Session Laws in the United States

Session laws are the generic name used for the body of legislation enacted during a session of a legislative body (state or federal). Session laws are the chronological compilation of slip laws passed by the legislature during a legislative session.

In the U.S. Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate meet in two year periods. Each year within the two-year period is known as a session, and together both sessions in the two-year period are known as a Congress. Both the House and the Senate propose and consider legislation in the form of bills and joint resolutions. Proposed legislation that fails to be enacted in a Congress dies and must be reintroduced in the next Congress in order to be reconsidered.

In some U.S. jurisdictions, like Kansas, the Session Laws include veto and certain other messages from the governor, certain concurrent resolutions, and executive reorganization orders approved.

Official Publication of Public and Private Laws, United States Statutes at Large

Public and Private Laws from each Congress are officially published by the Federal government in a hard bound multi-volume set called the United States Statutes at Large (abbreviated as Stat.) . There is a considerable lag time (approximately 2 years) between the enactment of a Federal law and its publication in U.S. Statutes at Large.

Related Popular Resources

Statutes and International Law

• Statutory Law
• Legal Statutes
• Statutes of Limitations
• Statute revision

Acts in the United States

• U.S. Code
• U.S. Federal Statutes
• U.S. State Statutes
• Constitution State Laws
• U.S. Slip Laws

Session Laws in State Statute Topics

Introduction to Session Laws (State statute topic)

The purpose of Session Laws is to provide a broad appreciation of the Session Laws legal topic. Select from the list of U.S. legal topics for information (other than Session Laws).

Resources

Further Reading

• Information about Session Laws in the Gale Encyclopedia of American Law.

Citation Notes

Session laws are a collection of all statutes passed by a particular federal or state legislature in a legislative session. They are arranged in order of enactment.

Generally, a code should be cited in preference to a session law.

However, a session law should be cited where:

• the statute has not yet been include d in any official or unofficial code;

• the statute is no longer in force and not included in the latest version of the code;

• the statute makes changes to many scattered sections of a code;

• it is important to refer to the enactment, amendment or repeal of a provision or statute; or

• a private law is cited.