Ordinance vs. Law — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman — Updated on October 27, 2023
An ordinance is a local government rule, while a law is a formal regulation set by a higher legislative body.
Difference Between Ordinance and Law
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Ordinances are regulations set by local government entities, such as cities or towns, often addressing specific issues within their jurisdiction. In contrast, laws are formal rules established by state or national legislative bodies, holding broader scope and application. Both are legally binding, but laws typically override ordinances if there’s a conflict.
An ordinance is designed to address local concerns, like zoning or noise control, reflecting the immediate needs of a community. Laws, however, cover a wider range of issues, from civil rights to taxation, and are designed for a larger populace. While ordinances cater to local nuances, laws provide overarching frameworks for governance.
In terms of enforcement, ordinances are implemented by local authorities like city councils. Laws, on the other hand, are enacted by higher government bodies such as parliaments or congresses and enforced nationally or statewide. The enforcement level aligns with the breadth of their jurisdiction.
Creating an ordinance usually involves local government processes and can be relatively quicker. Crafting a law, however, often requires extensive legislative procedures, debates, and sometimes public voting. Despite the difference in creation processes, both ordinances and laws must comply with constitutional principles.
Ordinances and laws share the objective of maintaining order and protecting citizens’ rights, but they differ in scope, creation, and enforcement levels. Understanding this distinction is crucial in navigating legal frameworks, whether at a local or national level.
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Comparison Chart
Scope
Local, addressing specific community issues.
State or national, covering broader issues.
Enacting Body
Local government entities like city councils.
Higher legislative bodies like parliaments or congresses.
Enforcement
Implemented locally by municipal authorities.
Enforced statewide or nationally.
Creation Process
Relatively quicker, involves local government processes.
Involves extensive legislative procedures.
Overriding Authority
Can be overridden by state or national laws.
Holds higher authority, can override local ordinances.
Compare with Definitions
Ordinance
An authoritative order.
The mayor’s ordinance required all residents to evacuate.
Law
The system of judicial administration giving effect to the laws of a community
All citizens are equal before the law.
Ordinance
A local government regulation.
The city passed an ordinance to limit noise pollution.
Law
A regulation established by government authority.
A new traffic law was implemented to improve road safety.
Ordinance
A rule established by an authority.
The park’s ordinance prohibited littering.
Law
A principle based on the predictable consequences of an act.
The law of supply and demand affects market prices.
Ordinance
An authoritative command or order.
Law
Law is a system of rules created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and the art of justice.
Ordinance
A custom or practice established by long usage.
Law
A rule of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority.
Ordinance
A Christian rite, especially the Eucharist.
Law
The body of rules and principles governing the affairs of a community and enforced by a political authority; a legal system
International law.
Ordinance
A statute or regulation, especially one enacted by a municipal government.
Law
The condition of social order and justice created by adherence to such a system
A breakdown of law and civilized behavior.
Ordinance
(US) A local law, passed by e.g. a city.
Law
A set of rules or principles dealing with a specific area of a legal system
Tax law.
Criminal law.
Ordinance
An edict or decree, authoritative order.
Law
A statute, ordinance, or other rule enacted by a legislature.
Ordinance
(England) Prior to the Third English Civil War, a decree of Parliament.
Law
A judicially established legal requirement; a precedent.
Ordinance
Detailed legislation that translates the broad principles of the university's charter and statutes into practical effect.
Law
Legal action or proceedings; litigation
Submit a dispute to law.
Ordinance
(Hong Kong) A law enacted by the Hong Kong Legislative Council.
Law
An impromptu or extralegal system of justice substituted for established judicial procedure
Frontier law.
Ordinance
A temporary law promulgated by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet.
Law
An agency or agent responsible for enforcing the law. Often used with the
"The law ... stormed out of the woods as the vessel was being relieved of her cargo" (Sid Moody).
Ordinance
A religious practice or ritual prescribed by a church.
Law
(Informal) A police officer. Often used with the.
Ordinance
(proscribed) ordnance.
Law
The science and study of law; jurisprudence.
Ordinance
Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision.
They had made their ordinanceOf victual, and of other purveyance.
Law
Knowledge of law.
