Answered By: Amy Manns
Last Updated: Oct 03, 2022     Views: 288

The United States Code:. The United States Code (USC) is a topical arrangement of all the federal statutes of the United States. When a bill becomes law, it is first published as a slip law and in the annual Statutes at Large. It is then divided into parts (if necessary) and codified under the appropriate titles of the USC, to make it easier to locate. A single law may end up in several different sections of the USC (sometimes even different parts, chapters, or titles), depending on the topical contents of the various pieces of the law.

 

United States Code

U.S. Code:  Text of the current official U.S. Code, as prepared by the Office of Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives. Includes a search engine for Code data and a sophisticated advanced searching option. This site also includes classification tables for current and previous Congresses, a Cite Checker, and access to USC prelim (advance posting of the next online version).

United States Code Collection (govinfo):  govinfo also provides access to the United States Code, particularly for the years 1994 to the present. To browse the United States Code, first choose a year from the drop-down menu on the United States Code homepage. Next, click on the “plus symbols” next to each Title in order to break down that title into its subparts. To the right of the title, you will find links that allow you to download the entire title in various formats, including PDF.

U.S. Code Collection (Law Library of Congress) This collection, provided by the Law Library of Congress, provides access to the United States Code from the first edition (1925-1926), to the 1988 edition, plus supplements.

 

United States Code Service - Nexis Uni

Nexis Uni provides an annotated version of the USC that contain proprietary additions to the statutes, such as headnotes and Key Numbers.

To find the United States Code Service:

1. Enter the library through the link in your classroom.

2. Select Nexis Uni from the A-Z Databases link under the main search box on the library's homepage.

3. Use the Guided Search located on the homepage under the search box:

A. Under "What are you Interested In?" select "Publications"

B. Under "Search for Something Specific" -  enter your keywords

C. Under "Find Publication" begin typing united states code

D. Click "Search" 

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United States Code Service

 

 

See Also:

Legal Studies & Paralegal Studies Research Strategies Guide:  Provides pointers for getting started with your legal studies research using library databases and open websites.

 

 
 

LexisNexis Lexis Nexis

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