American Legal Terms

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The terms you are asking about are really about legislation, not the legal system. For tht Glossary of Congressional and Legislative Terms

Bill: a legislative proposal for enactment of a law. It is called a bill until it is passed and signed, at which time it is a law (statute) and is no longer referred to as a bill.
Senator Snort thinks that skateboarding should be illegal, so he writes up a proposed law that outlaws skateboards. He then submits it to the US Senate for consideration, using a set procedure. This submission is called "introducing a bill."

Act: Legislation (a bill or joint resolution, see below) that has passed both chambers of Congress in identical form, been signed into law by the President, or passed over his veto, thus becoming law. A bill also becomes an act without the president’s signature if he does not return it to Congress within ten days, Sundays excepted, while Congress is in session. Technically, this term also refers to a bill that has been passed by one house and engrossed (prepared as an official copy).

In the US Congress and most local and state systems, there are two kinds of acts. One kind is meant to become a law; the other kind is a resolution that describes the intent of Congress or a legislature (for example, proclaiming National Skateboard Appreciation Month or commending a hero skateboarder for saving a little child). Sen. Snort's proposal is described as "an act to prohibit use of skateboards." If the Senator has a big ego, he may add "This may be referred to as the Snort Child Protection Act."

Law: a statute, ordinance or regulation enacted by the legislative branch of a government and signed into law, or in some nations created by decree without any democratic process.

There are other definitions of "law," but I think this one fits your context. Once Congress has passed the Snort Child Protection Act and the president has signed it, it becomes law. Americans are then obliged to obey it.

There's a difference between "a law" and "the law". "The law" is a collection of rules, statutes, constitutional provisions, ordinances, regulations, judge-created law. "A law" is, as nutrax said, a particular piece of legislation (that is, a rule or set of rules passed by a legislative body.)

Bill and act: see nutrax. A bill is a proposed law or change of law. Once the bill has gone through all the stages toward adoption, it's called an act.

Example: "Racially segregated schools are against the law in the US. They were outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Wikipedia says that the bill was introduced by John F. Kennedy."

Thank you both nutrax&shilgia for the replies.
So a law and an act are basically the same? did I get it right?
Can a president present a law project on his own to the Congress?(a bill?)
Can a president make decrees on his own? ( Here in Argentina we have "decretos de necesidad y urgencia" as a faculty of the Executive power)
Usually miss used and abused.

And .. is it the same in U.K. ?

I bet Sen. Snort would lose all the teens' votes once they get the right age to vote! Please let the skateboards roll!!!!hehe
Gracias!

So a law and an act are basically the same? did I get it right?

Yes. (Taking shilgia's distinction between "a law" and "the law" into account.)

Can a president present a law project on his own to the Congress

Not quite. The proposal could only be formally introduced by a member of Congress. But the president often does have a member introduce bills that have been drafted in the White House or in the executive departments.

Can a president make decrees on his own? ( Here in Argentina we have "decretos de necesidad y urgencia" as a faculty of the Executive power)

He can issue Executive Orders within the law. But see the discussion of the Youngstown Steel case there. I suspect he has less authority than the president of Argentina but I don't know much about the Argentine situation.

Gracias Vinny! and you do right staying away from Argie situation.. hehe wish so could I!
Presidents here can sign laws, I am not sure if they have a limited amount of possibilities or is as many as they need to pass in order to be able to rule.
They mostly use it when they know they will lose if presented at Congress for debate.

I am reading Howard Zinn's book ( A People's History of the U.S.) and it mentions all the time the three words and made me curious as to what the difference was.

Thank you all for teaching me the difference.

To make things more interesting, there are also "ordinances" and "regulations."

Ordinances are simply laws enacted by a city or a county. Cities and counties have small governing bodies, such as a city council. These have maybe 5-10 people. Members do not introduce bills, but rather present "proposed ordinances." These things are not called "acts."

REgulation:
rules and administrative codes issued by governmental agencies at all levels, municipal, county, state and federal. Although they are not laws, regulations have the force of law, since they are adopted under authority granted by statutes, and often include penalties for violations.

It works like this (at the federal level). Sen. Snort's bill passes. But all the bill says is "it's illegal to use a skateboard and the Dept. of Transportation needs to enforce it." Someone has to come up with a legal definition of "use a skateboard," for instance. Is it OK for a museum to demonstrate one? Is it OK to film a movie where someone uses one? What should be the penalty for using it? All those details about implementing a law.

There is a law (statute) already on the books that says the Dept. of Transportation can pass regulations to implement any law that the agency is stuck with. To do that, the DOT drafts a regulation and publishes for the public to read and comment. (There is a whole formal structure for doing that.) If there is enough interest, the DOT may hold one or more formal public hearing and take testimony about the draft regulation. Or they might just say " you have 60 days to send us written comments." There are provisions for the public to demand a hearing. DOT must prepare a response to the comments. They don't have to send each commenter a personal response; it's usually one document that covers it all. That document has to be made public.

If all goes well, the DOT then formally adopts the regulation. If comments point our serious flaws, DOT revises the draft and sends it our for comment again. Eventually, they produce something that makes it through the process and the regulation is adopted. Federal regulations wind up in something called the Code of Federal Regulations.

Regulations have the advantage of being much easier to revise as needed than do statutes. Regulations can't do anything that isn't allowed by the original statute. So if Sen. Snort's act says that using a skateboard is a felony, the DOT can't change that to a misdemeanor. If the act outlaws only skateboards, DOT can't use it to justify outlawing rollerblades.

Edited by: Nancy Pelosi

And "statutes".

oy vey!And Nancy joined the thread! I find her brilliant though (in both versions, our Nutrax and her usual self, Nancy P.)

we also have the ordenanzas and regulaciones. Ordenanzas are also laws enacted by the city hall (Ordenanza Municipal).
I am not totally sure how it is in BA downtown, now that has a new political state, is no longer a district.

#6

Cities and counties have small governing bodies, such as a city council. These have maybe 5-10 people.

That's probably generally true. The New York City Council has 51 members, though.