LINKS: THE LAWS AND THE RULES 

1)  The U.S. Constitution Annotated - Analysis and Interpretation 

• If you want a good refresher course on Constitutional Law, this is an excellent  place to start.  By Public Law, fully-annotated, decennial editions (and biennial cumulative Supplements) of the U.S. Constitution are prepared for the Members of Congress.  While copies can be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents at the Government Printing Office, this book is available free on the Internet.  The latest compendium includes annotations of cases decided by the Supreme Court through June 30, 2000. 
  
  
• Another great resource is FindLaw's U.S. Constitution site.   Here, you can select Articles and Amendments to the Constitution and find links to annotations from the Library of Congress as well as links to the cases cited. 

  2)  U.S. Laws and Statutes - Generally 

• There are probably hundreds of places on the Internet where you can view the Federal laws.  Some of these sites are thrown up quickly  - and never kept up to date.  Thus, the great majority are outdated or plagued with links that no longer work.  We have attempted to sort through the morass and give you the best-working, most current sites that are available. 
  

• The U.S. Code -- There are many places on the Internet where one can obtain an extraordinary range of informnation about Federal laws.   Being creatures of habit, we tend to pick a favorite and stick with it.  That is a mistake.  Most of the sites listed below are constantly changing and improving - and it pays to check them periodically to find out what new features are being offered.  

  Perhaps the best of the many sources on the Internet for the U.S. Code is the site maintained by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, which can be accessed by clicking here. The sites maintained by FindLaw ,  Cornell Law School and the Law Library of Congress are also excellent. 
  
  Other good sites are the Web sites that took over the former Internet Law Library that was maintained by the House of Representatives until May 31, 1999.  A few of the better such sites are  'Lectric Law Library (which has added a search engine of the U.S. Code) and Law Guru (which also has a decent search engine).  All of these sites are excellent starting points.  

• The Government Printing Office has also recently started a new site which offers the U.S. Code.  Stay away from it. It works fine if you know the exact title and section number of the law you are seeking: it will give you the latest text of that statute. But, if you want to use the site’s search engine, the results are a disaster: we found that by typing "18 U.S.C. 1343" or "wire fraud" we did get 40 results - but not a single reference to 18 U.S.C. § 1343.
  

• Popular Name - From this site you can quickly find major Federal legislation listed by popular name or short title. 
  

• THOMAS - by far, the best overall source for Federal legislative information on the Internet is the site maintained by the Library of Congress which is known as THOMAS. It is easy to use - and always current. Among its many features are searches for Congressional bills from the 93rd Congress to date (including summaries and status reports), searches of Public Laws (by number), and searches of the Congressional Record.  
  

• Federal Regulations - A good starting point for all Federal regulations in the Government's site at www.regulations.gov where you can find, review, and submit comments on Federal documents that are open for comment and published in the Federal Register. This site also has a variety of links to agencies' regulatory information pages, Executive Orders, OMB policy directives, and rule tracking information, as well as a gateway to Federal Register publications on GPO Access, including the daily Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and e-CFR, a new online edition of the CFR updated daily.
  
  Another good starting point is the "Research Guide to the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations," written by Richard J. McKinney, the Law Librarian at the Federal Reserve Board Library (January 2003 Edition).
  
  There are a number of sites which offer the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) on the Internet. One of the most popular of those sites is the site maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration.  The problem with that site has always been that searches have enabled users to retrieve individual sections of the CFR without placing them in the context of adjacent sections - meaning that users are unable to move from Title to Chapter to Part in pursuit of relevant materials. However, that site does offer a key feature not found elsewhere - namely the ability to keep track of new and amended provisions of the CFR through the morning edition of the Federal Register - by clicking here.

  Cornell Law School, through the Legal Information Institute (LII) approaches the CFR from a different perspective - and its search engine can be accessed by clicking here.   The Cornell site is intended to be used in tandem with - rather than duplicating - the National Archives site.  Essentially, by starting with the Cornell site, you can search portions of the CFR from the Title level on down because the Cornell site uses a set of "front-end" table of contents which show the full structure of the CFR.  Another excellent source for the CFR is FindLaw's CFR search engine, which allows you to search by Title, Chapter and Part as well as by keyword.
   

  3)  U.S. Criminal Laws and Rules    

• Title 18 of the U.S. Code - A separate listing of the main Title of the U.S. Code that deals with Federal crimes and criminal procedure. 
   
• Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
   
• Federal Rules of Evidence 
  
  
• Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure -and Proposed Amendments to the Fed.R.App.P.
  
  
• Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Plain Text Search Engine for Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
  
  
• Wiretapping Laws - Summary of Consent Requirements for Taping Telephone Conversations. A state-by-state listing of the one-party consent and two-party consent states, together with references to the relevant state statutes.
   

  4)  State Laws.

  There is an amazing and growing amount of data available on the Web that deals with the the legislative and judicial systems of the 50 States.  These databases include statutes, court decisions, local rules and regulations, and much more.  The quantity and quality depends of course on the particular State - and how long it has been supplying information on the Internet.  If a State has just started using the Internet, we suggest you take a quick look now - and then come back in a year after the State has copied all the best features from the bigger States.  Among the better sources of a broad range of State materials, we suggest that you try the FindLaw site and the Cornell Law School (LII) sites. Another excellent general legal resource site is the site maintained by Washburn University School of Law which is among the most comprehensive on the Internet. After that try Pritchard Law Webs site or the 'Lectric Law Library site. 

  In addition, if you are looking for Municipal Codes, the Seattle Public Library has prepared a comprehensive list of many state and county codes that are available for unrestricted searching on the Internet, which can be accessed by clicking here.   There are also a growing number of sites that offer extensive coverage of state and municipal codes on line (for a fee).  Among the best of those sites are Municode.com, the American Legal Publishing Corporation site, and the Piper Resources site..

Copyright ©1996-2007 by Punch and Jurists, Ltd., P.O. Box 751, Washington Bridge Station, New York, N.Y. 10033. For more information about www.fedcrimlaw.com, call us at (212) 781-8685 or email us at info@fedcrimlaw.com. All rights reserved.