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A Legal Research Newsletter for Federal Government from West
November/December 2008
When Is a Law Not a Statute?
codify: to reduce to a code; systematize
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition
When you are researching federal laws, first determine whether the law you are seeking has been codified in the United States Code. Not all public laws are codified; only laws of general and permanent applicability are included in the Code.
The United States Public Laws database (US-PL) contains enrolled bills passed by the current Congress that have been signed into law by the president, whether or not they are classified to the Code.
Suppose you want to retrieve legislation passed by the current Congress amending the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. Access the US-PL database and search for your terms in the summary field (su), e.g., su("home rule")
The United States Public Laws 1973–2006 database (US-PL-OLD) contains public laws passed by previous Congresses, beginning with the First Session of the 93rd Congress in 1973.
To retrieve laws that have been codified in Code, access the United States Code Annotated database (USCA).
Suppose you want to retrieve the Code section on fair use in copyright. Access the USCA database and type
pr(copyright) & ca("fair use")
In addition to running Terms and Connectors or Natural Language searches, you can access finding tools—such as the Table of Contents service, the Popular Name
Table, and the Statutes index—right from the top of the USCA Search page.
The Popular Name Table is especially useful when you know a federal law by its popular name, e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Just click Pop. Name Table. Click the letter with which the name begins, e.g., S. Then scroll down until you see the name, e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act). Click the name to view a list of the Code sections enacted by the law.
The USCA database contains many special features. For example, the disposition table for title 11, Bankruptcy, which lists the sections of the former title 11 and indicates the sections of title 11 revised by Pub. L. No. 95-598 that cover similar and related subject matter. To retrieve this document, access Find and type 11 usca disp table.