A local ordinance is a law issued by a local government such as a municipality, county, parish, prefecture, or the like. [1]
In Hong Kong, all laws enacted by the territory's Legislative Council remain to be known as Ordinances (Chinese :條例; Jyutping :tiu4lai6) after the transfer of the territory's sovereignty to China in 1997.
The German Constitution grants the federated states certain exclusive rights including police and public order powers. The 16 state governments delegate many of their responsibilities and powers to local authorities. Local authorities have powers to pass local ordinances (Satzungen) e.g. to determine the use of land, planning questions, public order, emergency and transport issues etc. The ordinance must follow a public disclosure and consultation procedure and then approved by the local assembly as well as the elected representative of the executive (e.g. the mayor). The state authorities or stakeholders, including citizens who can show that they have a sufficiently strong interest to establish standing, may object to the final implementation. If the conflict cannot be resolved, the courts may be asked to rule on whether or not the ordinance is valid or if may strike if it violates state law or the state constitution.
In Japan, ordinances (条例, jōrei) may be passed by any prefecture or municipality under authority granted by Article 94 of the Constitution.
There must generally be a statutory basis for an ordinance, the ordinance must be in compliance with any overlapping statutes (although it may impose a stricter standard or penalty), and the ordinance must be related to the affairs of the local government in question.
Ordinances must generally be approved by a local assembly and promulgated by the mayor or governor of the local government in question, who may demand a second vote but may not veto the ordinance.
Under the Local Autonomy Law, an ordinance may impose a penalty of up to two years imprisonment and/or 1 million yen in fines, although any penalty under an ordinance must be prescribed in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure. There are even some ordinances, such as bans on smoking on the street, for which the police in some districts state that there is no penalty for failure to obey the ordinance.
All laws enacted by the legislature of British colonies are referred to as Ordinances, which sometimes delegate power to other parties (usually government departments) to make subsidiary legislations that supplement the Ordinances.
There are three Crown dependencies. In Guernsey, Ordinances (Ordonnances) are used for secondary legislation that does not warrant a Project de Loi which requires royal assent. Similar secondary legislation exists in Jersey. The Isle of Man also has secondary legislation below the Act of Tynwald.
In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law. In states such as Connecticut, legislative bodies at the local level develop city and town ordinances to govern the public. [2]
However, because of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, for criminal processing purposes a local ordinance is considered the same as a state law, statute or ordinance, meaning if someone is charged with an offense punishable under a local ordinance and a state law, they can be prosecuted under one or the other, but not both, and a conviction or acquittal under a local ordinance or a state law prohibits a second trial on the same offense under the other one.
In all states, a city or county may enact a local ordinance as a criminal law [3] that covers the same crime or violation as a state law but only if the penalty provided by the local ordinance is higher than the state statute. A local ordinance cannot be used to create a lesser penalty for a crime or traffic offense than state law. For example, if a state's law set a minimum penalty of $30 for driving faster than 25 mph on residential streets, in such states allowing local ordinance with harsher penalties to duplicate state laws, a local jurisdiction could enact its own local ordinance on the same subject only if the penalty under the local ordinance was greater than $30. A local law in such states could also provide for punishment of criminal offenses if a higher penalty was imposed. If state law punished conviction for manslaughter with 20 years in prison, for a local ordinance to be valid it would have to provide a minimum punishment of at least 20 years and one day.
In some states, local law cannot duplicate state law and some subjects are completely prohibited from being covered by local ordinance. For example, in Maryland, cities, towns and counties are expressly prohibited from passing gun control laws or other local ordinances dealing with the possession, carrying, and ownership of firearms or ammunition, and state laws on the subject are exclusively controlling. [4]
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects against imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments. This amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the United States Bill of Rights. The amendment serves as a limitation upon the state or federal government to impose unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants before and after a conviction. This limitation applies equally to the price for obtaining pretrial release and the punishment for crime after conviction. The phrases in this amendment originated in the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
The Dormant Commerce Clause, or Negative Commerce Clause, in American constitutional law, is a legal doctrine that courts in the United States have inferred from the Commerce Clause in Article I of the US Constitution. The primary focus of the doctrine is barring state protectionism. The Dormant Commerce Clause is used to prohibit state legislation that discriminates against, or unduly burdens, interstate or international commerce. Courts first determine whether a state regulation discriminates on its face against interstate commerce or whether it has the purpose or effect of discriminating against interstate commerce. If the statute is discriminatory, the state has the burden to justify both the local benefits flowing from the statute and to show the state has no other means of advancing the legitimate local purpose.
