Statutes, Regs, Jurisprudence
Every government in America consists of three branches:
- Legislative Branch: Enacts civil and criminal laws as statutes. These statutes are published in the Statutes at Large.
- Executive Branch: Executes the statutes and, if they apply to the general public, also publish regulations that implement the statutes and give notice to the public how they will be enforced.
- Judiciary: Enforces the statutes and regulations against the intended audience when there are disputes among parties. Judicial decisions are published in the legal publications and online.
The three branch system of government was first described in the following now famous book first published in 1752:
The Spirit of Laws, Baron De Montesquieu
https://famguardian.org/Publications/SpiritOfLaws/sol.htm
Statutes and regulations use “terms” rather than mere “words” that are unfamiliar to those without legal training. Every “term” has a custom definition provided in the statute that uses it which usually varies from the “term’s” ordinary use. If you read a law without reading the definitions of “terms” first, you are likely to reach a very inaccurate understanding on what the statute or regulation requires. There is an entire set of fixed rules that legislators use when drafting statutes and regulations and that judges in the judiciary use to interpret statutes and regulations. These rules are known as the Rules of Statutory Construction and Interpretation. You can find a summary of those rules in:
Statutes and Statutory Construction, J.G. Sutherland, Second Edition, 1904
Volume 1: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Statutes_and_Statutory_Construction/Jw49AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
A very important skill is to develop the ability to do legal research by being able to locate and read and understand statutes, regulations, and jurisprudence. It is beyond the scope of this simplified website to teach that skill in its entirety. The following free online resources should prove useful in this area:
- Legal Research and Writing Techniques, Form #12.013-SEDM
https://sedm.org/LibertyU/LegalResearch.pdf - Legal Research Sources, Family Guardian Fellowship
https://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/LegalRef/LegalResrchSrc.htm - State Legal Research Sources. Family Guardian Fellowship
http://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/LegalRef/StateLegalResources.htm