Law 101 Page 2

Statutary Law

Where true law states all men are forbidden to infringe on a right of another, statute law broadly regulates the conduct of curtain enumerated objects.

In the States of America, and the United States, the respective legislature writes a statute concerning a topic, of which it has jurisdiction, as prescribed by necessity. The statute may read something like this:

41-6-48.5. Maximum speed in a school zone — Penalty — Minimum fines — Compensatory service — Waiver — Recordkeeping.
(1) A person may not operate a vehicle at a speed greater than 20 miles per hour in a reduced speed school zone as defined in Section 41-6-20.1.
(2) (a) A violation of this section is a class C misdemeanor and the minimum fine:
(i) for a first offense shall be calculated according to the following schedule:
Vehicle Speed Minimum Fine
21 – 29 MPH $ 50
30 – 39 MPH $ 125
40 MPH and greater $ 275
(ii) for a second and subsequent offense within three years of a previous conviction or bail forfeiture shall be calculated according to the following schedule:
Vehicle Speed Minimum Fine
21 – 29 MPH $ 50
30 – 39 MPH $ 225
40 MPH and greater $ 525
(b) (i) Except as provided under Subsection (2)(a)(ii), the court may order the person to perform compensatory service in lieu of the fine or any portion of the fine.
(ii) The court shall order the person to perform compensatory service observing a crossing guard if the conviction is for a:
(A) first offense with a vehicle speed of 30 miles per hour or more; or
(B) second and subsequent offense within three years of a previous conviction or bail forfeiture.
(iii) The court may waive the compensatory service required under Subsection (2)(b)(ii) if the court makes the reasons for the waiver part of the record.
(3) The Driver License Division shall develop and implement a record system to distinguish:
(a) a conviction or bail forfeiture under this section from other convictions; and
(b) between a first and subsequent conviction or bail forfeiture under this section.
(4) The provisions of this section take precedence over the provisions of Sections 41-6-46, 41-6-47, 41-6-48, and 76-3-301.

At first glance this law refers to any person operating a vehicle, but since the government only has curtain limited jurisdictions one would have to cross-reference the statute with an actual incident to discover whether the statute applies to the “person” involved. The statute assumes that the people know who is subject (and, therefore, required to adhere to the statute), and who is not (and, therefore, not required or expected to adhere to the statute). For instance, a Canadian traveling through the state of Utah, should be expected to follow this traffic rule.

To confirm this, one needs to apply the three limited jurisdictions of the Utah government. For example, geographical jurisdiction is obvious if the driver is a Canadian, since the person driving the vehicle is within the State’s geographical boundaries. Personal jurisdiction is also obvious, the State has personal jurisdiction over all foreign travelers traveling within that state. Subject matter jurisdiction is not so obvious. Since the people of the Utah Republic have never authorized the State to write statutes concerning traffic rules, this Utah statute has no legal bearing.

Let’s assume, however, that the Constitution of the State of Utah does constitute authority for the State to write such a code (for the sake of example). That would place the Canadian driver in all three jurisdictions. If the Canadian happened to drive through a “reduced speed school zone” at a speed greater than 20 miles per hour that person would be guilty of violating the code and, upon conviction, fined according to the code.