Federal Statutory Law Research- Manual

Dittakavi RaoAssociate DirectorDuquesne University Center for Legal Information

Statutory ResearchStatutes as a Primary Authority of Law

◦ Statutes are the laws made by the Congress/State Legislatures, the representative bodies of the people

◦ Statutes are binding on the people and the courts◦ Levels of Statutes

Federal Statutes State Statutes Municipal Ordinances made by municipal

legislative bodies◦Generally federal statutes preempts state

statutes and state statutes preempts local ordinances

The Relationship Between Statutes and Case LawStatutes create new areas of law

not covered in case lawSome statutes codify, clarify or

supplement case lawSome statutes overturn the case

lawStatutes usually take precedence

over case law that conflicts with statutory provisions.

Contd…The constitution grants the

legislative branch broad powers to create legal rules to govern society.

The legislative’s exclusive authority to enact statutes is balanced by the court’s authority to apply those statutes and other laws, to assess the constitutionality of the statutes, and to make case law

Statutory Law-Federal Sources

Bills (Senate and House) Congressional Record (Floor debates) (Daily publication) Slip Law/Public Law (Before 1957 public laws are known as

Chapters) (Will have a Congressional session and sequential number e.g. 111-1 and a name known as popular name.)

Statutes At Large (session laws – Chronologically arranged at the end of the session); U.S.C.C.A.N. (U.S.Code Congressional Administrative News)

United States Code (U.S.C.) (official code in 50 Titles/Topics) (1926) (General and permanent laws are codified)

Annotated Codes (Provides additional information including Case Law)◦ United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) (West)◦ United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.) (Lexis)

Name of the Act

Statutes At LargeCitationPublic Law

Number

United StatesCode Citation

United StatesCode Citation

Session Laws of theCongress

Public Laws IncludedIn the Volume

Congressional Session

United States Code (U.S.C.) (Official) Titles of United States Code – 50 Titles (Some Titles

are positive law and some only primafacie of evidence) (Recent addition - Title 51(National and Commercial Space Programs)

The relationship between Statutes at Large and U.S.C. – Laws are numerically (at the end of Congressional session) published in Statutes at Large and those permanent and general laws are organized by topic in U.S.C.)

The functions of U.S.C. and why not to use it to do federal statutory research - (Publication and updates are slow and do not contain case law – Un-annotated)

Updated with a monthly bound volumes during the Congressional session

Positive Law of Evidence Positive law codification is the process of preparing

and enacting a restatement of existing law. The restatement conforms to the policy, intent, and

purpose of Congress in the original enactments, but the organizational structure of the law is improved, obsolete provisions are eliminated, and technical errors are corrected.

The restatement is enacted as a positive law title Currently only 24 of 50 titles are positive law, the rest

are prima facie evidence of law.

OFFICIAL FEDERAL CODE (U.S.C.)(50 TITLES)

New set (50 titles) is published once in six years.Current edition is 2006. Monthly updates are published in between.

Notice that not all 50 titlesare positive law. Only titles with * mark

are positive law.

Notice public law number, statutes at largecitation and section number

Annotated StatutesTwo annotated codes are available –

United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) by West and United Code Service (U.S.C.S.) by LexisNexis.

Annotations include: Court cases; A.G. opinions; Adm. Agency decisions; C.F.R. references; Secondary sources such as law reviews, ALR annotations; Treatises; Key Number digest topics; and Electronic resources.

UNITED STATES CODE ANNOTATED (U.S.C.A.)(PUBLISHED BY WEST)

Provides Case Law & OtherSecondary References

UNITED STATES CODE SERVICE (U.S.C.S.)(PUBLISHED BY LEXIS)

Provides Case Law & OtherSecondary References

Public Law Number and Statutes at Large Citation

Cases

Pocket Part

Check Pocket Parts forUpdates of statutes and new cases

Research Federal Statutes through U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S.

Researching the Codes◦General Index◦Title Index (at the end of last section

within each title/topic)◦Title Outline (may not be detailed)◦Popular Name Table (alphabetical list of

acts)◦Tables volumes (conversion-Public law

>Statutes At Large>U.S.C.)

Research Federal Statutes – Contd…

The unique features of U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S. and why you should use both sources to do federal statutory research - (U.S.C.A. provides more case references and U.S.C.S. provides more administrative decisions and statutory sources. Both provides references to secondary sources generally more to their own publications.)

Index Approach◦ Use the general index and/or title index to

locate the appropriate title and section of the U.S.C.A. or U.S.C.S.

