by popular name or keywords if a researcher has the popular name of a law / act or only knows what the law is about.
Path: Westlaw Campus Research / Statutes & Court Rules / Georgia
Example (popular name): spencer pass law
Example (topic keywords): emergency vehicles AND reduce speed
- Type term(s) in search box at top of screen and click Search icon.
- If necessary, go to the Advanced search screen to fine tune your search.
by citation
Path: Westlaw Campus Research landing page search box
Example: 21 USCA 321 (the definitions section of a statute about food labeling in the United States Code Annotated)
- Type in 21 USCA 321 (You can use AND in place of the specific source abbreviation, e.g., 21 AND 321, if are only sure about the volume and section numbers, but you will likely have to use post-search filters to narrow the results to the correct source.)
- If necessary, you can select a specific source, e.g., United States Code Annotated, or jurisdiction, e.g., Georgia, after the search has run.
Code of Federal Regulations
Path: Westlaw Campus Research / Regulations (make sure 'CFR' displays to the right of the search box.)
Example: search citation 21 CFR 70.25
older Federal regulations and statutes
Westlaw Campus Research provides the full text of current Federal statutes and regulations. Links are provided in the Credits section of specific statutes within the United States Code to the full text of some earlier statutes that amended the statute being viewed. To find the full text of all older statutes and regulations as well as the full United States Code or the Code of Federal Regulations as they existed in a given year prior the current year, use HeinOnline in GALILEO. HeinOnline contains an archive of the U.S. Statutes at Large (STAT) where public laws are first published prior to being encoded in the United States Code as well as an archive of the Federal Register (FR) where all federal regulations are officially published prior to being encoded in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), and an archive of all annual editions of the CFR. Alternative: Researchers who require a publicly accessible source for the United States Code (1994- ) and the Code of Federal Regulations (1996- ) can use govinfo. Just use the Browse menu option.
Path: HeinOnline / Federal Register Library (or Code of Federal Regulations; or U.S. Statutes at Large)
Example: 42 FR 15636 (a regulation first issued in the Federal Register on Mar. 22, 1977)
- Use the Citation Navigator to retrieve 42 [Fed Reg] 15636
older Georgia statutes
Any citation to a Georgia law in Westlaw Campus Research without a live link to full text can usually be tracked down in the Georgia Session Laws. You can search for bills 2001- and historical and recent session laws online. Links are on our subject guide Legislative Research: Bills and Public Laws.
Authority: Determine the statute in the United States Code that authorizes the publication of a regulation.
Example: retrieve the regulation 21 CFR 70.25
- Scroll to the bottom of the regulation text to find the Authority paragraph. It gives the citation to title and section(s) of the statute in the United States Code which authorizes regulatory bodies to issue this regulation.
Notes: The notes section in a United States Code statute indicates if any regulations are authorized or affected by the provisions of the statute. The notes section in a statute (U.S. and State law codes) may also summarize how a subsequent amendment changed the statute.
