2024年5月9日发(作者：qq空间网页版进不去)

请问law、act、regulation、code、directive、statute到底有何区别？

1、 Act-法案。

在美国，act是指由国会通过、总统签字的法律或待批准成为法律的议案（当然最后也很可能不

被批准）。

示例：

美国《2005能源政策法案》－US Energy Policy Act of 2005

参考信息:

1) n. in general, any action by a person. 2) n. a statutory plan passed by Congress or

any legislature which is a "bill" until enacted and becomes law. 3) v. for a court to

make a decision and rule on a motion or petition, as in "the court will act on your motion

for a new trial."

In the legal sense, this word may be used to signify the result of a public deliberation,

the decision of a prince, of a legislative body, of a council, court of justice, or a

magistrate. Also, a decree, edict, law, judgment, resolve, award, determination. Also,

an instrument in writing to verify facts, as act of assembly, act of congress, act of

parliament, act and deed. Acts are civil or criminal, lawful or unlawful, public or

private.

Public acts, usually denominated authe

2、Action-诉讼。

诉讼可分为刑事诉讼（criminal proceedings）和民事诉讼（civil lawsuits）（注意：lawsuit

尤指民事案件，所以前面的刑事诉讼用proceedings）.action这个词多用于民事诉讼。

参考以下信息:

Action: a lawsuit in which one party (or parties) sues another.

The term action includes all the proceedings attendant upon a legal demand, its

adjudication, and its denial or its enforcement by a court. Specifically, it is the legal

proceedings, while a Cause of Action is the underlying right that gives rise to them.

In casual conversation, action and cause of action may be used interchangeably, but they

are more properly distinguished. At one time, it was more correct to speak of actions

at law and of proceedings or suits in Equity. The distinction is rather technical, however,

and not significant since the merger of law and equity. The term action is used more

often for civil lawsuits than for criminal proceedings.

Actions are divided into criminal and civil. A criminal action is a prosecut

3、

Regulation-可译为“规章”。

是由受认可的行政机构颁布的对法律进行解释和补充的文件。从理论上说，它不是由立法机构颁

布的，不具有法律效力；但从事实上讲，它对判定某种行为是否合法有重要影响，因此实际上它

是具有法律效力的。比如美国国会通过的《食品、药品和化妆品法》中规定：禁止不安全食品和

无效药品进入市场。但到底什么是“不安全”、什么是“无效”呢？这就由美国国会下属的美国

食品药品监督管理局（FDA）颁布文件来解释说明，这就是regulation。

示例：《联邦规章典》－Code of Federal Regulations（C.F.R)

参考信息:

A rule of order having the force of law, prescribed by a superior or competent authority,

relating to the actions of those under the authority's control.

Regulations are issued by various federal government departments and agencies to carry

out the intent of legislation enacted by Congress. Administrative agencies, often called

"the bureaucracy," perform a number of different government functions, including rule

making. The rules issued by these agencies are called regulations and

4、

code

法典

codes是指涉及某方面的一系列法律，这些法律都有编号。并不是所有的法律都有编号，而有些

code尽管是由管理机构而非国会颁布的，实际上并非法令或法律，但同样具有法律效力。

示例：

《美国法典》－U.S. Code（U.S.C.)

《军事审判法典》－Code of Military Justice

参考信息：

code n. a collection of written laws gathered together, usually covering specific subject

matter. Thus, a state may have a civil code, corporations code, education code, evidence

code, health and safety codes, insurance code, labor code, motor vehicle code, penal

code, revenue and taxation code, and so forth. Federal statutes which deal with legal

matters are grouped together in codes. There are also statutes which are not codified.

Despite their apparent permanence codes are constantly being amended by legislative

bodies. Some codes are administrative and have the force of law even though they were

created and adopted by regulatory agencies and are not actually statutes or laws.