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 vari ...

of Texas is derived from the ''

Constitution of Texas The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that establishes the structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of Texas, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of Texas. The current document was adopted on Febr ...

'' and consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, and regulatory law, as well as case law and local laws and regulations.

Sources

The

is the foremost source of state law. Legislation is enacted by the Texas Legislature, published in the '' General and Special Laws'', and codified in the ''Texas Statutes''. State agencies publish regulations (sometimes called administrative law) in the '' Texas Register'', which are in turn codified in the ''

Texas Administrative Code The Texas Administrative Code is a subject-based compilation of all rules and regulations promulgated by Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles ...

''. The Texas legal system is based on common law, which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Courts of Appeals, which are published in the ''Texas Cases'' and ''

South Western Reporter The ''South Western Reporter'', ''South Western Reporter Second'', and ''South Western Reporter Third'' are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B. West for West Publishing Company, ...

''. Counties and municipal governments may also promulgate local ordinances.

Constitution

The

is the foundation of the government of Texas and vests the legislative power of the state in the Texas Legislature. The Texas Constitution is subject only to the sovereignty of the people of Texas as well as 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 It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789.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 nation ...

, although this is disputed. Article I of the Constitution of Texas contains the following provisions related to limitations on legislative power: # Sec. 16 prohibits bills of attainder, ex post facto or retroactive laws, or laws "impairing the obligations of contracts." # Sec. 29 provides that "no power of suspending laws in this State shall be exercised except by the Legislature. Article II of the Constitution of Texas mandates the separation of powers in to three distinct department, the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Article III of the Constitution of Texas is specifically dedicated to the Legislative Department.

Legislation

Pursuant to the state constitution, the Texas Legislature has enacted various laws, known as "chapter laws" or generically as "

slip law In the United States, a slip law is an individual Act of Congress which is either a public law (Pub.L.) or a private law (Pvt.L.). They are part of a three-part model for publication of federal statutes consisting of slip laws, session laws, and ...

s". These are published in the official ''

General and Special Laws of the State of Texas A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

'' as " session laws". Most of these statutes are codified. The Texas Constitution requires the Texas Legislature to revise, digest, and publish the laws of the state; however, it has never done so regularly. In 1925 the Texas Legislature reorganized the statutes into three major divisions: the ''Revised Civil Statutes'', ''Penal Code'', and ''Code of Criminal Procedure''. In 1963, the Texas legislature began a major revision of the 1925 Texas statutory classification scheme, and as of 1989 over half of the statutory law had been arranged under the recodification process. The ''de facto'' codifications are ''Vernon's Texas Statutes Annotated'' and ''Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated'', commonly known as ''Vernon's''. The unannotated constitution, codes, and statutes can also be accessed online through a website of the

Texas Legislative Council The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful ar ...

. Gammel's ''Laws of Texas'' contains relevant legislation from 1822-1897. Most, but not all, Texas statutes have been codified in the following codes: # Agriculture Code # Alcoholic Beverage Code # Business and Commerce Code # Business Organizations Code # Civil Practice and Remedies Code #

Code Of Criminal Procedure Criminal procedure is the adjudication process of the criminal law. While criminal procedure differs dramatically by jurisdiction, the process generally begins with a formal criminal charge with the person on trial either being free on bail or ...

# Education Code # Election Code # Estates Code # Family Code # Finance Code #

Government Code A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

# Health and Safety Code # Human Resources Code # Insurance Code # Labor Code #

Local Government Code Codification of laws is a common practice in the Philippines. Many general areas of substantive law, such as criminal law, civil law and labor law are governed by legal codes. Tradition of codification Codification is predominant in cou ...

# Natural Resources Code # Occupations Code # Parks and Wildlife Code # Penal Code # Property Code # Special District Local Laws Code # Tax Code # Transportation Code # Utilities Code # Water Code

Regulations

The body of regulations promulgated by state agencies is referred to as

administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), a ...

. The ''

'' contains the compiled and indexed regulations of Texas state agencies and is published yearly by the Secretary of State. The '' Texas Register'' contains proposed rules, notices, executive orders, and other information of general use to the public and is published weekly by the Secretary of State. Both are also available online through the Secretary of State's website.

Case law

The Texas legal system is based on common law, which is interpreted by

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 le ...

through the decisions of the Texas Supreme Court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Texas Courts of Appeals. There is no longer an officially published reporter. ''West's Texas Cases'' (a Texas-specific version of the ''

'') includes reported opinions of the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Courts of Appeals. The ''Texas Reports'' includes Supreme Court opinions until July 1962, and the ''Texas Criminal Reports'' includes Court of Criminal Appeals opinions until November 1962. Appellate opinions from 1997–2002 onwards are generally available online. There is no systematic reporting of decisions of trial courts. Online availability of case filings at the trial court level varies drastically: some district courts and county courts at law allow online access to download case filings, either for free or for a fee, either to registered users (sometimes restricted by attorney status) or to all users, whereas other trial courts only allow online access to the clerk's register of actions or the case docket, or no online access at all. For example, the Harris County District Clerk's website requires users to register for free in order to download case filings. The Harris County Clerk similarly requires registration in order to download case filings, though the search function is available to unregistered users. In Dallas County, the District Clerk and County Clerk's records are available from a single online portal which allows for most non-sensitive case filings to be downloaded without registration. Filings from all 254 Texas counties can be searched by registered users for free through the statewide re:SearchTX portal, though a payment of $.10 (ten cents) per page is required for downloads.

Local ordinances

Municipal governments may promulgate local ordinances, rules, and police regulations, and are usually codified in a "code of ordinances". Counties in Texas have limited regulatory (ordinance) authority. Some codes are printed by private publishers, and some are available online, but the most common method of discovering local ordinances is by physically traveling to the

seat of government The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority". In most countries, the nation’s capital is also seat of its government, thus that ...

and asking around.

Age of criminal responsibility

Criminal courts in Texas have automatic jurisdiction over all persons over 17 years of age. there was advocacy to raise the age to 18. The Texas House of Representatives passed such a bill in 2017 that would be effective 2021. In August 2017 there were thirty-three prisoners in adult prisons and/or state jails who were below the age of 18. In Texas the minimum age at which a child may be adjudicated as delinquent is 10.

Murder statutes

Capital murder convictions have two options: life imprisonment without parole and death. Prior to 2005 life with parole and death were the two options, but that year the Texas Legislature modified the statute. Maurice Chammah , author of ''Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty'', stated that governments of smaller counties supported the move as death penalty cases had increasing costs.

References

* * *

External links

Texas Constitution
from the

Texas Statutes
from the Texas Legislative Council
Texas Administrative Code
from the Texas Secretary of State
General and Special Laws of Texas
from the Texas Legislative Reference Library Legislative Archive System
Gammel's The Laws of Texas
from the

University of North Texas Libraries The University of North Texas Libraries is an American academic research library system that serves the constituent colleges and schools of University of North Texas in Denton. The phrase "University of North Texas Libraries" encompasses three ...

Texas Register
from the Texas Secretary of State
Texas Register
archives from the

Harris County regulations
from the Harris County Attorney
Dallas County Code
from Municode
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: {{DEFAULTSORT:Texas Constitution State law in the United States Texas statutes