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Thelaw ofPennsylvania consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory and case law. ThePennsylvania Consolidated Statutes form the general statutory law.
TheConstitution of Pennsylvania is the foremost source of state law.[citation needed] Legislation is enacted by thePennsylvania General Assembly, published in theLaws of Pennsylvania, and codified in thePennsylvania Consolidated Statutes. State agency regulations (sometimes called administrative law) are published in thePennsylvania Bulletin and codified in thePennsylvania Code.
Pennsylvania's legal system is based oncommon law, which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of the Supreme Court, Superior Court, and Commonwealth Court, which are published in thePennsylvania State Reports and thePennsylvania Reporter.[citation needed] Municipalities may also promulgatelocal ordinances. In addition, there are also several sources of persuasive authority, which are not binding authority but are useful to lawyers and judges insofar as they help to clarify the current state of the law.[citation needed]
The organic source of state law is theConstitution of Pennsylvania. Although the original Constitution of Pennsylvania was ratified in 1776, more than ten years before the Constitution of the United States, the U.S. Constitution has legal supremacy in matters relating to (or,in pursuance thereof...) powers delegated to the federal government in the U.S. Constitution. The people of the States are supreme and sovereign in the constitutional U.S. system. The people of the States created the federal government and delegated to it a few enumerated powers to which it is properly limited. The current Pennsylvania Constitution dates from 1968.
Pursuant to the state constitution, thePennsylvania General Assembly has enacted various laws, known as "slip laws".[1] These are published in the officialLaws of Pennsylvania, also known as the "Pamphlet Laws" or generically as "session laws".[1] Pennsylvania is currently undertaking its first officialcodification process in thePennsylvania Consolidated Statutes.[2][3] They are published by thePennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau (PALRB or LRB).[4]
There are also several unofficial sources for statutes. The old, unofficial codification isPurdon's Pennsylvania Statutes, which is also being updated in line with the new codification asPurdon's Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Annotated.[2][3] In addition, there are several historic sources of session laws. ThePennsylvania Statutes at Large contain charters, laws in force and obsolete laws from 1682 through 1809; publication began in 1896 and are being digitized by the LRB.[3][5]Smith's Laws contain public laws in force from 1700 through 1829, and were published prior to the Statutes at Large, beginning in 1810.[3]
Pursuant to certain statutes, state agencies have promulgated bodies ofregulations (sometimes calledadministrative law). The regulations are codified in thePennsylvania Code (Pa. Code).[6] ThePennsylvania Bulletin is the weeklygazette containing proposed, enacted and emergency rules and other notices and important documents.[7] Changes in thePennsylvania Code are made via thePennsylvania Code Reporter, a monthly loose-leaf supplement.[7] They are compiled, edited and supplemented by the Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau.[4]
The legal system of Pennsylvania is based on thecommon law of England, and[citation needed] Pennsylvania has areception statute providing for the "reception" ofEnglish law.[citation needed] All statutes, regulations, and ordinances are subject tojudicial review.[citation needed] Pursuant to common law tradition, the courts of Pennsylvania have developed a large body ofcase law through thedecisions of theSupreme Court,Superior Court, andCommonwealth Court.[citation needed]
The officialreporter for the Supreme Court is thePennsylvania State Reports since 1845. There are no official reporters for either the Superior Court or the Commonwealth Court, but thePennsylvania Reporter (a Pennsylvania-specific version of theAtlantic Reporter) is an unofficial reporter. There is no official reporting of decisions of trial courts, but County Court (Common Pleas Court) opinions are selectively published in thePennsylvania District and County Reports (Pa. D.&C.). Many counties also publish their own reporters which contain select trial court opinions for that county.[8] Estate and trusts trial cases are published in theFiduciary Reporter, and local government cases (both trial and appellate) are published inChrostwaite's Pennsylvania Municipal Law Reporter.[9] TheAdministrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts also posts opinions from the Supreme Court (from November 1996), Superior Court (from December 1997), and Commonwealth Court (from January 1997) on its website.[9]
Superior Court opinions were published in thePennsylvania Superior Court Reports from 1895 to 1997, and Commonwealth Court opinions were published in thePennsylvania Commonwealth Court Reports from 1970 to 1995.[10]
Municipalities may enact and enforcelocal ordinances.[11]
Court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of theHarvard Law Library
