State Legislative Materials
- LLSDC State Legislation linksFrom the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.
- 50 State Legislative History Research Guides InventoryFrom the University of Indiana Law Library, this is an index to legislative history guides for all 50 states.
Locate the Session Law
Read the "credits" section that is just under each relevant statute in an annotated code. Identify when your bill become law, and if possible click through to see the Session Law, or use the citation to look up the Session Law in another resource like HeinOnline. Session Laws may contain introductory material that discuss the legislature's intent in passing the law, and that could be a place to find your answer. This is the step before Legislative History, and you would be examining the actual law that the legislature passed and not the codified law.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Collections of federal and state laws, federal legislative history materials, as well as law journals from their first issue. Includes the Federal Register, U.S. Treaties, U.S. Supreme Court Opinions, and the National Survey of State Laws. Session Laws Library contains California Session Laws. World Constitutions Illustrated has each country's current constitution with an English translation. If you have trouble accessing this resource while on campus, then try this link.
Using Westlaw & Lexis
Westlaw and Lexis are useful for locating the relevant public laws and generating 50-state surveys.. They include selective materials in their legislative history collections and should not be considered comprehensive. Check the information icons for coverage. Other WL/LN collections, like those of proposed legislation, could be useful as well.
Supplemental suggestions
Print Books
Fundamentals of Legal Research,10th by Publication Date: 2015Check the Table of Contents and read the sections about Legislative History in this book. Located in Reserves.
- Books on State Legal ResearchCheck the Table of Contents, and read about legislative history research for the relevant state. Or check our catalog for general legal research materials that may include state legislative history research.
For other state histories, contact a Reference Librarian.
Additional Electronic Research Guides
- Law Library Guides on Legislative HistoryFind comprehensive law library guides explaining legislative history research in other states with this custom Google search.
- Spinelli's Legal Reference ShelfElectronic collection of legal research guides in HeinOnline.