The methods for citing laws are based on print publications. Statutory laws are published in two forms:
Court decisions are published in "Reporters." There are numerous editions of Reporters. Some cover geographic regions (e.g. Atlantic Reporter) or types of courts (U.S. or S.Ct. = Supreme Court). The citation system is built around these Reporters. For example, "76 F.Supp. 2d 258" refers to the decision in the Federal Supplement, 2nd series beginning on page 258 of volume 76. When using LexisNexis, the primary importance of these citations is to enable you to search for other cases easily. Click on "Get a Case" and type in the citation. You can also search by the name of the plaintiff(s) and defendant(s) in a case but a citation search is more precise.
Courts rely heavily upon earlier court decisions (precedents) when deciding a case. This explains the large number of citations to other cases in court decisions.
As you begin your research, it may be beneficial to examine the print editions of the Statutues at Large, United States Code, and United States Reports. The print versions make the structure of these documents - with their numerous subsections, footnotes, and marginal notes - much more obvious and understandable. The call numbers are given in the Reference section below.
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Laws vs Regulations
Once Congress passes a law, agencies must write regulations to put the law into effect. Proposed regulations must be published in the Federal Register and people are given a period of time to comment. When regulations are finalized, the completed version is again published in the Federal Register. Codified regulations are handled in much the same way as codified laws. The federal compilation is known as the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The Pennsylvania equivalent is the Pennsylvania Code. The CFR is completely modified from year to year. Like the U.S. Code, the CFR is arranged by title. The subject matter covered in the USC and CFR titles usually are the same. For example, Title 26 in both publications deal with everyone's favorite topic - taxes. The University Libraries no longer acquire the Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register in print. Researchers must check both publications to ensure they have the latest information. This is made much easier in the electronic realm because databases such as LexisNexis Congressional and LexisNexis Academic incorporate new regulations into the CFR within a few weeks.
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This list contains general legal publications. The University Libraries has other subject specific legal materials that can be identified by searching CAMEO.
(Carnegie Mellon users only)
1966- (updated weekly)
Lexis-Nexis is the primary source for case law and legal information at CMU. Researchers can access federal and state court decisions, Shepard's citations for Supreme Court cases, state statutory laws (see "State Codes"), legal news, and law reviews. These last two sections provide journal articles on a wide range of legal topics. Additional sections cover Canadian laws and regulations, European Union laws, patents, and the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. Documents are available in full text.
* The Government Printing Office supports
this web site for federal information.
The terminology used by states to designate laws and regulations varies. For
example, "Code" in one state may designate statutory laws and "Code" in another
state may refer to regulations.
Table 1: Federal Resources - Laws, Court Decisions, and Regulations
GPO Access *
Constitution & Amendments
Thomas (1973-) Law as
Public Laws (1995-)
(1973-) Law as
at Large (1789-)
Statutes at Large
United States Code
(1994 & 2000 Editions)
Federal Court Levels
Court, 1893-) Proposed
& Final Regulations
Table 2: State Resources - Laws, Court Decisions, and Regulations
* The Government Printing Office supports this web site for federal information.
The terminology used by states to designate laws and regulations varies. For example, "Code" in one state may designate statutory laws and "Code" in another state may refer to regulations.
|LexisNexis Academic||Pennsylvania||Other Sources *|
|Constitutions||All States||Constitution of Pennsylvania||WashLaw|
|Bills||Advanced Legislative Service||Session Information (1969-)||WashLaw|
|Law as Passed||Advanced Legislative Service||Laws of Pennsylvania (Pamphlet Laws)||WashLaw|
|Codified Laws||All States - "Codes"||Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes||WashLaw|
|Case Law||Court Levels Covered Vary by State||Unified Judicial System (all court levels)||WashLaw|
|Proposed & Final Regulations||Pennsylvania Bulletin|
|Codified Regulations||Pennsylvania Code||WashLaw (Some States)|
|State Government Home Page Links||Pennsylvania||WashLaw|
* WashLaw is an excellent site for legal information. Numerous other Internet sites also offer access to quality legal resources.