American law perspective

Wex is written from an American law perspective. 

What does that mean?

By "American law perspective", we mean that Wex is grounded in American law and that, ideally, each discussion would begin in the abstract and then expand, in rough order, to relevant federal and state constitutional, statutory, and regulatory specifics. International and comparative law would be discussed explicitly as such. In practice, the "American law perspective" means that, unless otherwise noted, the definitions and overviews found in Wex speak of American law.

What doesn't that mean?

The "American law perspective" does not mean that Wex ignores comparative law. It means that where civil and common law are discussed (whether generally or specifically), they are labeled explicitly and connected (whether by narrative or link) to parallel material on American law.

Why this point of view?

Several reasons:

  • Historically, Wex grew out of a topical collection based in American law.
  • The LII's collection focuses on American primary law documents.
  • Wikipedia already provides extensive resources written from global-and common-law perspectives.

[Last updated in June of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]