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November 4, 2008 DOL Home > OASAM > Wirtz Labor Library > Labor Law Library > Law Tips Archive > Uncodified Federal Laws |
Uncodified Federal Laws Occasionally, a truly substantive law isn't codified, and can only be found in its entirety as a session law (also known as a public law) in the United States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as the Statutes at Large, published by the Government Printing Office (GPO). You can find session laws from the Statutes at Large in four databases on Westlaw:
Sometimes a legislative note following the text of a USCA section will alert you to the existence and location of an uncodified law. For instance, a law commonly referred to as the Hyde Amendment allows criminal defendants prosecuted by the government to recover attorney fees and other litigation expenses if the claims of the United States are proven to be frivolous, vexatious, or in bad faith. The Hyde Amendment was never codified. Nevertheless, a note following the text of 18 U.S.C.A. § 3006A summarizes the uncodified provision and provides the proper citation of the session law: Pub.L. 105-119, Title VI, § 617, Nov. 26, 1997, 111 Stat. 2519. On Westlaw, the citation is linked to the full text of the session law in US-PL-OLD. In the absence of a helpful legislative note, one of the notes of decisions following a USCA section may reveal the existence of an uncodified law. Otherwise, you may find references to an uncodified law in secondary sources (e.g., treatises and practice guides) or periodicals. Try a Terms and Connectors search for the law in Texts and Periodicals—All Law Reviews, Texts, and Bar Journals (TP-ALL). Note: This tip is the search tip featured in West’s September/October 2006 E-lert newsletter, available at <http://west.thomson.com/newsletters/westelert/2006_SepOct/>. See article entitled Finding Uncodified Federal Laws on Westlaw, available at <http://west.thomson.com/newsletters/westelert/2006_SepOct/copy6.aspx>. Archived editions of West E-lert are available at <http://west.thomson.com/newsletters/19.aspx>. |
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