Primary Authorities (Sources)

• Constitution

• Judicial--Cases

• Legislative—Statutes • Executive--Administrative Law

H.R. 3

S. 69

H.J. Res. 19

S.J. Res. 18

• Pre '57: chap. 723

(No private or public designation)

• Post '57: Priv. L. No. 96-48Pub. L. No. 96-38

U.S.C.C. A.N.

• West Group

U.S.C.S.AdvanceService

• LexisNexis

U.S.C.A.

• West Group

U.S.C.S.

• LexisNexis

- annotated- more current

BILL SLIP LAW SESSIONLAW

CODE

Statutes at Large

All laws passedby Congress

General andpermanent(no privateor temporary)

Revised Statutesof 1873 & 1878

New edition every 6years (Now 2006) 50 titles by subject

Publication of Federal Statutes

U.S. Code

Research Strategy

• Finding the Law

• Reading the Law

• Updating the Law

• Christopher & Jill Wren, The Legal Research Manual (2d ed. 1986)

Ways to Find

• Index

• Topic

• Known authority

• Full text searching (online only)

• Some combination of these

Prelim

Caption

Reading Annotated Codes

• Read text carefully

• Note related sections in the statutory scheme

• Read the annotations