In law, attendant circumstances are the facts surrounding an event.
An ex post facto law is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law. In criminal law, it may criminalize actions that were legal when committed; it may aggravate a crime by bringing it into a more severe category than it was in when it was committed; it may change the punishment prescribed for a crime, as by adding new penalties or extending sentences; it may extend the statute of limitations; or it may alter the rules of evidence in order to make conviction for a crime likelier than it would have been when the deed was committed.
City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the scope of Congress's power of enforcement under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case also had a significant impact on historic preservation.
Criminal jurisdiction is a term used in constitutional law and public law to describe the power of courts to hear a case brought by a state accusing a defendant of the commission of a crime. It is relevant in three distinct situations:
Public intoxication, also known as "drunk and disorderly" and "drunk in public", is a summary offense in some countries rated to public cases or displays of drunkenness. Public intoxication laws vary widely by jurisdiction, but usually require an obvious display of intoxicated incompetence or behavior which disrupts public order before the charge is levied.
Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. 84 (2003), was a court case in the United States which questioned the constitutionality of the Alaska Sex Offender Registration Act's retroactive requirements. Under the Act, any sex offender must register with the Department of Corrections or local law enforcement within one business day of entering the state. This information is forwarded to the Department of Public Safety, which maintains a public database. Fingerprints, social security number, anticipated change of address, and medical treatment after the offense are kept confidential. The offender's name, aliases, address, photograph, physical description, driver's license number, motor vehicle identification numbers, place of employment, date of birth, crime, date and place of conviction, and length and conditions of sentence are part of the public record, maintained on the Internet.
In American constitutional law, a statute is void for vagueness and unenforceable if it is too vague for the average citizen to understand. This is because constitutionally permissible activity may not be chilled because of a statute's vagueness. There are several reasons a statute may be considered vague; in general, a statute might be void for vagueness when an average citizen cannot generally determine what persons are regulated, what conduct is prohibited, or what punishment may be imposed. For example, criminal laws which do not state explicitly and definitely what conduct is punishable are void for vagueness. A statute is also void for vagueness if a legislature's delegation of authority to judges or administrators is so extensive that it could lead to arbitrary prosecutions. A law can also be "void for vagueness" if it imposes on First Amendment freedom of speech, assembly, or religion.
French law has a dual jurisdictional system comprising private law, also known as judicial law, and public law.
"Stop and identify" statutes are laws in several U.S. states that authorize police to lawfully order people whom they reasonably suspect of committing a crime to state their name. If there is not reasonable suspicion that a person has committed a crime, is committing a crime, or is about to commit a crime, the person is not required to identify himself or herself, even in these states.
Section 91(27) of the Constitution Act, 1867, also known as the criminal law power, grants the Parliament of Canada the authority to legislate on:
27. The Criminal Law, except the Constitution of Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction, but including the Procedure in Criminal Matters.
Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. 386 (1798), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court decided four important points of constitutional law.
Knife legislation is defined as the body of statutory law or case law promulgated or enacted by a government or other governing jurisdiction that prohibits, criminalizes, or restricts the otherwise legal manufacture, importation, sale, transfer, possession, transport, or use of knives.
The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: "[N]or shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb..." The four essential protections included are prohibitions against, for the same offense:
Commonwealth v. Alger, 61 Mass. 53, was decided by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1851. The majority opinion was written by Justice Lemuel Shaw.
The state laws governing alcoholic drinks in New Jersey are among the most complex in the United States, with many peculiarities not found in other states' laws. They provide for 29 distinct liquor licenses granted to manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and for the public warehousing and transport of alcoholic drinks. General authority for the statutory and regulatory control of alcoholic drinks rests with the state government, particularly the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control overseen by the state's Attorney General.
Gun laws in Florida regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the state of Florida in the United States.
The law of Washington consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory and case law, as well as local ordinances. The Revised Code of Washington forms the general statutory law.
