Statutes are what most lay people think of when they talk about "the law." These are laws that are passed by both state and federal legislative bodies.
After a law is passed, it is assigned a public law number and is printed in a pamphlet called a slip law. This is the first full-text publication of the law as it was passed. These slip laws are later collected and republished chronologically by legislative session and are called session laws. The federal series where the session laws are published is called the Statutes at Large. Because a single act can cover a broad array of legal issues, they are later broken down by topic and reorganized into the state or federal code.
Session laws are most useful for researchers who are interested in the exact text of the law as it was passed. Most researchers looking for the current law on a specific topic will most likely be looking at the codified law.
There are official and unofficial versions of the federal code and most state codes. The official code is the version that must be cited in court, and you should always check your research in the official version. The official federal code is the United States Code (U.S.C.), which is published by the federal government. This code contains only the text of the law along with limited comments on its history. Unofficial versions of the code, such as the United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) or the United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.), are published by private companies and contain the text of the code along with helpful annotations to other related statutes, case law, regulations, and more.
Most states do not publish a print version of their code themselves but instead designate one of the privately published versions to be their official version. The official version will have a comment in the front of the volume. For example, LexisNexis publishes the official version of the North Carolina General Statutes, which has a message from the Attorney General of North Carolina in the front of each volume certifying that the version is official. Almost all of these official privately-published state codes are annotated.
If you already have the citation to the statute, then the work is mostly done. A citation for a federal law typically follows the format below:
28 U.S.C. § 1291
where 28 is the title number, U.S.C. is the abbreviation of the publication, and 1291 is the specific section within that title. If you are not familiar with the abbreviation for the publication, you can ask a librarian or look it up in Prince’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (REFERENCE KF246 .P75 2017).
There is more variety among state statute citations. For example the North Carolina General Statutes puts both numbers at the end:
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 145-31
The first number, 145, is the chapter number and the second, 31, is the section number. Each state has its own system, but generally the larger section comes first, then the subsection (i.e. title then section, or chapter then section, or sometimes, title then chapter then section). To see a list of the citation style of each state, see Table 1 of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (RESERVE KF245 .B58 2020).
Because the law is constantly changing, it is important to update your research. Most statute series have pocket parts, which are paperback pamphlets that fit in the back of each volume. These pocket parts include laws or amendments that have been passed between the time the volume was printed and when that pocket part was printed. Sometimes the pocket part is too thick to fit in the back of the volume and is published as a free-standing paperback booklet called a supplement that’s shelved right next to the volume with which it belongs. And lastly, some series have paperback booklets that include really recent changes for the whole series - changes that have occurred after the pocket parts have been printed. These supplements are housed at the end of the entire series, by the indexes. If you have a citation for a law but it doesn’t appear to exist, be sure to check the pocket part or supplements - it may have been passed recently.
Because the printed versions are never entirely current, you must always update your research online using either Westlaw’s Keycite or Lexis’ Shepard’s to make sure you have the most current information.
