When you begin a video and hover your cursor over the video window, you are offered several options:
A statute is a written law enacted by a legislature. The statutes you will deal with most frequently in United States law are federal and state statutes. There are also local (i.e., city or county) statutes, usually called ordinances.
When a bill is passed by the legislature, a statute is issued in a form called a slip law. The slip laws of a session of the legislature are collected in a chronological publication known as session laws. Finally, the laws are arranged by subject in a code. Codes are kept up-to-date in print by pocket parts and supplements. There are both federal and state versions of slip laws, session laws, and codes, though they may go by different names in different jurisdictions.
If you have a citation to a statute, you can use the citation information to quickly locate it in print or electronically. If you don't have a citation, however, you may be able to find a statute by its title (e.g. "Affordable Care Act") by using a popular name table for your jurisdiction. Otherwise, you can use the subject index to the jurisdiction's code, which is nearly always found in the last volume(s) of the code. It is also possible to search the full text of federal or state statutes online using Lexis or Westlaw. Lexis and Westlaw may even provide electronic versions of a popular name table or index for your jurisdiction. For most jurisdictions, current statutes are also available for free on the web, although this approach is best if you have either a citation or some exact language from the statute. Ask a reference librarian for more information, or refer to our federal legislative history research guide or our individual state research guides. For some states, we also have an "in depth" research guide.
Our Statutory Research Tutorial has additional information about federal and state statutes.
Federal laws are issued by Congress in slip law form immediately after they become law, and are made available on the web, Lexis, and Westlaw immediately after they are passed by Congress.
After the slip laws are issued, the laws of each session of Congress are printed together in volumes called "session laws." The official version of the federal session laws is called the United States Statutes at Large. Another version of the session laws is a series called the United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.).
Finally, federal statutes are officially "codified" (meaning they are compiled and arranged by subject) in the United States Code (U.S.C.). The U.S. Code also comes in two annotated versions called the United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.), and the United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.). The unofficial versions come out much more quickly than the official versions, and contain notes, references and certain other features which are designed to make them easier to use. However, in scholarly and court documents, you must cite to the official version, provided it has the current text of the statute. Refer to your Bluebook for further citation information.
Here are some examples of statutory citations that you might encounter as you do your research, as well as select locations where you can find them. More information is available in our federal legislative history research guide (and in the legislative history reference chart), as well as in our state research guides. For complete listings of citations and sources of statutes and laws for each state, refer to your Bluebook.
| Abbreviation | What it Means | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Pub. L. | Public Law | Internet: Congress.gov; FDsys
Also printed in the United States Statutes at Large (below). |
| Stat. | United States Statutes at Large (session laws, official) |
Internet: FDsys |
| U.S.C.C.A.N. | United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (session laws, unofficial) (published by West) |
|
| U.S.C. | United States Code (official code) | KF62 2012 .A2 Internet: United States Code (Office of the Law Revision Counsel); Popular Name Tool |
| U.S.C.A. | United States Code Annotated (published by West) | KF62 1927 .A3 Westlaw (U.S.C.A. Index; Popular Name Table) |
| U.S.C.S. | United States Code Service (published by Lexis) | KF62 1972 .U5 Lexis |
| Abbreviation | What it Means | Library Location |
|---|---|---|
| Cal. Stat. | Statutes of California (official session laws) |
First Floor, Media Services (microfiche) |
| Cal. Legis. Serv. | California Legislative Service (unofficial session laws) | KFC 30.5 .W41 |
| Cal. [subj.] Code (West [year]) | West's Annotated California Codes (code) | KFC30.5 .W4 |
| Cal. [subj.] Code (Deering [year]) |
Deering's California Codes, Annotated (code; published by Lexis) | |
| D.C. Stat. | District of Columbia Session Law Service (session laws) | |
| D.C. Code | West's District of Columbia Code (code) |
KFD1230 2001 .A2 |
| D.C. Code (LexisNexis [year]) | Lexis District of Columbia Code (code) | KFD1230 2001 .A4 |
| Del. Laws | Laws of Delaware (session laws) |
First Floor, Media Services (microfiche) |
| Del. Code Ann. | Delaware Code Annotated (code) | KFD30 1953 .A24 |
| Ill. Laws | Laws of Illinois (official session laws) |
First Floor, Media Services (microfiche) |
| Ill. Legis Serv. | Illinois Legislative Service (unofficial session laws) | |
| Ill. Rev. Stat. | Illinois Compiled Statutes (official code) | KFI1229 .I44 |
| Ill. Ann. Stat. | West's Smith-Hurd Illinois Annotated Statutes (unofficial code) |
KFI1230 1993 .A4 |
| Md. Laws | Laws of Maryland (session laws) | |
| Md. Code Ann. | Maryland [subject] Code Annotated (code) | KFM1230.5.M6 M37 |
| Va. Acts | Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (session laws) | |
| Va. Code Ann. | Code of Virginia Annotated (code) | KFV2430 1950 .A3 |
Revised October 2007 (SK)
Updated August 2010 (TV)
Updated April 2015 (AG)