The U.S. Code January, 2013

What is the US Code? The official compilation of all general and permanent laws in force of the United States Consolidated and classified according to subject matter Comprises 51 titles 26 Positive law titles 25 Non-Positive law titles Republished every six years Annual Supplements Maintained by the U.S. House Office of the Law Revision Counsel (OLRC)

What are the Statutes At Large? Chronological compilation of the slip laws (Acts of Congress) Published in annual volumes The official source for the laws passed by the United States Congress Also called “session laws”

What are Non-Positive Titles in the US Code Subject-based compilation of the permanent laws found in the Statutes at Large Volumes, named Titles, arranged by subject Statute sections are classified by subject matter into title hierarchy Non-positive law is regarded as prima facie ("on the face") evidence of the law in most courts Statutes at Large take precedence in case of conflicts Statutes classified into non-positive law are amended

What are Positive Law Titles in the US Code? Positive law titles are a revision and restatement of non-positive titles in the US Code Removes redundancies, inconsistencies, and conflicts Positive law is regarded as "legal evidence" of the law in most courts Positive Law Titles are themselves enacted as Statutes Sections of existing statutes that are restated into positive law are repealed upon enactment of positive law titles Positive law is directly amended

PL Sec. 3 Positive Law Non-Positive Law §2476 v2 Title 42 Credit Sec. 206 PL Classify Sec. 7 PL Amend Sec. 206 PL §2476 v1 Title 42 Credit §2476 v2 Title Supp. 1 Credit Execute Amendment §2476 v3 Title 42 Credit Sec. 302 PL Amend Sec. 206 PL §2476 v3 Title Edition Credit Execute Amendment Title 42 Repeal Sec. 206 PL §2476 Repeal Notes Title Supp. IV Execute Repeal Execute Enactment Title 51 Execute Enactment Codification Bill ID? Draft Report of the Codification? Bill §20116 Title Supp. IV Credit Historical and Rev. Notes Year 1958 Year 1971 Year 2000 Year 2010 Amend Publish Amend §2476 Repeal Notes §20116 Credit Historical and Rev. Notes Publish Bill ID? Enact Existing StatuteNew StatuteBill/ReportLogical CodePublished Code Enact Historical and Rev. Notes Editorial Insertion Bill ID? Enact Bill ID? Enact Expl. of the Codification? Bill Historical and Rev. Notes Draft Issued by Judiciary Com. Title 51 §20116 BChang, 18-Oct-2012 Sec. 6 Repeal

Important Terminology Bills become statutes when enacted Statutes are classified into non-positive titles of the US Code Amendments are executed, producing next versions of affected sections in the US Code The US Code is compiled by the House OLRC Statutes that are classified are called codified statutes Statutes that are not classified are called uncodified statutes Non-positive law titles are codified* and enacted into positive law titles * The term codified is apparently used a bit loosely

Issues Definition of a “document” in the US Code US Code itself, title, etc. Versioning granularity Infrequent publication of whole document Granular amending Mapping Complexities Classification process Mapping Acts of a Section to Sections of the US Code