Law - sustany/dvg GitHub Wiki

When people talk about the �law� of the United States, they are probably referring to the law system it has. The U.S. uses a common law system, which means that it tends to rely on the decisions made by judges on cases that have come to trial; The compilation of these decisions is called case law (Note: other countries, such as Japan, have a civil law system, which relies on codes that explicitly provide the rules that judges must follow in order to come to a decision, and so such decisions are often not subject to individual interpretation).

�Law� can also mean �state law,� which includes common law and statutes and regulations. The same is true for �federal law.�

Yet another distinction is that between procedural law and substantive law.

Additionally, international law is �composed only of those rules that States universally abide by, or accede to, out of a sense of legal obligation and mutual concern.