Law of Virginia

"Virginia law" redirects here. For the law school, seeUniversity of Virginia School of Law.

ThelawofVirginiaconsists of several levels of legal rules, includingconstitutional,statutory, regulatory,case law,and local laws. TheCode of Virginiacontains the codified legislation that define the general statutory laws for the Commonwealth.

Sources of law in Virginia

See also:Government of Virginia

TheConstitution of Virginiais the foremost source of state law. Legislation is enacted by theGeneral Assembly,published in theActs of Assembly,and codified in theCode of Virginia.State agency regulations (sometimes called administrative law) are published in theVirginia Register of Regulationsand codified in theVirginia Administrative Code.Virginia's legal system is based oncommon law,which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of theSupreme Court,Court of Appeals,andCircuit Courts,which may be published in theVirginia Reports,Virginia Court of Appeals Reports,andVirginia Circuit Court Opinions,respectively. Counties and municipalities may also promulgatelocal ordinances.

Constitutions

The foremost source of state law is theConstitution of Virginia.It provides the process for enacting all state legislation, as well as defining the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the people of Virginia. The Virginia Constitution has had six major revisions, as well as many amendments. The current version of the Constitution took effect in 1971, after having been recommended by a "Commission on Constitutional Revision", then approved by the General Assembly, the Governor, and the voters of Virginia.

As with all states, the Virginia Constitution and any other state laws may be superseded by theConstitution of the United StatesandU.S. federal laws,to the extent those laws conflict with Virginia laws.

Legislation

Pursuant to the state constitution, theVirginia General Assemblyhas the power to enactlegislation.A bill that has been passed by a majority in both theVirginia HouseandSenateis then sent to theGovernorfor endorsement. If the bill is either signed by the Governor or left unsigned for thirty days, it will become an official law of the commonwealth. The Governor may also send the bill back with recommended changes or veto it outright. In either of these cases, the legislation would go back to the General Assembly for further action. An attempt to override the Governor's veto requires approval by a two-thirds vote in both houses of the General Assembly.

Itssession lawsare published in theActs of the General Assembly of the State of Virginia.They are in turncodifiedin theCode of Virginia.

Regulations

Pursuant to certain statutes, state agencies have promulgatedregulations,also known asadministrative law.TheVirginia Register of Regulationsis the official publication of state government regulations, petitions for rulemaking, emergency regulations, Governor's executive orders, state lottery regulations and director's orders, and State Corporation Commission orders and regulations.TheVirginia Administrative Codeis the compilation of permanent regulations that have the force of law.TheVirginia Register of Regulationsis published by theVirginia Code Commission.

Case law

The legal system of Virginia is based on thecommon law.Like all U.S. states exceptLouisiana,Virginia has areception statuteproviding for the "reception" ofEnglish law.All statutes, regulations, and ordinances are subject tojudicial review.Pursuant to common law tradition, the courts of Virginia have developed a large body ofcase lawthrough thedecisionsof theSupreme Court,Court of Appeals,andcircuit courts.

The decisions of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and circuit courts are published in theVirginia Reports,Virginia Court of Appeals Reports,andVirginia Circuit Court Opinions,respectively.Most circuit court decisions are not published.The decisions of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are also published in the unofficialSouth Eastern Reporter.

Opinions are first published online as a slip opinion, a pamphlet that contains only one decision.Slip opinions are then compiled in soft-bound volumes called advance sheets, and assigned citations (volume and page number) for the official reporters.Advance sheets are then compiled and printed in the hard-bound volumes of the reporters.

Local ordinances

TheCode of Virginiaprovides that the maximum penalty for the violation of a local ordinance is the penalty provided by general law for a class 1 misdemeanor.

See also

Topics

• Capital punishment in Virginia
• Collection of judgments in Virginia
• Drug policy of Virginia
• Felony murder rule (Virginia)
• Gun laws in Virginia
• LGBT rights in Virginia
• Virginia Civil Procedure

Other

• Politics of Virginia
• Law enforcement in Virginia
• Crime in Virginia
• Law of the United States

External links

• Virginia lawfrom theVirginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems
• Constitution of Virginiafrom the Virginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems
• Code of Virginiafrom the Virginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems
• Virginia Administrative Codefrom the Virginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems
• Acts of Assembly chaptersfrom the Virginia Division of Legislative Automated Systems
• Virginia Register of Regulationsfrom theVirginia Division of Legislative Services
• Court opinionsfrom theSupreme Court of Virginia
• Local ordinance codesfromPublic.Resource.Org
• Case law:"Virginia",Caselaw Access Project,Harvard Law School,OCLC1078785565,Court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of theHarvard Law Library