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Tutorials, Guides, & How-to's

LAWS and STATUTES

When a bill is passed by the Congress and signed by the President, or, when Congress overrides a presidential veto of a bill, that bill becomes a "public law." Each public law is assigned a number that represents the session of the Congress which enacted the law and the chronological sequence of its enactment. Example:

Public Law 101-54 (or P.L. 101-54)
* 101st Congress
* 54th Public Law enacted

The public law (also called a "law" or "statute") is then published in a variety of forms.

EDITIONS or VERSIONS of PUBLIC LAWS

SLIP LAWS:

Slip Laws are the initial point of access and provide the text of individual statutes in the form of "separates." In size, these slip laws look similar to a pamphlet.

From the 104th Congress (1995-96) to the present, Slip Laws are available online via GPO Access. The Library no longer receives Slip Laws in print.

SESSION LAWS:

Session Laws are the next point of access. These sources pull together all laws enacted in a given Congressional session and arrange them in chronological order.

From the 108th Congress ( 2003-04) the Statutes at Large are available online via GPO Access. The Library of Congress offers online access to the first Forty-three Congresses from 1789-1875.

The Statutes at Large are available in print in the Library from 1789 to present (Gov Pub Shelves AE 2.111:). In addition to the public laws, they also include a very brief legislative history for each public law.

Hint: While it is convenient to have the entire text of a public law in one place, session law sources do not provide amendments to the law, or indicate whether a law has been repealed or made irrelevant by a subsequent court decision. In other words, session law sources provide a record of laws that have at some time been in effect. However, any session law source may contain the text of public laws that are not currently in force.

UNITED STATES CODE:  (SUBJECT CODIFICATION)

Finally, public laws are incorporated into a CODE format. Legal "codes" arrange statutes by subject. Because any piece of legislation may have sections devoted to various subjects, bills passed into law are often divided up when placed in a legal code. Codes are, however, revised to update statutes that are amended or to remove statutes that are repealed.

The U.S. Code is available online via GPO Access from the 104th Congress (1995-96) to the present.

United States Code in print is located on the first floor (Gov Pub Shelves Y 1.2/5:) To keep certain materials together, the U.S. Code is filed in the Gov Pub Shelves after the CFR (AE 2.106/3:).

A completely revised edition of the United States Code is published every six years, e.g., the Code was fully revised in 2006. However, supplementary volumes are issued between editions in order to keep the code current. The Code is divided into fifty subject "titles." Each title is then subdivided into chapters and then into sections.

United States Code Annotated (REF KF62.U5) contains the same statutory text as the United States Code, however, it also includes information about judicial, regulatory, and other legislative action that is related to a given statute. This might include citations to relevant court cases or sections of the Code of Federal Regulations. Updates to United States Code Annotated take the form of "pocket parts" which are inserted into the bound volumes.

OTHER USEFUL SOURCES:

CQ Electronic Library (available to ODU faculty and students) is an online database that includes CQ Weekly Report, CQ Researcher and CQ Voting and Elections. Historic print issues of CQ Weekly are available on the second floor (JRNL JK1.C15 1985-2006); microfiche (JK1.C15 1961-1988). The CQWR usually includes the status of major bills and records of important votes.

INTERNET PORTALS TO LAWS AND STATUTES:

LexisNexis Congressional (available to ODU faculty and students)
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp

GPO Access
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

Thomas
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html

NOTE: Many excellent resources are available on the Internet. Electronic versions may appear before the Library receives print copies. Use the Library's Homepage on the Web at http://www.lib.odu.edu as a gateway.