Blog Post

Blog Post  Codification of Federal Law Today

9/26/2019
  • Trial Court Law Libraries

"The United States Code is prepared and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (“OLRC”) of the U.S. House of Representatives pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 285b. The Code contains the general and permanent laws of the United States, organized into titles based on subject matter. The Code currently consists of 54 titles and five appendices."

From the Office of Law Revision Counsel’s "About the United States Code and this Website", (update: accessed 6/28/22).

"During the past 20 years, each Congress has enacted an average of over 6,900 pages of new public laws. Because the United States Code contains only the general and permanent laws of the United States, not every provision contained in those public laws goes into the Code. The Office of the Law Revision Counsel reviews every provision of every public law to determine whether it should go into the Code, and if so, where. This process is known as U.S. Code classification."

From the Office of Law Revision Counsel’s "About Classification of United States Laws to the United States Code", (update: accessed 6/28/22).

"The organization of the Code was originally established by Congress in 1926 with the enactment of the act of June 30, 1926, chapter 712. Since then, 27 of the titles, referred to as positive law titles, have been restated and enacted into law by Congress as titles of the Code. The remaining titles, referred to as non-positive law titles, are made up of sections from many acts of Congress that were either included in the original Code or subsequently added by the editors of the Code, i.e., the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, and its predecessors in the House of Representatives. Positive law titles are identified by an asterisk on the Search & Browse page. For an explanation of the meaning of positive law, see the Positive Law Codification page."

From the Office of Law Revision Counsel’s  "Detailed Guide to the United States Code Content and Features", (update: accessed 6/28/22).

"The currency date for each section of the United States Code is displayed above the text of the section. If the section has been affected by any laws enacted after that date, those laws will appear in a list of “Pending Updates”. If there are no pending updates listed, the section is current as shown. . . The currency dates of prior versions of the United States Code in print since 1994 can be found by using the “Search in version” feature on the Advanced Search page."

From the Office of Law Revision Counsel’s "Currency and Updating", (update: accessed 6/28/22).

  • Trial Court Law Libraries 

    There are 15 Trial Court Law Libraries located across Massachusetts to serve the courts, attorneys and the public. We are here to help you with your legal information needs.
  • Help Us Improve Mass.gov  with your feedback

    Please do not include personal or contact information.
    Feedback