Which body enacts statutory law?

• A. The judiciary.
• B. Administrative agencies.
• C. A legislature at federal, state, or local level.
• D. The executive branch.

Answer: (C)

Statutory law is created by the elected lawmaking body—the legislature. At the federal level, this is Congress; at the state level, state legislatures; and at the local level, city or county councils. They draft, debate, and pass laws, which, once signed by the executive or allowed to become law, become statutes that govern society. The judiciary’s role is to interpret and apply those statutes in cases, not to create them. Administrative agencies, meanwhile, issue regulations to implement statutes, but those regulations are not statutes themselves. So the body that enacts statutory law is the legislative branch—the legislature at federal, state, or local levels.