LibGuides: 1L Legal Research Primer: Stages of Publication of a Statute

Statutory Publication Stages

Statutes are published in three different steps – they contain the same content, but have three different publication formats.

Initial publication of a law as it was passed by the legislature.

Contains only the text of the particular legislative act.

May not contain the full text of a statute, esp. if it updates or modifies an existing statute.
May contain provisions that will be codified in more than one statute.
Assigned a public law number (Public Law 114-22; means the 22nd public law enacted by the 114th Congress).
Organized chronologically. Temporary, quick access publication – does not include any of the updating or finding tools that will appear in later publications.

Compilation of all laws enacted in a particular congressional session.

Federal publication is called Statutes at Large; states have similar publications - names vary.
Organized chronologically not topically.
Statutes at Large may contain finding tools like popular name tables or subject indices.
- Not the final publication of the statute.

Also includes History or Credits section (name varies depending on publisher), which traces the statute's history.

Codes are organized topically, and each topic is subdivided into increasingly specific subtopics

For example, U.S. Code is divided into 54 broad topics, called Titles. Title 18 is crimes and criminal procedure.
Each title is divided into chapters and each chapter is divided into sections.
Section numbers repeat in different titles, so both are needed to craft a unique citation.

Details vary by jurisdiction, so check Bluebook Table 1 early in your research.

Authoritative version of a code; controlling in the case of a discrepancy.
- Check Table 1 of the Bluebook to find the official code for your jurisdiction.
Published by a government or government-designated commercial publisher.
Generally unannotated – contains only the text of the statute and possibly brief notes on its history.
- Official statutes are usually unannotated but if you see an annotated code compilation it may be annotated as well
Publication is usually slower, esp. in print.
Bluebook prefers citation to official codes, where available.
The federal code is the United States Code (U.S.C.).

Official Codes	Unofficial Codes
Authoritative version of a code; controlling in the case of a discrepancy. Check Table 1 of the Bluebook t find the official code for your jurisdiction.	Commercially published version of a code
Published by a government or government-designated commercial publisher	Same subject arrangement as the official code
Generally unannotated - contains only the text of the statute and possibly brief notes on its history	Contains annotations - citations to cases (Notes of Decisions), key secondary materials, and legislative history which make them better for research
Publication is usually slower -- especially in print	Often updated more frequently
Federal code is the United States Code (U.S.C.)	Examples: United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) (Westlaw) and the United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.) (Lexis)

Names of codes vary by jurisdiction; title usually includes “Code” or “Statutes”. Always check T1 at the beginning of your research.
- Annotated state Codes will usually have “Annotated” in the title.
- In some states, the official Code is annotated.
Annotations included in a Code (often called Notes of Decisions) are different from citing references generated by Shepard’s and Key Cite.
Both are used to expand your research, but annotations are selected by the statute’s editors.