Understanding the Legislative Process
- How Our Laws Are MadeOnline document provided by the Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives and now available through Congress.gov.
- The Legislative Process (videos)This nine-part series explains how a bill becomes a law from its introduction to Presidential approval.
Legislative History
There are a number of sources for tracking legislative histories. Two excellent options, Congress.gov and ProQuest Congressional, are described below.
The Legislative Process Glossary in Congress.gov provides assistance with the specialized vocabulary of law-making. A nine part video series illustrates each step of the law-making process.
HeinOnline contracts with legal experts to compile legislative histories of selected major pieces of federal legislation. You may be fortunate and find a history for a law of interest to you.
Notes on Laws
Notes on Finding Laws:
Session Laws - Compilations of session laws provide a chronological record of laws passed in a specific time period. For example, in Congress, a session is a two-year legislative period. To see a law as it appeared on the day it was signed into law, use session laws.
Codes - To see a law as it has been incorporated into the body of laws and amended since the date of passage, use codes.
In legal proceedings, it's important to cite official versions of codes and session laws. Codes published in sources like Westlaw Campus are useful for research, but are not considered "official" texts. In many instances, including the United States Code and the General Laws of Massachusetts, the print texts are considered authoritative.
Federal Laws
- GovinfoSelect Statutes at Large for session laws and the U.S. Code for codified laws.
- Statutes at Large, 1951-2013Session laws for the U.S.
Massachusetts Laws
- Bills and Laws page - General Court of Massachusetts (legislature)Provides access to bills, session laws, and the codified General Laws.
- Acts and Resolves of MassachusettsSession laws of the Commonwealth.
Laws from Other States
Use the States and Territories link (Law Library of the Library of Congress). Links to state legislative sites provide access to bills, session laws, and codes of law. State pages also include links to legal guides, maps, and some primary sources.
Other options include:
- HeinOnline (Courtesy of Law Library)Select the State Collection near the top of the Welcome screen.Hein's State Collection includes session laws for the fifty states, the National Survey of State Laws, and Subject Compilations of State Laws.
- State Legal Materials CollectionFrom the Cornell University Legal Information Institute (LII)