Cu Law Library Launches New Resource for Historical Colorado Statutory Research
| Publication year | 2015 |
| Pages | 95 |
Departments
Legal Research Corner
CU Law Library Launches New Resource for Historical Colorado Statutory Research
By Robert M. Linz.
This Department, published quarterly, is sponsored by the Colorado Association of Law Libraries (CoALL) to provide helpful information about legal research. Readers are welcome to send research questions to CoALL's Legal Research Corner at www.aallnet.org/chapter/coall/pubs/lrc.asp. CoALL members will attempt to answer questions individually or as part of this Department.
The information provided in this Department is for educational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No endorsement or recommendation is made of any product named in articles. Department coordinators are CoALL members Amy Summer, Madeline Cohen, Robert Linz, and Peter Kersten. For more information about CoALL, visit www.aallnet.org/chapter/coall.
Colorado legal researchers have a new tool for statutory research. The University of Colorado's William A. Wise Law Library (Law Library or CU Law Library) has completed a digitization project of Colorado session laws. The collection contains PDF files of session law volumes from 1861 (when the Territory of Colorado was created) through 1992.[1] The collection is available at lawlibrary.colorado.edu/colorado-session-laws. This article describes the need for such a collection, how it was created, and how to search it.
The Statutory Research Process
Researching Colorado legislative and statutory history can prove quite challenging. Typically, both research tasks start when one is trying to determine the meaning of ambiguous statutory language. One method to determine a statute's meaning is to locate earlier versions of the statute, compare them, and speculate on the meaning behind changes to the superseded text. Another method is to locate legislative committee reports and audio recordings of legislators and others discussing the meaning of the legislation, which may explain the ambiguity. With either method, the Colorado legal researcher usually starts the process with the statutory language found in the Colorado Revised Statutes.
The next step in the process involves reading the statutory source notes that immediately follow the text of the statute. Source notes contain a sequence of abbreviations and numbers. Some...
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