Statutory and Regulatory Law
A guide for locating federal and state laws, bills, and rules & regulations and to the abbreviations used in citations.
Subject Librarian
for Law
Valery King
phone: 737-7318 | email:Valery.King[at]oregonstate.edu
| AIM screen name: ValeryKing
| Table of Contents | ||
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Bills
Rules and Regulations
| UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE OF LAW DISCLAIMER: It is against state law for library staff to engage in any conduct that might constitute the unauthorized practice of law (ORS 9.160, 9.166 and 9.21). They may not interpret statutes, cases, or regulations, or advise patrons regarding their legal rights. They may, however, assist patrons in locating materials or links that would aid in individual research. |
Federal and State Laws
| Abbrev. | Title | Coverage | Location |
| USC | United States Code | Federal laws currently in force. | Ref KF61 .U51 or on GPO Access: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html |
| USCA | United States Code Annotated | Federal laws currently in force, annotated with reference to federal and state court reports. | KF62.5 .W45 |
| USCS | United States Code Service | Similar to USCA (see above) | On LexisNexis Academic in Legal Research/Federal Code/U.S.Code |
| Stat. | U.S. Statutes at Large | Official publication of all public and private laws of the U.S. in chronological order. 1789-present. | KF50 .U5 1789-1875 online from Library of Congress at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsl.html Volume 117, 108th Congress is now available online from the U.S. Government Printing Office, with future volumes to follow as they become available. Documents are available as ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/statutes/index.html |
| USCCAN | U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News | Laws arranged by Public Law number, plus legislative histories. 1968-present. | KF48 .W45 |
| ORS | Oregon Revised Statutes | Oregon Laws currently in force. | Ref KFO2429 .O73 or on Oregon.gov: http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/home.html |
| [year] | Oregon Laws | Annual volumes containing laws enacted by the legislature and measures passed in statewide elections. | K O73 |
Bills
| Abbrev. | Title | Coverage | Location |
| S. H.R. |
Senate Bill House Bill |
Federal Legislation before the U.S. Congress. 1989-present. | LexisNexis Congressional or on the Thomas web site: http://thomas.loc.gov |
| CR | Congressional Record | Official proceedings and debates of the U.S. Congress. Includes the text of some bills. | J11 R5 or LexisNexis Congressional under "Publications" or on GPO Access: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html |
| SB | Senate Bill (or Measure) | Oregon Legislation. 1995-present. |
Docs Ref JK 9076 A5 or on Oregon.gov: http://landru.leg.state.or.us/billsset.htm |
| HB | House Bill (or Measure) |
| Other Sources for Bills and Legislation | ||
| LexisNexis Congressional | Index to congressional publications--reports, hearings, and documents. Indexed by subject, name, and bill, Public Law, and report numbers. Includes legislative history for "significant" laws of a given year. 1970-present. | |
Rules and Regulations
| Abbrev. | Title | Coverage | Location |
| CFR | Code of Federal Regulations | Subject arrangement of rules and regulations of U.S. government agencies. | Ref KF70 .A22 or on LexisNexis Congressional or LexisNexis Academic or on GPO Access at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html |
| FR | Federal Register | Daily listing of federal agencies' proposed and final rules and regulations. Use as a supplement to update CFR. | J1 .A2; older eds. on microfiche or on LexisNexis Congressional or LexisNexis Academic (see above); or on GPO Access at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/ |
| OAR | Oregon Administrative Rules | Text of rules of Oregon state agencies. Not all rules are included. | Ref JK9030 .A219 or on Oregon.gov at http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/banners/rules.htm |
Electronic journals
OSU Libraries online journals related to statutory law
These must be searched one journal title at a time, so this is not a very efficient way to search.
Unless you are interested in searching one specific electronic journal, it is recommended that you use a periodical index/database to do your searching. One advantage of electronic journals is that they are full-text online. This list is subject to change, and years of coverage will vary by journal.
General Reference for Law
Oxford Reference Online Premium brings together reference works from one of the world's biggest reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource. The Core Collection contains over 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. In Law, these include:
The Oxford
Companion to American Law
A Dictionary of Law
The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States
The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions
Return to the Alphabetical or Subject index of the Subject Research Guides.
