Transcript Federal Statutory Research

Federal Statutes
Florida State Law
Research Center
Fall 2009
Robin Gault
What is a statute?
How are statutes published?
Pattern of publication:
Slip laws: often available only on Web today
Session laws: numbered sequentially,
published in bound set organized by
legislative session. Index covers only one
session. Example: Statutes at Large
Statutory compilation (code): includes permanent,
general laws in force arranged by subject.
Updated as new session laws are passed.
Official code: published by government, not usually
annotated. Example: U.S. Code
Annotated code: unofficial, published by private
publisher. Examples: USCA, USCS.
Identifying federal session laws
Public Laws (Pub. L. or P.L.) vs. Private Laws
(Priv. L. or Pvt. L.)
Cite to Statutes at Large: (vol.) Stat. (page)
Since 1957, laws numbered by session of
Congress: Pub. L. 110-17, 121 Stat. 73 (2007).
Older session laws cited by date and chapter
number: Act of June 20, 1874, Chap. 341, 18
Stat. 123.
FREE Sources for Federal
Statutes
Online federal government source for session laws
1995- present :
GPO Access:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/index.html
FDsys:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?
collectionCode=PLAW
GPO Access
Browsing slip laws
Official slip law
Legislative history at end
New GPO system FDsys
Browsing slip laws in FDsys
“More” from FDsys
From Session Law to Code
Only permanent general statutes in force will
be found in a code.
Excludes appropriations acts but may
include other permanent statutes that are
enacted as part of an “omnibus”
appropriations act.
Common Features of Codes
1. General index to laws in force.
2. Tables allowing conversion from session
law to code section.
3. Popular name table
4. Reference to session law in parenthesis
after each section.
5. Historical notes on amendments, changes
after sections.
Fifty titles (subject areas) in U.S. Code.
Code sections are cited by title and section
number, rather than by volume and page.
Example: 15 U.S.C. § 15b. (shown below)
Example of Popular Name Table from U.S. Code
Example of Tracing Table from U. S. Code
Federal Statutory Compilations
Revised Statutes of 1875:
Entire compilation passed as one statute. Errors
corrected in R.S. 1878, but compilation not passed as
one statute.
U.S. Code created 1926.
50 titles (subject divisions), some subsequently passed
as positive law. Print published every 6 years, with
annual bound supplements. (For information about
official U.S. Code, see GPO Access page:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/about.html
U.S. Code
Online from U.S. House of Representatives:
http://uscode.house.gov/download/downlo
ad.shtml
(Note that the “official” online version is
only updated as often as the print version.)
• Also available from GPO Access:
• http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.ht
ml
Updating Code Online
The Cornell Legal Information Institute
maintains links to the official U.S. Code
online but also offers an updating service
for each section with links to the Library of
Congress’s Thomas database:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/
Fee-Based Databases
Sources for Session Laws
HeinOnline (Research Center flat-rate
subscription) has PDFs of Statutes at
Large and U.S. Code.
To access, go to Research Center
homepage:
http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/index.html
Click on “Research Resources,” “Most used
legal databases,” and “HeinOnline.”
Westlaw and Lexis also cover federal
session laws:
Lexis filename STATLG has session laws
1789-present
Westlaw filename PL has current session,
PL-OLD has 1973-2008, US-STATLRG
has 1789-1972.
Source for Older U.S. Code
HeinOnline also has PDFs of all the older
editions of the official U.S. Code.
U.S. Code Annotated
Published by West Publishing.
Text taken from U.S. Code.
Updated with annual pocket parts, quarterly
pamphlet service, and USCCAN. Replacement
volumes published as needed.
Westlaw filename USCA (updated constantly).
USCA on Westlaw
U.S. Code Service
Published by LexisNexis.
Text taken from Statutes at Large.
Updated by annual pocket parts, monthly pamphlet
service. Replacement volumes published as
needed.
Lexis filename USCS (constantly updated).
USCS on Lexis
Annotated Code Features
USCS and USCA include research references to
law review articles, treatises, ALR, etc. (USCS
has more references to administrative rules.)
They also include extensive case annotations.
Both contain annotations for U.S. Constitution and
federal court rules. USCA has court rules under
T.28, USCS in separate volumes. (USCS also
has rules of administrative procedure.)
Good introduction to federal statutory
research:
Law Librarians’ Society of Washington
D.C. Legislative Sourcebook:
http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/