UnGovr Law
LIVEGovernment is layered. So is the law that binds it.
Legislation is not one book. Stand on any point on the map and several bodies of law apply at once, one per layer of government, and the map decides which ones. UnGovr Law catalogues that legal geography, jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
- NationFederal statute and code
- StateState codes: government, education, water, health and safety
- CountyCounty ordinances, and county rules for its unincorporated areas
- CityThe municipal code
- DistrictsEach special district under its enabling act: school districts under the education code, water districts under the water code
Beyond the layers
Districts write rules of their own.
The stack is only the start. Around one California city, each of these overlapping jurisdictions carries a different slice of the law: the school district answers to the state education code, the water districts to the water code, the fire district to health and safety statutes, and each district to its own enabling act.
FIG. 2: ONE FRAME AROUND VENTURA, SIX JURISDICTIONS, SIX BODIES OF LAW. DRAWN FROM ATLAS BOUNDARIES.
No standard blueprint
Every place assembles government differently.
The mechanism that creates a government to oversee schools, water, or roads is itself a local choice, and it keeps changing. The same responsibility can belong to a district in one place, a city department in the next, and a national body across the border.
Independent districts
Education runs through independent school districts under the state education code; thousands of special districts each govern one responsibility, and counties govern the unincorporated land between cities.
No unincorporated land
Every square foot lies inside a city or town, schools are usually a town department or a regional district, and most county governments have been abolished outright.
Consolidated councils
Town councils were abolished in 2014 and their duties consolidated into 31 county and city councils, so one council now holds responsibilities that several bodies held a decade ago.
Reorganizing now
English local government is consolidating again, with two-tier county and district councils giving way to unitary authorities, redrawing who holds which duty.
The brokerage
One interface that holds still while structures change.
Nobody should need to relearn government every time a boundary moves or a council consolidates, and neither should software. UnGovr keeps one consistent interface, for people and for machines, in front of all of it: the Atlas maps who governs what, UnGovr Law maps which legislation applies, and the same UI and API keep working as the structures underneath evolve. That consistency helps the public reach government, and it helps governments be reached.