Overview of Statute Finding

Although law school instruction in the first year usually focuses on cases, statutes are a very important source of primary authority.

Federal and/or state statutes (from your jurisdiction) will often help to resolve the legal issue you are researching.

Common law or judicial court decisions are necessarily reactive. Courts only address issues in front of them, crafting rules to deal with situations already in dispute.

By contrast, legislatures in large part work proactively to regulate potential legal/political situations.

Statutes are passed chronologically and then placed into the legislative codes. These codes are organized by topic. Most state codes are arranged in a fashion that mirrors the federal scheme described below:

• On the federal level, bills which pass both houses of Congress and are signed by the President into law are referred to as Public Laws. The Public Laws that Congress enacts are published in chronological order in U.S. Statutes at Large.
• Each section of the public law is subsequently integrated into the current United States Code under the appropriate topic title.
• Private publishers create annotated codes (e.g., United States Code Service (USCS) and United States Code Annotated (USCA)). In addition to the language of the statute, notes and references are made to cases, other code and administrative law sections and secondary sources.

Since federal and/or state statutes are often the basis for resolving a legal question, it is useful to know the nomenclature and features found in each compilation.

In the federal system, you may find a statute by the citation for the Slip Law (i.e., Public Law), the Session Law, the U.S. Code or an annotated compilation. Most states follow a similar pattern.

Slip Laws (a.k.a. Public Laws) are the first official publication of statutes. A citation in this compilation would look like this: Pub.L.No. 96-171.

The U.S. Statutes at Large publishes one of Congress' Public Laws (i.e., a law of general applicability). A citation would look like this: 93 Stat. 1284. This compilation provides the following information:

• The Public Law number (e.g., "Pub. L. 101-336," which is the 336th statute enacted by the 101st Congress).
• The date of approval (i.e., the date when the President signed the bill into law).
• The bill number (e.g., "S. 552" means this statute was first introduced in the Senate as the 552nd bill of the session).
• Selected legislative history of the law (e.g., a citation to a committee report on the bill).

The United States Code is the general and permanent laws of the United States presented in a highly functional format of 50 titles. A citation would look like this: 42 U.S. sec. 1983.

• The United States Code rearranges by title and section (i.e., by subject) the laws in the U.S. Statutes at Large.
• A new edition of the Code is published every six years and is updated by a cumulative annual supplement.
• Annotated codes (US Code Service (USCS) and US Codes Annotated (USCA)) are also available, citing to case law, administrative regulations, secondary sources dealing with the statute and other history. A citation would look like this: 42 U.S.C.S. sec. 1983.

Why research statutes?

Because the legislature passes statutes to deal proactively with a wide array of situations, you need to determine whether a statute deals with your situation.

If a statute does govern your situation, you need to first read the statute to determine what rules the legislature has promulgated to deal with your situation.

You also need to look at cases construing the statute to see how the courts have interpreted the statute.

To find statutes and the cases construing them, the best starting point is to look in the annotated codes.

Annotated Codes are compilations of all the statutes that have been passed in your jurisdiction with citations to case law, administrative regulations, secondary sources and other information applying the general statute or a specific subsection.