Virginia Resources

The Constitution of Virginia is the primary source of authority for all Virginia state law. The first Virginia constitution was adopted in 1776. Since then, the state constitution has gone through a number of re-draftings and revisions. The most recent general revision was ratified by Virginia voters in 1970 and became effective on July 1, 1971. The current constitution consists of 12 articles.

Current Virginia Constitution

Databases

• Virginia Constitution on Lexis
• Constitution of Virginia [1971] on Westlaw
• Virginia Constitution on Bloomberg Law

State Website

• Constitution of Virginia (Va. Legis. Info. Sys.)

Print Constitution

Code of Virginia 1950, Annotated (Va. Code Ann.)

• Law Library Call Number: State 1st Floor KFV2430 1950 .A3: Text of the current Virginia constitution found in the Constitutions Volume, along with references to cases interpreting the constitution. Currently updated at the Law Library.

Historic Virginia Constitutions

• State Constitutions Illustrated: Virginia (1578 - ) on HeinOnline
• "Constitution of Virginia" publications digitized by HathiTrust
• First Virginia Constitution, June 29, 1776 (Libr. of Va.): Offering a digitized version of the original handwritten constitution.
• The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies (1909)(HathiTrust). Also in print: Law Library Call Number: Stacks KF4530 .T46 1909. Virginia documents are in Volume 7, starting on p. 3783.

Virginia Constitutional Convention

• Jacob Neff Brenamen, A history of Virginia conventions; With constitution adopted by the convention of 1867-68, and constitution adopted by convention of 1901-02 appended (1902) on LLMC Digital.
• Ralph Clipman McDanel, The Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901-1902 (1928) on HathiTrust.
• "Constitutional convention" of Virginia publications digitized by HathiTrust
• HeinOnline State Constitutions Illustrated: Virginia (1578 - )
• The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies (1909) on HathiTrust. Also in print: Call Number: Stacks KF4530 .T46 1909. Virginia documents are in Volume 7, starting on p. 3783.
• Virginia Constitutional Materials on LLMC Digital