:: American Law

General Facts

The US law was mainly derived from British law in the early days of the United States of America. Today, the American law is largely based upon the United States' Constitution, i.e. it is the most important source. Other than in for instance Germany, however, the 50 federal states of the USA have a widely independent jurisdiction whereas in Germany federal law shall override land law. While one state may have death penalty in the USA and another may not this is impossible in Germany. Hesse has still written death penalty in its constitution but it is overridden by federal law. So, one signature mark of the American law is the independence of the federal states regarding jurisdiction.

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The law

The US law is based on four sources, the Constitutional law, the Statutory law, the Administrative regulations, and the Common law but also and most importantly the United States Constitution. All other laws are subordinate to that document and may be ruled unconstitutional if violating it.

The Common law mainly inherits the principle of stare decisis, as practiced in Commonwealth common law. It means that all cases are processed according to similar other cases. The US law does not take the more recent rulings of the Commonwealth common law into account however.

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The Federal law is closely connected to the Constitution. It enables the congress to rule over the federal states in a number of limited cases. The interstate commerce is controlled by the Federal law for instance.

The Statutory law means the independent jurisdiction of the fifty sovereign states. Each has its own constitution and rules accordingly. The laws of the single states are largely based on the common law of England still.

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The Local or administrative law includes all powers of one state that are involved with making law. Amongst them are townships and cities for instance.

Picture: Freiheitsstatue

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