3.4. Sources of Criminal Law: Statutes, Ordinances, and Other 
Legislative Enactments 
LORE RUTZ-BURRI 
Statutes, Ordinances, and Other Legislative Enactments 
Most substantive criminal law is legislative law. State legislatures and Congress enact laws which take the 
form of statutes or congressional acts. Statutes are written statements, enacted into law by an affirmative vote 
of both chambers of the legislature and accepted (or not vetoed) by the governor of the state or the president 
of the United States. State legislatures may also create legislative law by participating in interstate compacts,
or multi-state legal agreements. An example of this includes the Uniform Extradition Act, or the Uniform 
Fresh Pursuit Act. Congress makes federal law by passing acts and approving treaties between the United 
States and other nation states. Local legislators, city and town councilors, and county commissioners also 
make laws through the enactment of local ordinances. 
Controversial Issue: Ballot Measures, Initiatives, and Referendums–Direct Democracy and Law 
Making 
In several states, citizens have the power to enact laws through direct democracy by putting “ballot 
measures” or “propositions” up for a vote. This type of lawmaking by the people started primarily in 
the Western states around the turn of the 20th century. Initiatives, referendums, and referrals have some 
slight differences, but generally, these ballot measures ultimately find their way into either statutes or 
the constitution, and so they are included in this section on legislative law. For example, Oregon Ballot 
Measure 11, establishing minimum mandatory sentences for 17 person felonies, was voted on in November 
1994 and took effect April 1, 1995. It is now found in the Oregon Revised Statutes as ORS 137.700. 
Proposition 36, approved by Californians in 2012, significantly amended the “three strikes” sentencing 
laws  approved in 1994. Initiatives, referendums, and referrals can be effective in quickly changing the 
criminal law, like the mandatory sentencing in the 1980s, and is a way to circumvent what can be a 
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