Contd…Read the text of relevant

statutory provisionsRead the ‘notes of decisions’

(cases) interpreting the provisions

Read other commentary sources relating to the provisions

Contd…Popular Name Approach

◦ If the short title or the name of the statute is known, use the Table of Popular Names published either with the last volume of the general index or the Tables’ volume to identify the U.S.C. titles and sections of the statutes. U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S. publishes a separate volume for popular names.

Title Outline Approach (Beginning of each title/topic volume has a sort of contents page – May not be very detailed.)

U.S.C.S

General Index

U.S.C.S

Secondary Resources

Cases

Popular Name Table

Americans with Disabilities Act of

1990

INCLUDES FEDERAL AND ALL 50 STATES ACTSALPHABETICALLY & CASES CITED BY NAME OF THE ACT

Update Federal StatutesCheck annual pocket parts; notice the

coverage of the laws by the pocket parts (may or may not be any changes to statutes but new cases if any are given)

Check U.S.C.A. advance pamphlets. Notice the coverage of laws in each issue. Make sure that the coverage continues the laws covered by the pocket parts.

Check U.S.C.C.A.N. pamphlets; U.S.C.S. advance sheets. Notice the coverage of laws for each issue. Read the ‘Current Awareness Commentary’.

Check related session law (Public Law) if any.

Contd…Use the ‘Table of Code Sections

Added, Amended, Repealed, or Otherwise Affected’ in each issue to check the status of the statutes being updated.

Shepardize the statutes in the ‘Shepard’s Federal Statute Citations’ books.

Advance Pamphlets

Shepards for Statutes

Pocket PartAdvance Pamphlet

Uniform Laws & Model Acts To bring the uniformity among the laws of popular legal areas

American Bar Association started the project in 1889. By 1912 every state appointed uniform law commissioners to

the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

Drafting committees work on approved subject of law (probate, partnership, UCC etc.)

Discussed section by section in two conference meetings and approved by members of 20 jurisdictions and officially adopted as uniform acts.

Uniform commercial code and model penal code are popular ones.

Individual states have to adopt them through their legislatures. Thomson West publishes a multi-volume set of Uniform Laws

Annotated providing cases from federal and state courts. Currently, there are more than 200 uniform laws.

Legislative History - Federal Legislative materials are secondary authority. They are

persuasive authority helping the legal researchers and the court to ascertain the legislative intent of a statute.

In applying a statute, a court is limited to determining what the legislature intended the words of the statute to mean and whether the legislature was within its constitutional authority in enacting that legislation; a court may not rewrite a statute or create new one.

Legislative history helps one to understand a vague or ambiguous statute.

Legislative history materials serve as indicators of legislative intent.

Legislative History…Contd. Limitations of Legislative Materials as Authority Some courts do not view arguments based on legislative history materials

credible because of massive collections of materials that constitute the legislative materials.

The legislature may not have had any intent as to your situation The law may need to be interpreted in response to changing societal

needs. Different types of legislative history materials may have different weight

of importance. E.g. house or senate reports that accompany the bills are more important than the remarks made in the congressional floor debates or the statements added to the Congressional Records.

None of the materials making up a legislative history truly embodies the intent of the entire legislature – except the text of the bill as passed.

Documents to be consulted

Documents Needed to Conduct Legislative History

ResearchBills (House/Senate)HearingsCommittee Reports (House/Senate) – Most

important document for L.H. (Committee reports will have a Congressional session and sequential number e.g. 101-1. Before 1969 there was no Congressional session number only a sequential number.

Committee Prints (prepared for committee members)

Floor Debates (Use Congressional Record)Presidential Signing DocumentsIt is good to know how the bills

are enacted into laws.

Sources for Legislative History Published Acts (At the end of public law, find list of legislative

history documents) Compiled Legislative Histories (Published by

Govt./Commercial/Libraries) Congressional Record (Bills and floor debates) U.S.C.C.A.N. (United States Code Congressional Administrative

News by West provides committee reports) – Table 4 provides all necessary info. For L.H. – Date of Statute approved; Statutes At Large citation; Committee report number; Names of committees; Congressional Record dates etc.

Volume 88 or lower number of Statutes At Large has a table “Guide to legislative history of bills enacted into public law.” Now every public law has the same information at the end of the law.

CIS (Congressional Information Service) Index to Legislative Histories.) (L.H. for statutes enacted after 1970). More information available in microform format.