The

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory, case law, and local ordinances. The ''

General Laws of Massachusetts The Massachusetts General Laws is a codification of many of the statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Commonwealth's laws are promulgated by an elected bicameral ("two-chamber") legislative body, the Massachusetts General Court. ...

'' form the general statutory law.

Sources

The

Constitution of Massachusetts The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. As a member of the Massachuset ...

is the foremost source of state law. Legislation is enacted by the General Court, published in the '' Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts'', and codified in the ''

''. State agency regulations (sometimes called administrative law) are published in the ''

Massachusetts Register The ''Massachusetts Register'' is the bi-weekly publication mandated by the Administrative Procedures Act (Massachusetts General Law Chapter 30A); it is an official organ of the Massachusetts state government. The Register publishes new and amende ...

'' and codified in the ''

Code of Massachusetts Regulations The Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) is the canonical collection of regulations promulgated by various agencies of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the state counterpart to the national Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Regulatio ...

''. The legal system is based on

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

, which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and the Appellate Divisions of the Massachusetts District Court and the Boston Municipal Court departments, which are published in the ''

Massachusetts Reports Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

'', ''

Massachusetts Appeals Court Reports Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

'', and '' Massachusetts Appellate Division Reports'', respectively. Cities and towns may also promulgate bylaws and

local ordinance A local ordinance is a law issued by a local government. such as a municipality, county, parish, prefecture, or the like. China In Hong Kong, all laws enacted by the territory's Legislative Council remain to be known as ''Ordinances'' () af ...

Constitution

The foremost source of state law is the

. The Massachusetts Constitution in turn is subordinate to the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

, which is the supreme law of the land.

Legislation

Pursuant to the state constitution, the

Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...

has enacted

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

. Its

session laws Session laws are the collection of statutes enacted by a legislature during a single session of that legislature, often published following the end of the session as a bound volume. The United States Statutes at Large are an example of session l ...

are published in the official '' Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts''. They are in turn codified as the ''

''.

Regulations

Pursuant to certain statutes, state agencies have promulgated

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

s, which along with administrative orders and decisions form part of the body of

administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of Forms of government, government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are gener ...

. The ''

'' is the bi-weekly publication that contains new and amended (permanent and emergency) regulations, notices of hearings and comment periods, notices of public interest, executive orders by the Governor, Attorney General opinions, a cumulative table of changes to regulations published during the current calendar year, and a list of Acts and Resolves passed by the General Court. The ''

'' (CMR) is the canonical compilation of regulations promulgated by state agencies pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act and is updated through the ''Massachusetts Register''. Both the ''Code of Massachusetts Regulations'' and ''Massachusetts Register'' are published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Case law

The legal system of Massachusetts is based on the

. Like all U.S. states except

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, Massachusetts has a

reception statute A reception statute is a statutory law adopted as a former British colony becomes independent by which the new nation adopts, or receives, the English common law before its independence to the extent not explicitly rejected by the legislative body ...

providing for the "reception" of

English law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, be ...

. All statutes, regulations, and ordinances are subject to

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

. Pursuant to common law tradition, the courts of Massachusetts have developed a large body of

case law Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of a l ...

through the decisions of the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...

and

Massachusetts Appeals Court The Massachusetts Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court of Massachusetts. It was created in 1972 as a court of general appellate jurisdiction. The court is located at the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, the same ...

. The decisions of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and the Appellate Divisions of the Massachusetts District Court and the

Boston Municipal Court The Boston Municipal Court (BMC), officially the Boston Municipal Court Department of the Trial Court, is a department of the Trial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The court hears criminal, civil, mental health, restr ...

departments, which are published in the ''

'', ''

'', and '' Massachusetts Appellate Division Reports'', respectively. The ''Massachusetts Law Reporter'' publishes decisions from the

Massachusetts Superior Court The Massachusetts Superior Court (also known as the Superior Court Department of the Trial Court) is a trial court department in Massachusetts. The Superior Court has original jurisdiction in civil actions over $50,000, and in matters where equita ...

MassCourts MassCourts is the case management system used in the Massachusetts court system. It does not allow documents to be viewed online, and the courts have deliberately blocked public access to basic information for most cases (particularly, criminal ...

is the case management system used by the courts.

Local ordinances

References

External links

General Laws of Massachusetts
from the

General Laws of Massachusetts
archives from the

State Library of Massachusetts The State Library of Massachusetts in Boston, Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachuse ...

Code of Massachusetts Regulations
from the

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth is the principal public information officer of the government of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The Secretary of the Commonwealth oversees the Corporations Division, the Elections Division, the ...

Code of Massachusetts Regulations
from the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries
Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts
from the State Library of Massachusetts

from the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Session laws
from the Massachusetts General Court
Massachusetts Register
from the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
Massachusetts Register
from the State Library of Massachusetts

from the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries

from the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries

from the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries
Slip opinions
of the

and

Unpublished decisions
of the Massachusetts Appeals Court
Local ordinance codes
from

Public.Resource.Org Public.Resource.Org (PRO) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to publishing and sharing public domain materials in the United States and internationally. It was founded by Carl Malamud and is based in Sebastopol, California. Public.Re ...

* Case law: {{Authority control