Law Library: Legislative History Research: Getting Started

Initial steps

Identify the public law number, the Statute-at-Large, and the bill number(s)
Identify the date of the public law

These are usually found in the credits or history annotation to a statute.

Each legislative history project is distinct. In some cases, you may be researching a single statutory provision; in others, you may be researching an entire Act, subsequent amendments, prior proposed enactments, and derivative laws that may not be codified and may even precede statehood. Some annotations include only the most recent enactment; others include derivative laws.

For example, reports about the enactment of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022, mention about 200 prior attempts to pass similar legislation. The legislative history of this Act may include these attempts, or just a sample of them.

Note if the law has Popular Name. Popular names are often identified in the Act and are useful for finding compiled legislative histories.

Is a compiled legislative history available?

If there is a compiled legislative history, the work has been done for you. Suggestions for finding compiled legislative histories are on the next page.

If a compiled legislative history is not available, or is not comprehensive enough for your purpose, follow the steps in one of the recommended Research Guides.

Locating historic documents

While many legislatures make large amounts of recent documentation publicly available, some materials may only be available in government archives or subscription databases. We identify available resources for locating legislative history materials under Federal, California, and Other States pages.

Recommended Research Guides

Federal

Compiling a Federal Legislative History: A Beginner’s Guide
From the Law Library of Congress, a comprehensive research guide on finding federal legislative history documents, including Congressional committee reports and hearings, presidential signing statements, and the debates of Congress. Features both subscription databases and free online sources.
LLSDC Legislative History Guide
From the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC, this is part of a comprehensive Legislative Sourcebook, an indispensable resource for legislative research and one of the most frequently recommended advanced resources.
Legislative History Research Guide
Prepared by Georgetown Law Library, this guide is written for law students and recommends resources commonly found in academic law libraries; includes a useful Quick Reference Chart.

California

California Legislative History and Analysis
San Diego County Law Library research guide describing steps to a legislative history and location of resources by year. May have microfiche or microfilm on site.
California Legislative History Research
From the Berkeley Law Library, this guide is written for law students with a focus on gleaning legislative intent.
California Legislative History: Basic Online Research
From the California State Witkin Law Library and limited to online resources, this guide identifies sources of publicly available legislative information, including archival material. This guide distinguishes legislative history from legislative intent.
California Legislative History and Advocacy
From the UCLA Law Library, this is a comprehensive, step-by-step, guide to sources of California legislative intent written for law students.

Additional State guides

State Legislative History Research Guides Inventory
From the University of Indiana Law Library, this is an index to legislative history guides for all 50 states.

Legislative History Research