Ordinance
A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action; a statute, law, regulation, rescript, or accepted usage; an edict or decree; esp., a local law enacted by a municipal government; as, a municipal ordinance.
Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance.
By custom and the ordinance of times.
Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Law
The profession of an attorney.
Ordinance
An established rite or ceremony.
Law
Something, such as an order or a dictum, having absolute or unquestioned authority
The commander's word was law.
Ordinance
Rank; order; station.
Law
A body of principles or precepts held to express the divine will, especially as revealed in the Bible.
Ordinance
Ordnance; cannon.
Law
The first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Ordinance
An authoritative rule
Law
A code of principles based on morality, conscience, or nature.
Ordinance
A statute enacted by a city government
Law
A rule or custom generally established in a particular domain
The unwritten laws of good sportsmanship.
Ordinance
The act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders;
The rabbi's family was present for his ordination
Law
A way of life
The law of the jungle.
Ordinance
A decree by a governmental authority.
An ordinance was issued to regulate street parking.
Law
A statement describing a relationship observed to be invariable between or among phenomena for all cases in which the specified conditions are met
The law of gravity.
Ordinance
A principle ordained by fate or a deity.
Ancient cultures often believed in ordinances set by gods.
Law
A generalization based on consistent experience or results
The law of supply and demand.
Law
(Mathematics) A general principle or rule that is assumed or that has been proven to hold between expressions.
Law
A principle of organization, procedure, or technique
The laws of grammar.
The laws of visual perspective.
Law
(usually with "the") The body of binding rules and regulations, customs, and standards established in a community by its legislative and judicial authorities.
The courts interpret the law but should not make it.
In theory, entrapment is against the law.
Law
The body of such rules that pertain to a particular topic.
Property law
Commercial hunting and fishing law
Law
Common law, as contrasted with equity.
Law
A binding regulation or custom established in a community in this way.
There is a law against importing wallabies.
A new law forbids driving on that road.
The court ruled that the executive order was not law and nullified it.
Law
(more generally) A rule, such as:
Law
Any rule that must or should be obeyed, concerning behaviours and their consequences. mores.}}
"Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you" is a good law to follow.
The law of self-preservation
Law
A rule or principle regarding the construction of language or art.
The laws of playwriting and poetry
Law
A statement (in physics, etc) of an (observed, established) order or sequence or relationship of phenomena which is invariable under certain conditions. theory.}}
The laws of thermodynamics
Newton's third law of motion states that to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.
This is one of several laws derived from his general theory expounded in the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Law
A statement (of relation) that is true under specified conditions; a mathematical or logical rule.
Mathematical laws can be proved purely through mathematics, without scientific experimentation.
Law
Any statement of the relation of acts and conditions to their consequences.
The law of scarcity
The law of supply and demand
Law
(linguistics) A sound law; a regular change in the pronunciation of a language.
Grimm's law
Dahl's law
Law
(cricket) One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the its (former) governing body, the MCC.
Law
The control and order brought about by the observance of such rules.
They worked to maintain law and order.
It was a territory without law, marked by violence.
Law
(informal) A person or group that act(s) with authority to uphold such rules and order (for example, one or more police officers).
Here comes the law — run!
Then the law arrived on the scene
Law
The profession that deals with such rules (as lawyers, judges, police officers, etc).
He is studying for a career in law.
She has practiced law in New York for twenty years.
Law
Jurisprudence, the field of knowledge which encompasses these rules.
She went to university to study law.
Law
Litigation; legal action (as a means of maintaining or restoring order, redressing wrongs, etc).
They were quick to go to law.
Law
An allowance of distance or time (a head start) given to a weaker (human or animal) competitor in a race, to make the race more fair.
Law
(aviation) A mode of operation of the flight controls of a fly-by-wire aircraft.
Normal law; alternate law; direct law
Law
(fantasy) One of two metaphysical forces ruling the world in some fantasy settings, also called order, and opposed to chaos.
Law
An oath sworn before a court, especially disclaiming a debt. wager of law", "wage one's law", "perform one's law", "lose one's law".}}
Law
(obsolete) A tumulus of stones.
Law
A hill.
Law
A score; share of expense; legal charge.
Law
(obsolete) To work as a lawyer; to practice law.
Law
To prosecute or sue (someone), to litigate.
