3.2 Legislation

• Library: A Guide to Legal Research in Virginia (Virginia CLE) (2017 Ed.)

3.2 LEGISLATION

3.201 Publication.

A. Chapter Laws. In Virginia, statutes are initially published as chapter laws. Chapter laws are individually printed pamphlets containing only the text of a newly passed law. These resemble slip laws in the federal context. Virginia chapter laws can be found on the Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS) website ⁴ within the searchable "Bills & Resolutions" database.

B. Session Laws. At the end of a legislative session, all individual laws passed during that session are collected chronologically and published in a collection of session laws. Like chapter laws, the Virginia Acts of Assembly can be found online on the LIS website. The official publication of Virginia session laws is the Acts of the General Assembly, published by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems. The two unofficial publications of Virginia session laws are the Virginia Advance Legislative Service published by LexisNexis and West's Virginia Legislative Service published by Thomson Reuters. These publications are available respectively on Lexis Advance and Westlaw.

C. Statutes. Current Virginia statutes are organized by subject matter in the Code of Virginia 1950. There are currently two printed editions of the Virginia Code. The Code of Virginia 1950, Annotated is published by LexisNexis, and West's Annotated Code of Virginia is published by Thomson Reuters. ⁵

3.202 Legislative History. Legislative history is a term that does not mean the same thing in every context. To a legislative historian, how, when, and why the legislature acted is as important as the details of the enactment itself. For a legal researcher, the primary objectives of legislative research are usually

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the specifics of the legislative enactment (for example, when the enactment took effect) and the intent of the legislature in its development of certain statutory provisions. In jurisdictions that preserve a record of the deliberations of the legislature and the reports of commissions and committees, this intent may be analyzed through the reported statements of the legislators on the floor or by committee report. This is the case for the United States Congress. In Virginia, however, transcripts of floor debates or committee discussions about a bill are not maintained. Nonetheless, there are still several sources a researcher may use to glean the legislative intent of particular pieces of legislation. The following paragraphs list sources available to a researcher of Virginia legislative history.

A. Legislative Draft Files. The Division of Legislative Services maintains legislative draft files for all bills after 1989. These files may contain any of the following information about a particular legislative draft: the final draft of the bill, copies showing substantive drafting changes, the bill request, correspondence between the Division of Legislative Services' staff and the requester, and background information or materials explaining the proposal. A request for a legislative draft file may be made to the Legislative Reference Center. ⁶

B. Video Recordings of Floor Proceedings. Video recordings of proceedings on the House and Senate floor are available for viewing or for purchase through the clerk's office of each house. The House clerk's office has recordings beginning in 1982. These House floor recordings are also available in the Library of Virginia's archives. The Senate clerk's office keeps recordings for six months after the reconvened session. After that six-month period, Senate floor recordings are no longer available.

C. House and Senate Journals. The daily transactions or proceedings of the General Assembly are recorded chronologically

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in bound volumes of the House Journal and the Senate Journal, published in cooperation with the Division of Legislative Automated Systems. All votes are recorded along with bill amendments. Brief statements on the action are sometimes quoted, such as, "an emergency exists and this bill will become effective immediately." Both the House Journal and Senate Journal volumes contain useful appendices and indexes to assist in locating relevant passages. While these journals are useful to determine the specific voting record for legislation, they do not contain committee reports, the text of bills, or floor debates.

D. Legislative Studies. Legislative studies are another potential source of legislative history. These studies are created by specially appointed subcommittees, permanent commissions, or state agencies that have been charged by the General Assembly and Governor to research a particular topic and report on their findings and, at times, recommendations. Legislative studies can be found in the database of reports to the General Assembly through the Virginia's LIS website. ⁷ The activities of legislative study commissions and joint subcommittees are reflected in the Virginia Legislative Record, which can be found on the Division of Legislative Services website. ⁸

Although the sources listed above may enable the researcher to learn of the history of a legislative enactment, they often lack expressions of legislative intent. Thus, it is often necessary to...