View source for United States Statutes at Large

{{short description|Official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}
{{Infobox newspaper
| name                 = United States Statutes at Large
| image                = United States Statutes at Large Volume 125.djvu{{!}}225px{{!}}border
| caption              = Title page of volume 125
| type                 = [[Session laws]], [[government gazette|official journal]] and [[treaty series]]
| publisher            = [[Office of the Federal Register]]
| editor               = 
| foundation           = {{Start date|1845}}
| language             = English
| headquarters         = United States
| ISSN                 = 
| oclc                 = 
| website              = 
| free                 = 
}}

The '''''United States Statutes at Large''''', commonly referred to as the '''''Statutes at Large''''' and abbreviated '''Stat.''', are an official record of [[Act of Congress|Acts of Congress]] and [[concurrent resolution]]s passed by the [[United States Congress]].

Each act and resolution of Congress is originally published as a [[slip law]], which is classified as either [[Public bill|public law]] (abbreviated Pub.L.) or [[Private bill|private law]] (Pvt.L.), and designated and numbered accordingly. At the end of a congressional session, the statutes enacted during that session are compiled into bound books, known as "session law" publications. The ''United States Statutes at Large'' is the name of the session law publication for U.S. Federal statutes.<ref name="Bast_Page_139">{{cite book |last1=Bast |first1=Carol M. |last2=Hawkins |first2=Margie A. |title=Foundations of Legal Research and Writing |date=2013 |publisher=Delmar |location=Clifton Park, New York |isbn=9781285402604 |page=139 |edition=5th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8foKAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA139}}</ref> The public laws and private laws are numbered and organized in chronological order.<ref>{{citation | title= Public and Private Laws: About | publisher= [[United States Government Printing Office]] | url= http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/about.html | quote= At the end of each session of Congress, the slip laws are compiled into bound volumes called the Statutes at Large, and they are known as 'session laws.' | access-date= 2009-11-20 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100105231122/http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/about.html | archive-date= 2010-01-05 | url-status= dead }}</ref>

U.S. Federal statutes are published in a three-part process, consisting of slip laws, session laws (''Statutes at Large''), and [[Codification (law)|codification]] (''[[United States Code]]'').

==Codification==
Large portions of public laws are enacted as amendments to the [[United States Code]]. Once enacted into law, an Act will be published in the ''Statutes at Large'' and will add to, modify, or delete some part of the United States Code. Provisions of a public law that contain only enacting clauses, effective dates, and similar matters are not generally [[codification (law)|codified]]. Private laws also are not generally codified.

Some portions of the United States Code have been enacted as [[positive law]] and other portions have not been so enacted. In case of a conflict between the text of the ''Statutes at Large'' and the text of a provision of the United States Code that has not been enacted as positive law, the text of the ''Statutes at Large'' takes precedence.<ref>See generally {{USC|1|112}}.</ref>

==History==
[[File:US Statutes at Large.jpg|thumb|right|A few volumes of the ''Statutes at Large'']]

Publication of the ''United States Statutes at Large'' began in 1845 by the private firm of [[Little, Brown and Company]] under authority of a [[joint resolution of Congress]]. During Little, Brown and Company's time as publisher, [[Richard Peters (reporter)|Richard Peters]] (Volumes 1–8), [[George Minot (attorney)|George Minot]] (Volumes 9–11), and [[George P. Sanger]] (Volumes 11–17) served as editors.

In 1874, Congress transferred the authority to publish the ''Statutes at Large'' to the [[United States Government Publishing Office|Government Printing Office]] under the direction of the Secretary of State.