Law
(nonstandard) To rule over (with a certain effect) by law; to govern.
Law
(informal) To enforce the law.
Law
To subject to legal restrictions.
Law
(dated) An exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.
Law
In general, a rule of being or of conduct, established by an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling regulation; the mode or order according to which an agent or a power acts.
These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made.
The law of thy God, and the law of the King.
As if they would confine the Interminable . . . Who made our laws to bind us, not himself.
His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
Law
In morals: The will of God as the rule for the disposition and conduct of all responsible beings toward him and toward each other; a rule of living, conformable to righteousness; the rule of action as obligatory on the conscience or moral nature.
Law
The Jewish or Mosaic code, and that part of Scripture where it is written, in distinction from the gospel; hence, also, the Old Testament.
What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law . . . But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Law
An organic rule, as a constitution or charter, establishing and defining the conditions of the existence of a state or other organized community.
Law
In philosophy and physics: A rule of being, operation, or change, so certain and constant that it is conceived of as imposed by the will of God or by some controlling authority; as, the law of gravitation; the laws of motion; the law heredity; the laws of thought; the laws of cause and effect; law of self-preservation.
Law
In mathematics: The rule according to which anything, as the change of value of a variable, or the value of the terms of a series, proceeds; mode or order of sequence.
Law
In arts, works, games, etc.: The rules of construction, or of procedure, conforming to the conditions of success; a principle, maxim; or usage; as, the laws of poetry, of architecture, of courtesy, or of whist.
Law
Collectively, the whole body of rules relating to one subject, or emanating from one source; - including usually the writings pertaining to them, and judicial proceedings under them; as, divine law; English law; Roman law; the law of real property; insurance law.
Law
Legal science; jurisprudence; the principles of equity; applied justice.
Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason.
Law is beneficence acting by rule.
And sovereign Law, that state's collected willO'er thrones and globes elate,Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.
Law
Trial by the laws of the land; judicial remedy; litigation; as, to go law.
When every case in law is right.
He found law dear and left it cheap.
Law
An oath, as in the presence of a court.
Law
An exclamation of mild surprise.
Law
Legal document setting forth rules governing a particular kind of activity;
There is a law against kidnapping
Law
The collection of rules imposed by authority;
Civilization presupposes respect for the law
The great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order
Law
A generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature;
The laws of thermodynamics
Law
A rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and essential to or binding upon human society
Law
The learned profession that is mastered by graduate study in a law school and that is responsible for the judicial system;
He studied law at Yale
Law
The force of policemen and officers;
The law came looking for him
Law
The branch of philosophy concerned with the law and the principles that lead courts to make the decisions they do
Law
A system of rules recognized by a country or community.
The law requires all citizens to pay taxes.
Law
A body of rules for conduct, recognized as binding.
Breaking the law can result in penalties or imprisonment.
Law
A scientific principle explaining a natural phenomenon.
Newton’s law of motion describes how objects move.
Common Curiosities
How is an ordinance created?
Ordinances are created through local government processes and votes.
Are ordinances legally binding?
Yes, ordinances are legally binding within their jurisdiction.
Are all laws written?
Most laws are written, but some can be based on established customs or judicial decisions.
What is an ordinance?
An ordinance is a rule or regulation set by a local government entity.
What is a law?
A law is a system of rules established and enforced by a governmental body.
Who creates laws?
Laws are created by higher legislative bodies like parliaments or congresses.
Can an ordinance contradict a law?
No, an ordinance cannot contradict state or national laws.
Can ordinances be enforced outside their jurisdiction?
No, ordinances are enforceable only within the boundaries of their jurisdiction.
Are laws the same as regulations?
Laws are broader; regulations are specific rules within the framework of a law.
Do ordinances apply to non-residents?
Yes, ordinances apply to everyone within the jurisdiction, including non-residents.
Can a law be changed?
Yes, laws can be amended or repealed through legislative processes.
Do laws differ from country to country?
Yes, laws can vary significantly between different countries.
Is international law binding?
International law is generally binding, but enforcement depends on countries' adherence.
What happens if I violate an ordinance?
Violating an ordinance can result in fines, penalties, or legal action.
Can individuals propose laws?
In some systems, citizens can propose laws through initiatives or petitions.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
