Research Guides: Law Research Guide: Federal Laws

About Laws (Statutes, Acts)

Where to find Histories of Bills and Laws

How to Read Citations for Federal Laws

Federal laws are first published individually. Sample partial citation: P.L. 108-458 (458th Public Law of the 108th Congress)
All laws from a congressional session are then published in United States Statutes at Large. They are arranged in numerical order. Sample partial citation: 118 Stat 3638 (volume 118, page 3638 of United States Statutes at Large)
All laws in force (including amendments) at a given moment in time are periodically published in the United States Code. They are arranged by topic. Sample partial citations:
- 50 USC 402 (title 50, section 402 of the official United States Code), or
- 50 USCS 402 (title 50, section 402 of the commercial publication United States Code Service) or
- 50 USCA 402 (title 50, section 402 of the commercial publication United States Code Annotated)

Finding a Citation

The best and easiest way to find a law is by citation, but you may know only the law's short form or popular name, e.g., Dodd-Frank. These sources will help you identify the official citation.

Westlaw Next, Federal Materials > United States Code Annotated (USCA) > USCA Popular Name Table
Popular Names Table
Legal Information Institute's Table of Popular Names

Finding Federal Law

If you want to see a particular law as originally passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, use either (1) laws published individually, or (2) United States Statutes at Large.
If you want to see all of the laws on a given topic, use (3) United States Code or its commercial counterparts. Unlike the official United States Code, the commercial sources include interpretive information, for example, court decisions applying to a Code section. A law may contain many unrelated parts and so, once codified, may not remain intact once it is placed into the Code. Instead, these parts will be broken down based on their topics and placed into the appropriate title or section of the Code. All Code sources tell you where certain sections of a statute are placed in the Code. Remember, the laws as presented in the Code are those currently in force and so will change regularly as sections are amended or repealed.

More information

Understanding Federal Statutes, Insights on Law and Society 13 (Spring 2013)

Find Federal Laws

These sources provide the laws as passed and signed by the President.

Public Laws and U.S. Statutes at Large
	Congress	Years	Format	Location	Indexing/Notes
1. Public Laws (published individually)	93-	1973-	online	WestlawNext
	82-	1951-	online	congress.gov
	100-	1988-	online	ProQuest Congressional	Search by PL number, Statutes-at-Large cite, enacted bill, or keyword; Use the "Get a Document" tab
	100, 2nd sess.-	Sept. 1988-	online	Nexis Uni	Choose: Menu > All Sources > Search Within Sources > USCS - Public Laws.
	104-	1995-	online	govinfo, search or browse
	most recent Congress		online	WestlawNext
2. U.S. Statutes at Large (published in numerical order)	1-	1789-	paper	Govt. Doc. AE 2.111 Best Bet	Index in each volume
	1-	1789-	online	U.S. Statutes at Large via HeinOnline Best Bet
	1-	1789-	online	ProQuest Congressional > Bills and Laws Best Bet
	1-	1789-	online	Nexis Uni	Choose: Menu > "All Sources" > "Search Within Sources" > United States Statutes at Large > Drop down menu next to "United States Statutes at Large": "Add source as a search filter".
	1-41	1789-1875	online	Statutes at Large, 1789-1875, Library of Congress, American Memory
	1-81	1789-1950	online	Library of Congress
	1-in progress	1789-in progress	online	Acts of Congress, Library of Congress.	Direct access to each law published in U.S. Statutes at Large. Project is in progress.
	82-	1951-	online	govinfo, search or browse
	82-	1951-	online	govtrack

3. U.S. Code

U.S. Code, United States Code, United States Code Annotated, and United States Code Service include laws in force at a given point in time, organized by Title (subject).

U.S. Code
	Years	Format	Location	Indexing/Notes
United States Code	1925-present	online	United States Code via HeinOnline Best Bet
United States Code	1925-1988 (with content to 1993)	online	United States Code, via Library of Congress	Browseable but not searchable. Researchers can download PDF files of up to 20 pages per download. Instructions.
United States Code Service (USCS)	1992-	online	Nexis Uni	Choose: Advanced Search > Legal > Statutes and Legislation > US Statutory Codes. Search, then limit to: Sources > USCS - United States Code Service [...]. Or, choose: Menu > "All Sources" > "Search Within Sources" > USCS - United States Code Service - Titles 1 through 54 > Drop down menu next to "USCS - United States Code Service - Titles 1 through 54": "Add source as a search filter".
United States Code	1994-present	online	govinfo, search or browse
United States Code	1994-present (most current)	online	United States Code, Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the United States House of Representatives
United States Code (official publication)	current edition	paper	Govt Ref Y 1.2/5: Best Bet	Does not include annotations.
U.S. Code	current edition	online	Legal Information Institute (Cornell)	Browse or search by title or Table of Popular Names; easy to use
United States Code Annotated (USCA)	current edition	online	WestlawNext	Search by keyword and citation. Same as U.S. Code except includes annotations.
United States Code Service	current edition	online	ProQuest Congressional	Search by keyword and citation. Same as U.S. Code except includes annotations.

What is the difference among (at the Federal level) ....?

Laws, Rules/regulations, and Court decisions
	Laws (statutes enacted by Congress, the legislative branch)	Rules/regulations (administrative law from the Executive branch)	Court decisions (case law from the Judicial branch)
Organized in chronological order	United States Statutes at Large, etc.	Federal Register (FR), etc.	United States Reports, etc.
In force at a given time, organized by subject matter	United States Code (USC), etc.	Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)

U.S.C. Titles

United States Code (USC), Table of Contents, 2017

Title 1 General Provisions

Title 2 The Congress

Title 3 The President

Title 4 Flag and Seal, Seat of Government, and the States

Title 5 Government Organization and Employees; and Appendix

Title 6 Domestic Security

Title 7 Agriculture

Title 8 Aliens and Nationality

Title 9 Arbitration

Title 10 Armed Forces

Title 11 Bankruptcy; and Appendix

Title 12 Banks and Banking

Title 13 Census

Title 14 Coast Guard

Title 15 Commerce and Trade

Title 16 Conservation

Title 17 Copyrights

Title 18 Crimes and Criminal Procedure; and Appendix

Title 19 Customs Duties

Title 20 Education

Title 21 Food and Drugs

Title 22 Foreign Relations and Intercourse

Title 23 Highways

Title 24 Hospitals and Asylums

Title 25 Indians

Title 26 Internal Revenue Code

Title 27 Intoxicating Liquors

Title 28 Judiciary and Judicial Procedure; and Appendix

Title 29 Labor

Title 30 Mineral Lands and Mining

Title 31 Money and Finance

Title 32 National Guard

Title 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters

Title 35 Patents

Title 36 Patriotic and National Observances, Ceremonies, and Organizations

Title 37 Pay and Allowances of the Uniformed Services

Title 38 Veterans' Benefits

Title 39 Postal Service

Title 40 Public Buildings, Property, and Works

Title 41 Public Contracts

Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare

Title 43 Public Lands

Title 44 Public Printing and Documents

Title 45 Railroads

Title 46 Shipping

Title 47 Telecommunications

Title 48 Territories and Insular Possessions

Title 49 Transportation

Title 50 War and National Defense; and Appendix

Title 51 National and Commercial Space Programs

Title 52 Voting and Elections

Title 53 [Reserved]

Title 54 National Park Service and Related Programs [Enacted, Release Pending]

A title, in this case, is a "subdivision of a statute or code". (Black's Law Dictionary)