Judges make judicial decisions based on precedent and their own understanding when there are few or no precedents. This is "judge-made law" as compared to statuary law, which is made by legislatures and governments. In the United States the courts can rule statutes and regulations unconstitutional if they go beyond the authority given by the constitution. In the United Kingdom judge-made law or common law cannot rule against statutes made by an act of Parliament. The judiciary and legislative branches are not coequal. Judges, however, have traditionally used one of three ways of interpreting statutes: 