Julie Graves Krishnaswami

Research Workshop
Fall 2014

Statutory Research Workshop

Goals of the Research Session:

1. Understanding the process of codification and the publication of statutes.
2. Techniques for Finding Statues
3. Statutory Research Tools
a. Annotated codes
Importance of Statutes in the US Law:
1. Statutes actually loom much larger than appellate court decisions.1
2. Statutes are important for research because they will lead you to other authorities,
using the Annotations.
1. Process of Codification and the Publication of Statutes
Publication varies slightly among jurisdictions but is roughly similar.
Slip laws: An act, which has become law; passed by Congress and signed by the
President. A law in its first form.
A new statute when first available is a slip law.
Session Laws: Federal Laws which are published in chorological order in the Statutes at
Large.
Since 1957, federal session laws have been cited with a Public Law Number; e.g.
P. L. 106-145 is the 145 law passed by the 106 Congress. Note that Public Law
numbers have been designed since 1901.
Before 1957, session laws were given a chapter number.
State Slip laws are usually published in chronological order in a publication called
Session Laws.
Code: Arranges laws, that are currently in force in subject order.
Title Code: subjects are arranged in Titles with numbers that indicate the subjects.
The US is a Title Code jurisdiction. See
Example: The Civil Rights
When you have the name of the statute (i.e. Civil Rights Act, Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act), use the Popular Names Table to locate it.
Statutes at Large citations can be found in the Popular Names Table, Office of
Law Revision Counsel US Code site also has a free Popular Names Table.
1

See Eskridge, Gluck, and Nourse, Statutes Regulation, and Interpretation: Legislation and Administration
in the Republic of Statutes (casebook) (West Academic Publishing 2014) at v. See also Olsen, Principles of
Legal Research (West 9th ed. 2009).

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Julie Graves Krishnaswami

Research Workshop
Fall 2014

Civil Rights Act of 1964

P.L. 88352, July 2, 1964, 78 Stat. 241
Reading the citations:
Public Law 88-352 is the 352nd law passed by the 88th Congress.
It can be found in its original form (without amendments, as originally passed and
signed by the president) in volume 78 of the Statutes at Large on page 241.
The Statutes at Large can be found on L3 and HeinOnline (in PDF form).
Codification: is the process where a session law is put into a code, in the appropriate
subject. That means that one Act can be placed in the Code under many different
subjects, when the act deal with multiple topics (as is often the case).
US Code: Title Number represents subjects
USC Code has 52 titles.
US Public Laws are codified by the Office of Law Revision Counsel.
The Office of Law Revision Counsel maintains the US code in its current
form and provides searchable access as well as a popular names table.
See http://uscode.house.gov/.
The US Code is only prima facie evidence of the law, except for those titles
that have been reenacted by Congress as positive law. See OLRC. Positive
Law Codification,
http://uscode.house.gov/codification/legislation.shtml;jsessionid=1A713D23D
8C54C9CB296D6FB77749078
Publication of the US Code:
United States Code: official code published by the US Government; published
every six years, with supplements.
Current version of OLRCs website.
Available on Hein Online and L3.
Includes limited editorial notes (added by OLRC).
No annotations therefore not preferred for legal research.
United States Code Annotated (USCA) (West) / United States Code Service
(USCS) (Lexis): published annually and updated frequently when changes are
made.
USCA and USCS include searchable annotations to cases (notes of
decisions), citing cases (citing references), legislative history, secondary
sources.
Pending legislation noted with a flag or symbol.
Available in print on L3.
State Codes: sometimes organized by subject and dont have title numbers.

JGK 11. 10. 14

Julie Graves Krishnaswami

Research Workshop
Fall 2014

See the Yale Law Library State Law State Research Guide for more
information on finding state statutes, http://library.law.yale.edu/state-lawresearch-guide.
See the State pages on Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg.

2. Finding Statutes: show in WL, Books, and OL

by citation: 42 USCA 2000e
by Popular Name: Obamacare, Civil Rights Act of 1965
by an index (using keywords and terms if they are specific): employment
discrimination, sexual harassment, equality
by constructing a search string: use the Advance search option and use the TI field
to include words that would be in the statute: TI(workplace or job and sex or race
or color).
My favorite source: Popular Names Table b/c it provides
1. Public Law and Statutes and Large citations
2. Amendments, at the bottom.
3. Statutes in the Act, even when they are in different Titles of the Code
3. Statutory Research Tools:
Annotated Codes: to find the court decisions that interpret the statutes.
Sutherlands Statutory Constuction.
Available on Westlaw.
Popkins Dictionary of Statutory Interpretation
Bill Eskridge, Legislation and Statutory Interpretation; Dynamic Statutory
Interpretation;
Heavily cited law review articles.
CRS Report on Statutory Interpretation and Trends.
Search Morris or use Proquest Congressional.
4. Statutory Research Tips:
1. Use the entire Chapter or statutory scheme read around the sections before/after
your relevant provision.
Remember each code section is a separate document.
2. Repeal of a statute: must be affirmative. Congress must repeal through an act.
3. Take a legal research class to learn more about statutory research.

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