Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Searching Legislative and Regulatory Databases on Westlaw
A list of sections that were effective on the date you selected is displayed.
Figure 11.6: Statutes Search page
Other Westlaw Resources for Legislative and Regulatory Information
Westlaw offers broad and deep coverage of federal and state legislative and regulatory materials,
as well as international and foreign materials. Some of these materials are discussed below. A
discussion of all the legislative and regulatory resources on Westlaw is beyond the scope of this
publication—refer to the Westlaw Directory for a complete, current list of databases and check
Scope for detailed coverage and currentness information for a database.
Legislative Service Databases
Legislative service databases contain laws passed in the current legislative session or in recent
sessions.
For example, the United States Public Laws database (US-PL) contains public laws passed by the
U.S. Congress during the current term.
Session laws passed by the legislative bodies of the states and laws proposed by initiative or
proposition can be found in the Multistate Legislative Service database (LEGIS-ALL) or the
Individual State Legislative Service databases (XX-LEGIS, where XX is a state’s two-letter postal
abbreviation).
Legislative Tracking and Bill Text Databases
Legislative tracking databases offer legislative calendars and summaries and status information
regarding currently pending bills or bills from recent sessions, as well as the full text of bills.
For example, the Bill Tracking–Federal–Summaries and Status database (US-BILLTRK) provides
information concerning current federal legislation.
The Bill Tracking–All States–Summaries and Status database (ST-BILLTRK) provides
information on current legislation from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and the
Winning Research Skills 139