Skip to Main Content
  2. Research Guides

First Year Legal Research - 2024-2025

What are statutes?

Statutes are laws that were drafted, debated, and passed by Congress or a state legislature and signed by the relevant chief executive (president or governor).  Federal statutes are published in the following formats:

  • Slip/Public Laws:  Statutes are initially published in slip format and laws of general applicability (the vast majority of laws) assigned a public law number (e.g., PL-90-284 or Pub. L. 90-284).
    • Private Laws impact only certain groups or individuals, and are assigned a private law number.
  • Session Laws/Statutes at Large:  Statutes from each session of Congress are then compiled and published in U.S. Statutes at Large and assigned a Statutes at Large citation (e.g., 82 Stat. 81).  These are sometimes called “session laws.”
  • U.S. Code:  After publication as a slip law and in the Statutes at Large, statutes of a “general and permanent nature” are added to the U.S. Code.