What type of law is developed in the courts by applying statutes to specific facts?

• A. Statutory law
• B. Case law
• C. Issue
• D. Contestant

Answer: (B)

When courts interpret statutes and apply them to the facts of a dispute, their decisions create a body of law known as case law. This is the law that emerges from judicial rulings—how a statute is understood and applied to real-world situations—so it guides future cases with similar facts. In probate contexts, for example, a judge might interpret what a will requires for validity or how a provision should be read when the facts are unusual; that ruling becomes part of case law, shaping how the statute is applied in later cases.

Statutory law, by contrast, is the actual written statutes created by the legislature. An issue is a question to be decided in a case, not a type of law itself. A contestant is irrelevant to the legal concept.