The US law has three main types. The first one is case (or common) law, which is produced by judicial bodies. The second one is statutory law. It’s made by legislative bodies. And the third type of law is regulatory, brought to life by administrative bodies. In this article, we’ll tell you all the basic information about all three of these law types.

1. Case Law

In case law, also known as common law, the most important thing is the so-called “stare decisis,” which translates from Latin as “adhering to decisions.” In other words, lower courts have to obey decisions made by higher courts in their jurisdiction. This system strongly relies on precedents, which makes it quite rigid and difficult to change sometimes.

Federal and state legal materials have a lot in common but appear in different publications. Their nature varies from one jurisdiction to another. Federal ones are published not only by the authorities but also by private publishers, which makes them much easier to find. Publishing practices of states, on the other hand, may differ greatly.

2. Statutory Law

There are two types of statutory law publications: codified laws and compilations of statutes. Their wording is similar, but the formats differ. When a law has been passed, it is codified, or, in other words, published in the category it belongs to. It’s important to note that not every law needs to be codified.

Statutory laws on general subjects are collected in the code. It contains many volumes of codified laws, which have amendments integrated into them. On the other hand, public laws are published separately from their amendments and don’t have any general index. If you’re looking for public law, you have to know the year when it was created or which Congress passed it.

3. Regulatory Law

There are two main things that are done by administrative agencies: making rules and enforcing them. Usually, these rules are brought together in a code and published in a special register. Also, sometimes adjudicatory bodies’ decisions are published there too. In case you need a copy of an unpublished order or decision, you’ll have to call the agency or write to it.

If you’re looking for a law, you can find the regulation subject in the code’s general index. In case you want to find a regulation or a rule there, you’ll need to know when it was enacted. The majority of registers don’t have any general indexes which would cover every single functioning regulation.