{{USPL|80|278}}, 61 Stat. 633, was enacted July 30, 1947 and directed the Secretary of State to compile, edit, index, and publish the ''Statutes at Large''. {{USPL|81|821}}, 64 Stat. 980, was enacted September 23, 1950 and directed the [[Administrator of General Services]] to compile, edit, index, and publish the ''Statutes at Large''. Since 1985 the ''Statutes at Large'' have been prepared and published by the [[Office of the Federal Register]] (OFR) of the [[National Archives and Records Administration]] (NARA).<ref name="USGPO-About">{{cite web |title=Statutes at Large |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/help/statute |publisher=[[U.S. Government Publishing Office]] |access-date=January 28, 2019 |date=December 7, 2018}}</ref>

Until 1948, all [[treaty|treaties]] and [[international agreement]]s approved by the [[United States Senate]] were also published in the set, but these now appear in a publication titled [[United States Treaties and Other International Agreements]], abbreviated '''U.S.T.''' In addition, the ''Statutes at Large'' includes the text of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], [[Articles of Confederation]], the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]], [[List of amendments to the United States Constitution|amendments to the Constitution]], treaties with [[Tribal sovereignty in the United States|Native American nations]] and foreign nations, and [[presidential proclamation]]s.

Sometimes very large or long Acts of Congress are published as their own "appendix" volume of the ''Statutes at Large''. For example, the [[Internal Revenue Code of 1954]] was published as volume 68A of the ''Statutes at Large'' ({{USStat|68A|3}}).

==See also==
* ''[[California Statutes]]''
* ''[[Federal Register]]''
* ''[[Laws of Florida]]''
* ''[[Laws of Illinois]]''
* ''[[Laws of New York]]''
* ''[[Laws of Pennsylvania]]''
* [[Procedures of the United States Congress]]
* ''[[Revised Statutes of the United States]]''
* ''[[United States Reports]]''

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{Include-GPO}}

==Further reading==
* [https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/How+Our+Laws+Are+Made+-+Learn+About+the+Legislative+Process How Our Laws Are Made], by the Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives ([http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-110hdoc49/pdf/CDOC-110hdoc49.pdf PDF]).
* [https://guides.loc.gov/federal-statutes/session-laws "Session Laws"] from ''Federal Statutes: A Beginner's Guide'' at the [[Library of Congress]]

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|Enrolled Bill}}
{{wikisource}}
* [https://www.loc.gov/collections/united-states-statutes-at-large/about-this-collection/ Volumes 1 to 64 (1789–1951) of the ''Statutes at Large''] at the Library of Congress
* [https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/statute/ Volume 65 ''et seq.'' (1951–present) of the ''Statutes at Large''] at Govinfo (U.S. Government Publishing Office)
* [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsllink.html Volumes 1 to 18 (1789–1875) of the ''Statutes at Large''] made available by the Library of Congress American Memory collections
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190716223912/http://legisworks.org/sal/ Volumes 1 to 64 (1789–1951) of the ''Statutes at Large'']}} made available by the [http://www.congressionaldata.org Congressional Data Coalition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426193755/https://congressionaldata.org/ |date=April 26, 2021 }} via {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140808034330/http://www.legisworks.org/ LEGISWORKS.org]}}
** Sortable by Bills Enacted into Laws, Concurrent Resolutions, Popular Names, Presidential Proclamations, or Public Laws.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060711222023/http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/browse.html Public and private laws from 104th Congress (1995) to 2006] from the [[United States Government Publishing Office|Government Printing Office]], in slip law format with Statutes at Large page references
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190506070716/http://homepages.uc.edu/~armstrty/statutes.html Early United States Statutes] includes Volumes 1 to 44 (1789–1927) of the ''Statutes at Large'' in [[DjVu]] and [[PDF]] format, along with rudimentary [[Optical character recognition|OCR]] of the text.
* [http://www.llsdc.org/us-code-and-statutes United States Statutes and the United States Code: Historical Outlines, Notes, Lists, Tables, and Sources] from the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=018/llsl018.db&recNum=1 Second Edition of the Revised Statutes of the United States (1878)]

{{United States Congress}} 
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[[Category:Publications of the United States government|Statutes at Large]]
[[Category:Terminology of the United States Congress|*Statutes at Large]]
[[Category:Legal research]]