Sources of Law and their Significant Aspects

Sources of Law
Institution
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name
Date
Student’s Name
Sources of Law
Laws play an integral role in protecting a country's citizens and ensuring basic rights are not abused. While there are many sources of law in the United States, the Constitution is the most superior. Other main sources of law part from the Constitution include statutes, treaties, common law (including case law), and administrative regulations (Openstax, 2019).
Five Sources of Law
The Constitution
The Constitution is the main source since it gives the state the power to form new laws. However, while the document provides power to the government, this power is limited. It divides these powers into the three arms of government: legislature, executive, and judiciary. The legislature, which comprises the House of Representatives and the Senate, primarily serves to make law. The executive consists of the president, vice president, and federal agencies. The judiciary, which is composed of the courts, evaluates rules. An important feature of the US Constitution is the Bill of Rights, which outlines citizens' rights and freedom in relation to the government (National Archives, 2022). The Bill of Rights encompasses the first ten amendments to the country's Constitution. In essence, as informed by the National Archives (2022), the amendments cover several rights, including the right to free speech, the right to judicial trial, and the right to keep and bear firearms.
It is important to recognize that states have constitutions, and just like the federal Constitution, they help regulate government action (University of Minnesota, n.d.). In addition, given that both constitutions are written with words, they can be interpreted in many ways, which means that exceptions exist to the protections they offer. As pointed out by the University of Minnesota (n.d.), exceptions to the protections of the Constitution are seen more in prisons and in public schools. The Constitution serves as a supreme source of law, meaning it surpasses all the other sources.
Statutes
Statutes are also an important saw of law. While the Constitution relates to the actions of the government, statutes are applicable to and only seek to regulate private or individual action (University of Minnesota, n.d.). A statute can either be written and made law by the government’s legislative branch or voted by state citizens. As informed by the University of Minnesota (n.d.), Congress plays a key role in voting federal statutes into law. It is important to note at the state level, the state legislature contributes in voting state statutes into law. Examples of federal statutes include laws on immigration, bankruptcy law, and patent laws. Laws on immigration deal with immigration and deportation of people from the United States and also document how an immigrant can acquire full citizenship. Bankruptcy law allows a debtor to devise a plan to help them settle their debts by splitting up their assets among those they owe money. Patent laws contained in the national laws allow patentees to acquire monopoly rights on their inventions.
While statutes are an important source of law, they are inferior to the Constitution. Therefore, they ...