in housing.
In legal contexts, practitioners cite specific statutes by code and section number.
- enactmentPassing into law
- act of CongressFederal law formally enacted
- billAmount owed, written
- regulationOfficial rules governing conduct
- amendmentChange to official text
criminal law · ordinance · civil code · Napoleonic Code · Roman law · judicial review · court ruling · promulgation · constitution · due process · rule of law · law of the land · legislative intent · tax law · precedent · civil law · penal code · enforcement
- lawslaws, ordinance, acts, statutes, code
- Abolitionismabolitionists, abolitionist movement, anti-slavery, antislavery, abolitionism
- legal codescode, codes, statutes, law code, codified laws
- legislationbills, acts, laws, statutes, bill
- statutesfederal statutes, state statutes, enacted laws, federal laws, codified laws
- lawlaw, lawyer, lawyers, attorney, attorneys
legal statutescase law
Judge-made legal doctrine
common law · judicial precedent · court decisions · executive orders · judicial rulings
legal statutesunwritten law
Informal accepted rule
natural law · social norms · oral tradition · social conventions · moral law