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Georgetown Law Library

Maryland Resources

This State Guide provides an in-depth look at sources of law in Maryland.

Regulations

Similar to the federal model, Maryland's state agencies are authorized to promulgate regulations to enforce a particular statute.

Maryland Register (Md. Reg.)

All proposed, amended, and adopted regulations by state agencies have to be published in the Maryland Register before they enter into force.

Databases

State Website

Print Register

The official publication of the State of Maryland. It was first issued on October 17, 1974 after the enactment of the State Document Law. In addition to regulations, the following information is also published regularly in the Maryland Register: Governor's Executive Orders, Governor's Appointments to State Offices, Attorney General's Opinions in full text, Open Meetings Compliance Board Opinions in full text, State Ethics Commission Opinions in full text, Court rules, District Court Administrative Memoranda, Courts of Appeal Hearing Calendars, Agency Hearing and Meeting Notices, and other documents considered to be in the public interest.

The Maryland Register is used as the supplement to Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) and includes a table of regulations by COMAR title which have been adopted.

Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) (Md. Code Regs.)

Databases

State Website

Print Regulations

While the Maryland Register publishes, among other things, proposed, amended and adopted regulations chronologically in bi-weekly issues, the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) organizes all adopted regulations by subject. COMAR first appeared in 1977, but the whole set was not completed until 1981. The Maryland Register is, therefore, used as the supplement to COMAR. In each issue of the Register, there is a cumulative table of regulations by COMAR title which have been adopted.

Note: Before the enactment of the State Document Law in 1974, regulations were not published on a regular or consistent basis. Newspaper articles, legal notices and agencies' annual reports are some of the documents a student researching pre-1970 regulatory matters can hope to find in the Maryland State Law Library, and the Legislative Services Library.

Research Guides

More on Regulations in General

State registers and regulation tracking are offered by Lexis, found in its Administrative Codes & Regulations with coverage varying by state. Please note that for some states, Lexis no longer updates the register and offers administrative agency rulemaking activity such as proposal, notice and comment, hearing, emergency and permanent promulgation, and withdrawal only through its Regulation Tracking service. Coverage of the service is generally from 1990 to current.

In Westlaw, search historical regulations (coverage varies per state), proposed & adopted regulations - current (covers 2 most recent years & currently proposed and newly adopted regulations), proposed and adopted regulations - all (to search the state's entire register with coverage starting from 2006) and regulation tracking. All links can be found on the state's Regulations page.

In Bloomberg Law, proposed, final, emergency, temporary, and interim rules, plus regulatory notices can be found under Rulemaking within the State Laws & Regulation collection.

The American Association of Law Libraries' Online Legal Information Resources notes the official status of each state's primary law publications found on government websites, including regulations.