[Basic] Skill of the week: Law

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Law (Police) is universal on templates for professional law enforcers. Several GURPS books refer to Law without a specialisation, by which they seem to mean "pick one," or with just a field, by which they mean "fill in the appropriate region." Ones that just specify (Local) puzzle me slightly: is it common in the USA for a city to have enough strictly local law to justify a specialisation?

City? probably not. State? Absolutely. Every US state has its own legislative system, court system, and history of case law. The differences in laws between California, Nevada, and Utah are astounding. There are all sorts of little stupid differences, even in places where you wouldn't expect it -- one that has recently made my life painful is the license requirements for social workers differs by state.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by ericthered

City? probably not. State? Absolutely. Every US state has its own legislative system, court system, and history of case law. The differences in laws between California, Nevada, and Utah are astounding. There are all sorts of little stupid differences, even in places where you wouldn't expect it -- one that has recently made my life painful is the license requirements for social workers differs by state.

City laws can vary quite a bit, too, though they're usually called "ordinances" rather than actual "laws". These are usually things like speed limits inside city limits and acceptable decibel levels of car speakers in certain neighborhoods, but some cities have stricter conceal carry weapon laws than their states, usually due to a history of gun violence inside the city as opposed to the rest of the state (NYC and Chicago come to mind).

Typically, such restrictive city laws stand until someone challenges them in state court....

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

City laws can vary quite a bit, too, though they're usually called "ordinances" rather than actual "laws". These are usually things like speed limits inside city limits and acceptable decibel levels of car speakers in certain neighborhoods, but some cities have stricter conceal carry weapon laws than their states, usually due to a history of gun violence inside the city as opposed to the rest of the state (NYC and Chicago come to mind).

Typically, such restrictive city laws stand until someone challenges them in state court....

I used to live in Edmond, OK and they had "Covenents" which were neighborhood specific ordinances agreed to between the developer and the city that had force of law.