STATUTES
- Public laws: general application
- Private laws: benefit particular people
- Session laws: United States Statutes at large
 New public and private laws published in chronological order
at the end of each session of congress
 Occupy more than 200 volumes going back to the first
Congress in 1789
 Statutes in force are arranged by subject into a compilation
or code
United States Code (USC)
- Official compilation of federal statutes
- The basic source of most federal statutory research
- Prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House
of Representatives
- Published in a new edition every six years
- Each new edition adds statutes enacted since the previous
revision and removes material since repealed by Congress
- Between revisions, the Code is updated by annual bound
supplements
- Supplement: cumulates information from its predecessors, so that
only the most recent supplement is usually needed
- First supplement: relatively concise, but by the fifth year, it may
swell to 10 or more volumes
- Organization
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 Follows a format established for its 1 edition in 1926
 Division into 50 subject titles
 Titles arranged alphabetically and are listed in front of each
volume
 Each title covers a subject area, some more narrow than
others
 Each title is divided into chapters covering more specific
subjects (Table of Titles and Chapters); also printed in the
front of each volume
 Generally, each chapter covers a discrete area, such as mail
fraud, meat inspections, etc
 Chapter: NOT part of a code’s section citation, as all sections
in each title are numbered in one sequence
- Access
 General index: volumes 29-35 – detailed and extensive; full of
cross-references and permutations to accommodate the many
ways people might seek particular statutes
 Statutory indexing: difficult – language of the statute does not
always reflect the full scope of its coverage
 Subject index: definitions section – access to statutory that
define certain terms; but, these definitions apply only to
particular chapters or acts
 Acts Cited by Popular Name (Volume 26)
o Popular name: legal term that has little to do with
popularity; mostly contains names that the acts
themselves provide
 US Code table provides no code listing, just a public law number
and a Statutes at Large Citation
 Major table: lists statutes chronologically by Statutes at Large
citation and public law number, and indicates where each
section appears in the US Code
- Electronic Format
 Available on CD-ROM and through the Internet
 Government Printing Office publishes on CD annually
 “dictionary” – frequency of terms in the database
 “fuzzy advisor” – comes up with phonetically similar terms
 “related terms” finds other words that appear near your
term and are relatively unique to that situation
 “concept search” – automatically looks for the appearance of
related terms + the search terms
- Annotated Codes
 Electronic formats are not the most timely resources + they
provide few research aids other than historical notes on the
sources and development of Code sections
 United States Code Annotated & United States Code Service
 Not reissued periodically in new editions
 Each set contains volumes of varying ages, all supplemented
with annual pocket parts
 As the amount of material in the supplement grows, it may no
longer fit in the volume’s pocket and is instead published as a
separate pamphlet
 Eventually a revised volume is published, incorporating the
supplementary material and replacing the older volume
 Commercial codes provide fairly current information about new
statutory developments
 Basic means of updating: annual pocket part of pamphlet
accompanying each volume
 Each set publishes supplementary pamphlets that contain new
statutory provisions arranged by code section
 Most significant advantage: editorial material the publishers
provide
 Most sections conclude with summaries of court decisions
interpreting and applying code sections
 USCA generally provides more exhaustive notes of judicial
decisions, USCS coverage is more extensive in that It includes
annotations of decisions from administrative agencies + some
court decisions not in USCA
 USCA: more detailed classification system; but easier to find an
appropriate section in USCS because it includes both a topical
outline + alphabetical index
 USCA uses the same statutory language as USC, while USCS
uses the exact language that appears at the Statutes at Large
 Both provide separate indexes for each individual code title +
tables also in USC (popular name tables, etc)
 Finding statutes by name: Shephard’s Acts and Cases by
Popular names: Federal and State
Statutes at Large and Public Law Sources
- Official series of session laws
- Covers the entire range of federal acts beginning with 1789
- One numbered volume, which may have up to 6 physical parts
and more than 5000 pages is now published each year
- Each volume take more than a year to make it into print
- GPO issues a new act individually as a slip law within a few weeks
of enactment
Other Statutory Research Tools
- Index to Legal Periodicals and Books
 Arranged in a more cohrerent fashion, with federal acts at
the beginning of the section, followed by laws from
individual states and then from foreign jurisdiction
 It only lists the citations of relevant articles without even
providing their titles
- Current Law Index simply lists all acts in one alphabetic sequence
 Includes article titles, providing more information about
whether an article is worth pursuing
- Shephard’s Federal Statute Citations
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  Contains lists of US Code and Statute at Large Citations,  The Federal Reporter contains decisions by Federal District
followed by references to court decisions that have cited Courts and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal. It is published by
each specific provision the West Publishing. However, not all decisions are published
 Although annotated codes generally provide an excellent in that only those decisions prior to 1932 are published. Also
overview of citing cases, some decisions not listed in the published are those decisions deemed of material interest by
codes may appear here the publisher. Currently, the Federal Reporter has three
 Not as easy to use as the annotated codes series, each of which consisting three hundred volumes.
