Can someone from the us/Canada explain the difference between federal vs state laws

[anxiety]

And Dual Sovereignty? I tried to look it up but hardly anything is giving examples and the legal jargon is leaving me kind of shook.

[evermore]

I'm neither american nor canadian but I'm studying politics so I'd like to take a guess lol. 

 

Isn't federal law the law of the individual states and State law the law of the United state itself? State and Federal state have different competences which allows them to have different laws. 

 

 

This should explain it quite nicely 

[coconut water]

In America, it works like this:

 

Federal laws are made by the federal government and they are laws every state must follow.

 

State laws are made by the government in that state. State laws rule over just a specific state and only applies to those living in the state, visiting the state or conducting business in the state. When a state law is in conflict with a federal law, the federal law overpowers it.

[OhGosh!]

There's also specific powers granted to different levels of government. For example, the Federal government can print money and declare war. The states can't do that (thankfully).

[M O L A]

Its simple

 

 

Federal law=all 50 states must follow

 

State law= only the state where that law is passed

[Solfa]

Lol this is a question in the naturalization test. Basically states have laws for the administration of the region like driver’s licenses rules, education, taxation, while federal deals with problems that affect Americans all over the country. The eason for this split is different states have different needs, because their geography, type of jobs, funds and demographics are different.

[car door guy]

In Canada, there are no states but provinces fyi.

[Winter Bear]

Its simple

Federal law=all 50 states must follow

State law= only the state where that law is passed

^^

 

Dual Sovreignty, like the central government in Westminster and devolved government in Scotland.

[Deâ„“phina]

Ok, so first thing, Canada doesn't have states but provinces and territories, with the former having more power than the latter. 

 

Canada and the US are both federal countries with a huge level of decentralization. We both have constitutions (the US one is explicitly written and set in stone, the Canadian one has some uncodified elements) which are the highest law of the land. Federal law originates from the Constitution and controls matters of national security and interstate exchange, like the military, telecommunications, money, foreign relations, citizenship, drug laws, some areas of commerce like antitrust laws and some areas of taxation... State/provincial laws deal with more specific things like insurance, healthcare, education, individual crime, employment... Most of statutes are state/provincial, and state/provinces can and will go to court against the federation if a federal law feels like it's stepping on their authority. 

 

There is another level of laws which is local/municipal. 

[MeiLyn]

Not American but  watched this video some few days ago and it explains it well imo

The law talk starts at 3:00

 

 

this compares EU with different countries

 

 

 

[Nazca]

In Canada, federal laws are across the country while provincial law applies only to the one province. I should really know more, but I have to admit I don't know how power is negotiated between the two (i.e. if there are types of laws the province or country can't make, and which ones). Things across Canada tend to be fairly consistent but there are usually minor differences, so for stuff that's managed provincially it is important to find out what your own province dictates. Quebec tends to be the outlier in a lot of Canada-wide regulations, since they want to govern themselves independently from the rest of Canada.

 

I think it's the same basic situation in the US with their state and federal laws, but I did get the impression that US states are more likely to have dramatically different laws (for example, states were quite divided on gay rights issues until the federal government made country-wide decisions). There are lots of sites that document obscure old laws that will exist in one single state (for example, "one may not possess a donkey in a city street between 9AM and 6PM" type of thing).

[Sooyoung's Wife]

from a historical standpoint in the colonial era no one as a citizen in the british colonies felt as though the states were united. like say if you were from virginia you'd say "i'm a virginian" not "i'm an american", which this is still true today just to a lesser degree. the word 'state' itself refers to country, so it was like each colony was its own country so many only cared about legislation for their own state. so if you were from georgia you wouldn't care what kind of laws were created in new york.

 

it wasn't until the american revolution where they adapted the "united" mindset and tried to establish a strong federal government. a lot of federalists (more power to the fed) and anti-federalists (more power to the states) clashed with how much power the fed gov't should have over states, because lots of states opposed the idea of this new government having the power to override their laws already in place. it's here where you can see early evidence of states ignoring federal law in favor of their own.

 

eventually the federal government was able to establish itself after many failed attempts leading to what it is today. i say this because i think it's important to understand its history to grasp the idea better, otherwise it is a little confusing why there's 2 governments and why states can make laws contradicting with fed law. but at the end of the day fed law always trumps state law. but as some people have said already state laws usually just deal with domestic issues like education, regional things, driving laws, etc. where fed gov't deals with things that apply to the country as a whole.