This guide discusses what statutes are; how statutes fit into legal research; how statutes are published; where they can be found online & in print; how to update statutes; how to find 50 state statutory surveys; & the role of uniform/model laws.
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What is a Statutory Code?
A statutory code is a subject-based arrangement of the laws of a general and permanent nature passed by the jurisdiction's legislature. Unlike session law compilations, which are arranged chronologically, codes are well-suited for research because they bring together all of current laws on a given subject in a relatively manageable way.
Official v. Unofficial
Many jurisdictions have multiple statutory codes, and the government chooses one that is "official," i.e. it will govern in the event of discrepancies. The Bluebook prefers citation to the official print version. The official version may be published by the government or a commercial publisher--it varies. See T1 of The Bluebook for the jurisdiction at issue.
Annotated codes include helpful editorial content such as: references to secondary sources that discuss the statute; references to cases in which courts have interpreted the statute (called Notes of Decision or Case Notes); cross-references to other sections or to relevant regulations; and detailed historical notes.
Unannotated codes simply provide the text of the statute, and thus often are not as useful to researchers as annotated codes. Some unannotated codes (such as the General Laws of Massachusetts) don't even provide references to the enacting session law.
Researching the U.S. and State Codes Online (Selective)
USCS, ALM, etc.
Lexis.com: Legal > Federal Legal - U.S. > Find Statutes, Regulations, Administrative Materials & Court Rules > USCS - United States Code Service
Lexis Advance: Use the Browse Sources feature > filter to relevant jurisdiction and then by content type to Statutes & Legislation and then Codes.
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Free resource from the compilers of the official U.S. Code. Users can search full-text or browse via a table of contents. Includes a popular name table and classification tables for research and updating.
Free resource that provides PDFs of the U.S. Code from 1994 to the current (2012) edition. HeinOnline is preferable for law review work, as it provides images of the actual print volumes, but this is a very reliable source as the PDFs have been provided to the GPO by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, publishers of the U.S. Code.
The official General Laws of Massachusetts are published in a new edition every 2 years. They are located in the Massachusetts collection (shorter stacks on the 4th floor).
The library maintains print copies of virtually all of the Bluebook-preferred state statutory codes. They are located on the 4th floor, across from the elevator, in alphabetical order.
How do I Cite a Statutory Code Provision?
Cite according to The Bluebook, Rule 12 and T1. Whenever possible, cite to the official United States Code and the official state code designated in T1.3.
Federal: 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2012)
State: Tenn. Code Ann. § 63-1-148 (2010 & Supp. 2013)
