Find Legislation: United States

• Legislation is law enacted by government. It takes the form of a written document.
• In many countries, including Canada and the United States, there are two types of laws: primary legislation and secondary legislation.

Primary legislation

• Created by legislative bodies (such as Parliament or Congress)
• Also called a statue or act
• Sets out the broad principles and framework of the law
• Known as a bill prior to approval by a country’s legislative body.

Secondary legislation

• Created by bodies, other than the legislative body, that have been delegated that authority by the primary legislation. Those bodies are often, but not always, government agencies or departments.
• Also known as delegated legislation, subordinate legislation, or regulation.
• Sets out specific rules under the authority of the primary legislation that authorizes it.

• The United States Code contains the federal primary legislation of the United States.  
• Current and previous editions of the United States Code are available online on the website of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel. You may search by keyword or browse. 
• The United States Statues at Large publish the text of each law enacted by Congress, arranged chronologically. 
• United States federal regulations are published in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Browse regulations by title or search by keyword. 
• The text of the US Code and the Code of Federal Regulations are also available on the FindLaw website. 
• The text of all proposed legislation, along with their status, is available online at Congress.gov. Search by keyword or bill number. 

• Hosted, searchable versions of state legislation and links to state resources are available on the FindLaw website. Resources are organized by state.
• You can also find each state’s official website for legislation by searching Google for <state name> legislation, e.g. New York legislation.

• Legislation enacted by a municipality is called a by-law.
• You can find each municipality’s official by-laws website by searching Google for <municipality name> by-laws, e.g. Guelph by-laws.