(A) Local laws are usually called ordinances, such as those adopted by a town, municipal, city council or board. Some examples of ordinances are zoning laws and parking rules, regulation of noise in public areas and parks and other expected issues within the limits of the locality. (B) legislation. A law, a statute, a decree. 2. This word is more usually applied to the laws of a corporation, than to the acts of the legislature; as the ordinances of the city of Philadelphia. The following account of the difference between a statute and an ordinance is extracted from Bac. Ab. Statute, A. Where the proceeding consisted only of a petition from parliament, and an answer from the king, these were entered on the parliament roll; and if the matter was of a public nature, the whole was then styled an ordinance; if, however, the petition and answer were not only of a public, but a novel nature, they were then formed into an act by the king, with the aid of his council and judges, and entered on the statute roll.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action; a law or statute. In a more limited sense, the term is used to designate the enactments of the legislative body of a municipal corporation. Strictly, a bill or law which might stand with the old law, and did not alter any statute in force at the time, and which became complete by the royal assent on the parliament roll, .without any entry on the statute roll. A bill or law which might at any time be amended by the parliament, without any statute. Hale, Com. Law. An ordinance was otherwise distinguished from a statute by the circumstance that the latter required the threefold assent of king, lords, and commons, while an ordinance might be ordained by ope or two of. these constituent bodies. See 4 Inst. 25. The name has also been given to certain oenactments, more general in their character than ordinary statutes, and serving as organic laws, yet not exactly to be called “constitutions.” Such was the “Ordinance for the government of the North-West Territory,” enacted by congress in 1787.