Sources of Law of the United States
(Источники права в США)

The law of the United States was originally largely derived [происходить] from the common law [общее право (традиционное некодифицированное право Великобритании)] of the system of English law, which was in force at the time of the Revolutionary War. However, the supreme law of the land is the United States Constitution and, under the Constitution's Supremacy [[sju'premqsI] верховенство] Clause [Supremacy Clause положение о верховенстве (общенационального права) Фундаментальное конституционное положение, изложенное в статье VI Конституции США, о примате общенационального (федерального) закона над законами штатов.], laws enacted [принятый (о законе)] by Congress and treaties to which the U.S. is a party. These form the basis for federal laws under the federal constitution in the United States, limiting the boundaries of the jurisdiction [юрисдикция, территория в подведомственности органа власти] of federal law and the laws in the fifty U.S. states and territories.

In the United States, the law is derived from four sources. These four sources are constitutional law [конституционное право, государственное право], administrative law [административное право], statutes [закон, законодательный акт парламента; статут, statutory law статутное право, право, основанное на законодательных актах], and the common law (which includes case law). The most important source of law is the United States Constitution, and everything falls under [попадать в (сферу действия чего-л.)], and is subordinate to, it. No law may contradict the United States Constitution. For example, if Congress passes a statute that conflicts with the constitution, the Supreme Court may find that law unconstitutional, and strike it down [опротестовать, расторгнуть].

American common law

Federal law [федеральное право, федеральный закон]

State law [право штата; закон штата]

Unlike other common law jurisdictions, all American states have codified some or all of their statutory law into legal codes, which was an idea borrowed from the civil law through the efforts of American lawyer David Dudley Field. New York's codes are known as "Laws." California and Texas simply call them "Codes." Most other states use "Revised Statutes [статут с внесёнными в него поправками]," "Compiled Statutes [сборник действующего законодательства; свод законов]," or some other name for their codes. California, New York, and Texas have separate subject-specific codes, while all other states and the federal government use a single code divided into numbered titles.

In some states, codification is often treated as a mere [[mIq] простой] restatement [свод права, свод норм] of the common law. Judges are free to liberally interpret the codes unless and until their interpretations are specifically overridden by the legislature. In other states, there is a tradition of strict adherence [строгое соблюдение] to the plain text of the codes.

In jurisdictions with uncodified statutes, like the United Kingdom, it is much harder to determine what the current law is. One has to trace back to the earliest relevant Act of Parliament, and then identify all later Acts which purported [[pq'pLt] иметь целью] to amend the earlier Act or which directly overrode it. For example, when the UK decided to create a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, it had to identify every single Act referring to the House of Lords that was still good law [действующее право], and then amend all of them to refer to [ссылаться] the Supreme Court.

However, American codes are not the direct equivalents of their civil law counterparts [эквивалент; аналог], and should not be confused with them. American codes do not have complete internal logical coherence [последовательность]. They have been labeled mere "collections of statutes" due to the failure of all levels of government to allocate adequate resources [распределять ресурсы] towards maintaining the internal coherence of the codes.

Even worse, some states were never able to reconcile [согласовывать] the old common law lawmaking model with the concept of codification. For example, California codes are to be liberally construed [толковать] as a continuation of the common law to the extent that they harmonize with the common law or pre-code statutes. This confusing [сбивать с толку] compromise has created a continuing state of chaos in the judge-made law of California statutory interpretation [толкование закона].

Criminal law

However, for public-welfare [общее благо, общественное благосостояние, общественное благоденствие] offenses where the state is punishing merely risky (as opposed to injurious [[In'dZuqrIqs] наносящий вред]) behavior, there is significant diversity across the various states. For example, the laws controlling drunk driving were rather unstandardized prior to the 1990s.

Tort law [tort - деликт, гражданское правонарушение]

Local law

Thus, at any given time, the average American citizen is subject to the rules and regulations of several dozen different agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, depending upon one's current location and behavior.