Guides: Criminal Law and Justice Research Guide: Statutes, Codes, & Legislation

Federal Court Rules

Please refer to our Federal Court Rules guide for more information about the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. As explained in that guide, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure are "rules of general applicability that apply in criminal matters heard in all United States District Courts; however, each U.S. District Court also has its own local rules, which supplement the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure." If you are interesting in researching the federal rulemaking process, see the page on Legislative History of Court Rules.

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Federal Laws

Title 18 is the United States Code's Criminal Law title. To retrieve United States Code provisions, you can use any of the following:

USCA on Westlaw
You can use the topical index.
USCS on Lexis
USC (Office of the Law Revision Counsel)
A very up-to-date and free (but unannotated) source by the same office that produces the USC.
You can also find print versions of the official U.S.C., as well as of the U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S., in the Williams Reading Room.

Proposed Federal Legislation

If you are looking for legislation which has recently been introduced in Congress but has not yet passed, there are several sources to consult:

Congress.gov (for the full text and status of pending and recently enacted health legislation, try a word search in the current Congress)
Lexis: Bill Text, Bill Tracking
Westlaw: Federal Proposed and Enacted Legislation (bills and public laws)
Also see news and current awareness sources and government and research institute reports (particularly CRS reports and the CQ Press Library) for coverage and analysis of proposed federal legislation.

Legislative Histories

Compiled Legislative Histories: For some federal criminal laws, there are compiled legislative histories available in the Library. These compilations usually include bills, Congressional Record debates, reports and hearings.
- You can find compiled legislative histories in ProQuest Legislative Insight.
- To find a compiled legislative history in print, try a keyword search in the library catalog.
- For complete legislative history information, read our Legislative History Research Guide.

Statutory Research Tutorial

Includes videos covering topics "What are Statutes and Where to Find Them," "Anatomy of a Code," "Finding Statutes Online," "Finding Statutes Using Print," and "Updating and Currency."

Criminal Law and Justice Research Guide