Veterans buildings

California Codes are 29 legal codes enacted by the California State Legislature, which together form the general statutory law of California.  The law of California consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, and regulatory law, as well as case law. The California Codes form the general statutory law, and most state agency regulations are available in the California Code of Regulations. 

Sources of Law

• Constitution of California (Primary Source) – Is the foremost source of state law.
• Legislation (Primary Source)  – Legislation is enacted within the statutes, which in turn have been codified into the 29 California Codes.
• Regulatory Law (Primary Source) –  State agencies promulgate regulations with the California Regulatory Notice Register, which are in turn codified in the California Code of Regulations. 
• Binding Legal Precedents (Primary Source) -California’s legal system is based on common law, which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of the Supreme Court of California, California Courts of Appeal, and Appellate Divisions of the Superior Courts of California, and published in the California Reports, California Appellate Reports, and California Appellate Reports Supplement, respectively (among others). 
• Local Ordinances (Primary Source) – Counties and incorporated cities may promulgate local ordinances which are usually codified in county or city codes, respectively.
• Secondary Sources – There are also several sources of persuasive authority, which are not binding authority but are useful to lawyers and judges insofar as they help to clarify the state of law. These include opinions by federal courts on state law, and opinions of other state courts on relevant issues.

California Codes

The official Codes are maintained by the California Office of Legislative Counsel for the Legislature. The Legislative Counsel also publishes the official text of the Codes publicly at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.

California is unusual in that unlike 46 other states, it has separate subject-specific codes rather than a single code divided into numbered titles. Unlike the majority of states, contract law is fully codified in the Civil Code.