Researching the Law
Here are some other tools you may be interested in for researching U.S. law:
FEDERAL LAW
- Statutory law is the component of U.S. law that is enacted by the U.S. Congress through bills and some types of resolutions. The United States Code is the compilation of statutory law pieced together from the text of the bills and resolutions enacted by Congress. The text of the U.S. Code can be read at the Cornell Legal Information Institute website. More information can also be found at the Library of Congress and The House.
- Regulatory or administrative law is the component of U.S. law created by executive branch agencies. Rule-making is the process of creating regulations, and public-comment periods are often required. This process is published in the Federal Register, which you can access atFederalRegister.gov. The compilation of regulations is called the Code of Federal Regulations, which you can read online at the Cornell Legal Information Institute.
- Case law is the aspect of law that results from judicial decisions. You can find court opinions at Justia, Cornell's Legal Information Institute, FindLaw, or AltLaw.org.
- The U.S. Constitution: The U.S. Constitution outlines the structure of government, supersedes any other aspect of law, and is the hardest aspect of law to change. It and the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the constitution, are the only founding documents that are a part of law.
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
- GPO FDsys, the government’s official repository of documents, has many documents created by the legislative process.
- The Library of Congress: Century of Lawmaking has scans of bills and resolutions from 1799-1873, laws from 1789-1875 (i.e. Statutes at Large), and other early records.
- Statutes (i.e. enacted bills) from 1789-1919 can be found at Early United States Statutes.
- Other founding and early documents from 1775-1814 can be found at theLibrary of Congress web guide for primary documents in American History, and various other important documents can be found at OurDocuments.govand NARA's Charters of Freedom.
FEDERAL SPENDING
- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan arm of Congress, issues reports on the costs of some legislation.
- USASpending.gov and FedSpending.org are databases of federal contracts and grants.
