The Product Rule of Square Roots with Negative Numbers

Let us freely use these supposed laws of exponents.

You used one to show that $(-3)^{1/2}(-3)^{1/2}=9^{1/2}$. Presumably this is $3$.

But another familiar law of exponents is $a^xa^y=a^{x+y}$. Use this with $a=-3$, $x=y=1/2$. We get $(-3)^{1/2}(-3)^{1/2}=(-3)^1=-3$.

Remark: Ordinary laws can give inconsistent results, giving lawyers opportunities to get rich. Mathematical laws have to meet a higher standard.

Response to edit: Restricting attention to real $a$ and $b$ will not work, since there is no way to assign a real number to the expression $(-a)^{1/2}$ without violating some laws of the algebra of real numbers. So to give meaning to the expression, we have to introduce complex numbers. But then as shown above, and in other answers, we can by application of the "laws" reach the highly undesirable conclusion that $3=-3$.