Legislative Drafting Reference and Research Tools, including Statutory Construction

• Standing Rules of the Senate

• Rules of the House of Representatives

• Title 1 U.S. Code Chapter 1 - Rules of Construction
   

• Statutory Construction Zone - a blog by Gary O'Connor "devoted to federal statutory construction" (currently on hiatus)

• Statutory Construction Blog - David Hrici

• Glossary of Legislative Terms - from TheCapitol.Net

• Office of the Legislative Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives

  • "Office of Legislative Counsel: House," by Matt Glassman, CRS Report RS20735, March 31, 2008 (3-page PDF)

• Office of the Legislative Counsel, U.S. Senate

  • "Office of Legislative Counsel: Senate," by Matthew Glassman, CRS Report RS20856, March 31, 2008 (3-page PDF)

• Statute Law Review

• "Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends," by George Costello, CRS Report 97-589, March 30, 2006 (55-page PDF)

• Statutory interpretation - wikipedia

• To keep track of years and sessions of Congress, consult the Session Dates Table provided by the Clerk of the House.

• U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual

• THOMAS (Legislative Information from the Library of Congress)

• United States Statutes at Large (Law Library / National Digital Library Program) The seventeen volumes presented in this online collection cover the laws of the first forty-two Congresses, 1789-1873.

• The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School: Selected Statutes of the United States 
   

• United States Code (U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Law Revision Counsel) - Offers introductory material to the Code and access to a search engine. The database reflects the current edition and supplements of the United States Code as printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office (January 5, 1999). 

  • Title 1, Chapter 1 - Rules of Construction

  • Download the United States Code

  • Search the United States Code

  • Search Prior Versions of the U.S. Code - beginning with the 1988 ed., suppl. II

  • United States Code Classification Tables - sorted by Congress, then by either Public Law or U.S. Code section. Updated within one to two days of federal legislation enacted into law.

• United States Code (U.S. Government Printing Office, GPO Access) - Provides a search engine for searching the 1994 editions, plus supplement 4 (January 5, 1999 for titles 1-41) 

  • Description

  • General Searching Instructions

  • United States Code - Helpful Hints

• United States Code (Cornell Legal Information Institute) - Provides an updated interface to the U.S. Code, with links to notes and legislative activity through THOMAS. 

  • Find US Code Materials by Title and Section

  • List of Titles

  • Search Engine

  • Table of Popular Names

    • short list of Popular Names

Popular Names - from American Law Sources Online
 

• The Business Writer's Handbook, by Alred, Brusaw and Oliu 

• Elements of Style, by Strunk and White  [Buy it now online at Amazon]

• The Elements of Legal Style, by Bryan Garner  [Buy it now online at Amazon]

Quick DC Links - Washington Essentials

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