DSST Criminal Justice Practice Exam 2026 - Free Criminal Justice Practice Questions and Study Guide

Law handed down by legislatures is statutory law. Legislatures draft and pass statutes that set out rules in written form, and once enacted these statutes become the laws applied by courts and agencies. This differs from case law, which grows from judicial decisions and the precedents they establish; administrative law, which consists of rules created by executive agencies to implement statutes; and common law, which is the unwritten body of law developed through court decisions over time. So, when you hear law created by a legislature, think of it as statutory law—the written statutes enacted by the legislative branch.