 Provides no summary of the citing case, just a citation and Common features of the series include a list of judges of each
perhaps a one-letter signal such as C for constitutional or U circuit court, the list of cases decided, the decided cases
for unconstitutional themselves and index-digest list.
 Statutes are listed exactly as they appear in the citing cases –  The Federal Supplement contains cases decided in the
can be useful when looking for cases under a specific District Courts and the Court of Claims. It also includes Key
subsection of a lengthy code provision, but in most instances Number Annotations. It is published by the West Publishing
it means that a lot of double-checking is necessary Company.
 Not good for looking for statutory amendments  The first part of the book contains a map of the states
 Biweekly updates: more current than the code supplements included in each of the ten Federal Judicial Circuits. Over
 Latest pamphlet: provides references to recent decisions well time, the map was altered to show which states are included
before they appear in code annotations + cites new decisions in today's 13 Circuits. Also, it contains a List of Judges in the
by docket number before they are published in the reporters United States Court of Appeals, District Courts of the United
 Includes coverage of laws that do not appear in the current
States, Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, United
USC, with citations either to the Statutes at Large or to
earlier code editions States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and Court of
 Example: Can be used to find cases citing the Judiciary Act of Claims in the United States.
1789  The FS has a List of Cases wherein cases are arranged
 Lists references to statutes only in federal cases and in alphabetically and beside each case, enclosed in
annotations in American Law Reports parentheses, was the abbreviation of the court and state
where it was argued and determined. Each of the cases has a
Treaties and Conventions
headnote summary which contains a topic and a key
 Annotated codes provide the texts of a few major
conventions – USCA number.
 International Agreements Volume (USCS) contains about 2  An Index-Digest with key-number index which is arranged
dozen major conventions according to subject / category may be found at the last part
 Department of State’s annual Treaties in Force – guide listing of the book. Topics are arranged alphabetically. It also has a
both bilateral and multilateral conventions by subject List of Statutes Construed and where said statutes can be
Court Rules and Sentencing Guidelines found. (Whether it is from the Constitution, an act or code
 Federal Sentencing Guidelinges
etc)
 Federal Rules of Evidence
Executive Orders and Delegated Legislation
 President issues proclamations and EOs and the departments
provide detailed regulations that fill in vague congressional
mandates
Congressional Materials
 Reference Works on Congress
- Encyclopedia of the US Congress
 Legislative History Documents
 Bills
 Committee Reports
 Congressional Record
 Hearings and other Sources
 Key Research Tools
o US Code Congressional and Administrative News
o Congressional Information Service
o Compilations
 Information on Pending Legislation
o Current Awareness Source
o Bill-Tracking Resources
o Directories
SOURCES FOR FEDERAL COURT DECISIONS
 Federal Reporter and Federal Supplement

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