Finding Your Way around the Law Library

Legal research is the core of an attorney's practice because of our system of law. The common law system is built on past decisions by courts and by laws enacted by legislatures. Therefore, to determine the state of the law on an issue, you must research at least the judicial precedents and legislative enactments on that issue. Your school's law library will contain many, if not all, the tools you will need for your research. This chapter will de-scribe the most important of these tools.

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1. LEGISLATION AND CONSTITUTIONS

In addition to case law, legislation and constitutions are the primary sources of law in our legal system. Unlike case law, which is fact specific, legislation and constitutions normally address issues at a more generalized level. They govern classes of activities, rather than specified individuals. Moreover, legislation normally applies only prospectively, rather than to past actions as is true of case law. Like case law, however, a wealth of resources is available to assist you in your re-search. Each resource usually focuses on either federal law or an individual state's or municipality's laws.

2. FEDERAL

All public laws enacted by the United States Congress are published in the federal codes, as is the United States Constitution. The official federal code is United States Code (U.S.C). It is the official code because it is printed and sold by the U.S. Government Printing Office. The U.S.C. classifies federal law into fifty topics, called "titles/* that are further divided into chapters and subchapters. Each law ("statute") also is assigned a section number. To cite a statute, you give the title number, the code, and the section number. For example, 42 U.S.C. § 9607 refers to the statute printed as § 9607 in the United States Code volume that contains title 42. Because U.S.C. is the official code, you should cite to it in documents, rather than to an unofficial code, whenever possible.

Usually, the best way to find a particular statute in U.S.C. is to use its topic index. The index is reprinted only approximately every six years, so you also should check the annual supplement to the index. You also may be able to locate a statute by using U.S.C.'s popular name table, which lists stat-utes alphabetically by their commonly known name. When you find your statute in U.S.C, you will see that U.S.C. publishes only the text of the statute.

In addition to U.S.C, two unofficial federal codes are published by private companies., United States Code Annotated (U.S.CA.) is published by West Publishing Company, and United States Code Ser-vice (U.S.C.S.) is published by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing. These unofficial codes are organized in the same manner as U.S.C, and their citation forms are very similar. The Bluebook details the exact forms. As with U.S.C, the easiest ways to locate a particular statute in U.S.CA. or in U.S.C.S. are the code's topic index and the popular name table.

Unlike U.S.C, however, U.S.CA. and U.S.C.S. publish more than just the text of statutes. They also publish information such as citations to legislative histories and to cases and other writings that analyze the statutes. U.S.CA. also includes citations to West key numbers and publications. U.S.C.S., on the other hand, includes citations to A.L.R. annotations and to other Lawyers Cooperative publications.

U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S. also are updated more frequently than U.S.C. Pocket parts are issued annually for U.S.C.A. and for U.S.C.S., and additional updates are provided in separate soft-cover form during the course of the year. Supplements to U.S.C, on the other hand, may not be distributed for more than a year after Congress has enacted a law.

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Because Congress enacts hundreds of laws each year, immediately incorporating them into the bound code would be an almost impossible task. Therefore, just as with cases, temporary methods of cataloguing new statutes have been developed. When a law or an amendment to a law is first enacted, the U.S. Government Printing Office publishes it as a "slip law." Like a slip opinion, a slip law is a separately published copy of a new law. Slip laws are published monthly in the United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.). At this point, the new stat-utes are arranged by public law (P.L.) number, which is the number assigned to each new law. At the end of each congressional session, the slip laws are published by date of passage in United States Statutes at Large. Unfortunately, Statutes at Large usually is unavailable until more than a year after the session has ended. However, it is valuable because it contains every law passed by Congress, including "private" laws directed at a particular individual or individuals. The codes, on the other hand, generally include only the "public laws," which apply to the public at large. Both U.S.C.C.A.N. and Statutes at Large have comprehensive indexes. Periodically, the session laws are classified by topic and are added to the federal codes.

3. STATE

State statutes and constitutions are published in a manner similar to federal law. Each state has a code that includes that state's statutes and constitution. The specific features of the state codes vary, but they generally are organized by subject matter, have topic indexes, and are updated to include new legislation. Some codes are annotated with information such as descriptions of cases interpreting each statute and legislative histories. Some states have official codes, others have official and unofficial codes, and the rest have only unofficial codes. Some states also have published session law reports, which contain the laws adopted during one legislative session. In some states that do not, private companies publish unofficial versions. Finally, your state may have a "legislative hotline" that provides information about current legislation or about the amendment or repeal of statutes. Before researching in a state's code, you should study its format to ensure that you use it properly.

4. MUNICIPAL

Local units of government, such as cities, also enact laws, which usually are called "ordinances." Municipalities usually have a charter, which is the municipal equivalent of a constitution. The charter defines the municipality's powers. A municipality's charter and ordinances may be published in a municipal code. Municipal codes vary greatly in their organization, indexing, and types of information that are included. Very few municipal codes include case annotations for the ordinances. If your code does not, you can use the state digest to locate cases that have interpreted an ordinance.

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