The law of Virginia consists of several levels of legal rules, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory, case law, and local laws. The Code of Virginia contains the codified legislation that define the general statutory laws for the Commonwealth.
The foremost source of state law is the Constitution of Virginia. It provides the process for enacting all state legislation, as well as defining the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the people of Virginia. The Virginia Constitution has had six major revisions, as well as many amendments. The current version of the Constitution took effect in 1971, after having been recommended by a "Commission on Constitutional Revision", then approved by the General Assembly, the Governor, and the voters of Virginia.[1]
As with all states, the Virginia Constitution and any other state laws may be superseded by the Constitution of the United States and U.S. federal laws, to the extent those laws conflict with Virginia laws.
Legislation
Pursuant to the state constitution, the Virginia General Assembly has the power to enact legislation. A bill that has been passed by a majority in both the Virginia House and Senate is then sent to the Governor for endorsement. If the bill is either signed by the Governor or left unsigned for thirty days, it will become an official law of the commonwealth. The Governor may also send the bill back with recommended changes or veto it outright. In either of these cases, the legislation would go back to the General Assembly for further action. An attempt to override the Governor's veto requires approval by a two-thirds vote in both houses of the General Assembly.[2]
Pursuant to certain statutes, state agencies have promulgated regulations, also known as administrative law. The Virginia Register of Regulations is the official publication of state government regulations, petitions for rulemaking, emergency regulations, Governor's executive orders, state lottery regulations and director's orders, and State Corporation Commission orders and regulations.[6][7] The Virginia Administrative Code is the compilation of permanent regulations that have the force of law.[6] The Virginia Register of Regulations is published by the Virginia Code Commission.[7]
Opinions are first published online as a slip opinion, a pamphlet that contains only one decision.[3] Slip opinions are then compiled in soft-bound volumes called advance sheets, and assigned citations (volume and page number) for the official reporters.[3] Advance sheets are then compiled and printed in the hard-bound volumes of the reporters.[3]
Local ordinances
The Code of Virginia provides that the maximum penalty for the violation of a local ordinance is the penalty provided by general law for a class 1 misdemeanor.[8][9]
Case law: "Virginia", Caselaw Access Project, Harvard Law School, OCLC1078785565, Court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of the Harvard Law Library