Law of New York (state)

Additionally, municipalities are authorized to operate city, town, village, and district courts for low-level matters.

One key difference is that the New York Constitution also vests power directly in the state's Attorney General and Comptroller, since these positions are directly elected, unlike the U.S. Constitution where the analogous roles are appointed by the President.

[11][12] Unconsolidated laws are uncodified, typically due to their local nature, but are otherwise legally binding.

[4] There are also numerous sources used for statutory interpretation (e.g., legislative intent, legal hermeneutics), including governors' bill, veto, and recall jackets.

[13][14] Pursuant to certain broadly worded statutes, state agencies and courts have promulgated an enormous body of rules and regulations (delegated legislation or administrative law).

[28] Select opinions of the lower courts in the first and second departments are also published in the New York Law Journal.

During the second half of the 19th century, New York repeatedly considered and refused to enact a proposed civil code prepared by David Dudley Field II, as a result of James C. Carter's adamant opposition to Field's controversial ideas.

The main problem with case law is that it takes years of education and experience for an attorney to develop the ability to accurately identify and argue the holding of a published judicial opinion, as distinguished from other text in the same opinion which is merely nonbinding dicta.

Thus, New York case law is of great importance to commercial transactions in the United States.

[34] New York is divided into counties, cities, towns, and villages, which are all municipal corporations with their own government.

[40] Each local government (such as counties[41]) must designate a newspaper of notice to publish or describe its laws.