States also issue slip laws, session laws, and codes in print. These publications may go by different names in different jurisdictions. For example, below are the session laws and codes for the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Note that some states have both an official version and unofficial code. Others have only one version.
| Abbreviation | What it Means |
| D.C. Stat. | District of Columbia Session Law Service (session laws) |
| D.C. Code | West's District of Columbia Code (code) |
| D.C. Code (LexisNexis [year]) | Lexis District of Columbia Code (code) |
| Md. Laws | Laws of Maryland (session laws) |
| Md. Laws | Maryland [subject] Code Annotated (code) |
| Va. Acts | Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (session laws) |
| Va. Code Ann. | Code of Virginia Annotated (code) |
State laws are available on Lexis and Westlaw shortly after they are passed by the state legislature. In addition, most states have recent session laws and the state codes on the web. For example, you can locate them through the Legal Information Institute's listing of state laws by jurisdiction. However, this approach is best if you already have either a citation or some exact language from the statute.
See our individual state research guides for information on each state's statutes. For complete listings of citations and sources of statutes for each state, refer to your Bluebook.
Fifty-state surveys track a single topic across the statutes (& sometimes regulations) of all 50 states. They usually take the form of a state-by-state table or chart containing the citations to the laws on the given topic in each state, but generally contain little or no analysis. A 50-State Survey will not be available for every/all topics, but, if there is one, it can serve as a valuable starting point when conducting multi-jurisdictional research on a topic.
Check each of the below sources to see if there is a 50-state-survey already compiled for your topic. Be sure also to identify when a compiled survey was completed and always update the information.
Web: Note that you can sometimes find multi-state surveys or multi-state issue-trackers online, such as on the websites of research centers, professional associations, non-governmental organizations and private firms that focus on particular areas of the law, e.g., Plaintiff's Medical Care and Treatment—Discovery and Evidentiary Issues by the American Bar Association; Legal Innovation Regulatory Survey (2020) by the American Bar Association; 50-State Surveys by Butler Snow LLP; 50-State Surveys / Charts by the American Financial Services Association, etc. In general, to locate compiled reports by non-profit groups using a web search like Google or Duck Duck Go, try searching for: site:.org "state survey" [keyword(s)].
Texts & Treatises: Nationally-scoped treatises on a topic often include state-by-state treatments that will include citations to equivalent laws in each state (e.g. they may have sections or chapters on each state, state-by-state comparison tables, or information in their appendices that describe or reference the laws in each state). Our topically-organized Treatise Finders, while not comprehensive, are a great place to begin. Beyond this, check both Lexis and Westlaw's collections for relevant national treatises, as each platform has unique titles not available in the other. Books and reports on a topic across multiple jurisdictions may also be available in our library's print or digital collection; to search for these, perform a search in the Library Catalog using the term "fifty-state," "state-by-state" or "50-state."
ALRs: American Law Reports (ALRs) track a single, narrow legal issue across all U.S. jurisdictions. While there is not one on every topic, when there is one on-point you will find that they include both substantive analysis and useful research tools (such as a Table of Laws with primary authorities from every relevant jurisdiction as well as cross-references to other secondary sources and research tools). ALRs are available on both Westlaw and Lexis.
Journals: Occasionally, a multi-jurisdictional survey may be published in law reviews. In most instances, the title of the article will contain the phrase "50 state survey" or "state survey." For more on finding articles using article indices and full-text databases, consult our Articles Research Guide. Multi-state legislative reports might also be published on SSRN, which is freely available online.
These relatively recent tools to the legal research market allow you to construct custom state law comparisons; however, so far, their usefulness can can be limited (e.g. to select pre-populated topics), and they may not be comprehensive. It is usually best to supplement them with your own research in order to address possible gaps.