Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Chapter 4
within agencies, and calendars of meetings. Final regulations are published chronologically. The
Federal Register also publishes some documents issued by the office of the president, such as
presidential proclamations and executive orders.
The Federal Register may fill as many as 50,000 pages a year. Because it occupies a huge amount
of shelf space—despite the small size of its typography—you will easily be able to locate it in the
law library. If you plan on pursuing a career in a heavily regulated practice area, you’ll do well
to familiarize yourself with using the Federal Register while you are a student.
Documents from the Federal Register beginning with January 1981 are available on Westlaw in
the Federal Register 1981–Current database (FR). Documents from the Federal Register from
January 1936 to December 1980 are available in the Federal Register Archive (1936–1980)
database (FR-OLD).
Code of Federal Regulations
Adopted regulations are first published chronologically in the Federal Register and subsequently
arranged by subject in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Proposed regulations do not
appear in the CFR. The entire CFR is recompiled annually—new regulations are added, changes
to existing regulations are incorporated, and regulations that have been withdrawn are deleted.
The CFR is organized by title. Each title represents a broad subject. Therefore, when you need to
find federal regulations by subject, look to the CFR.
Each title of the CFR is divided into chapters; each chapter is devoted to the regulations of a
particular agency. The chapters are further divided into parts, consisting of a set of regulations
pertaining to a particular topic or agency function. Parts are divided into sections (the basic unit
of the CFR), and if further breakdown is necessary, into paragraphs.
Two sets of notes provide administrative history information for a regulation (Figure 4.1).
■ The authority note prefaces each part of the CFR. The authority note indicates the statutory
authority under which the regulations are proposed or issued. Remember that regulations are
adopted to implement legislation.
■ A source note, which lists the volume, page, and date of the Federal Register in which the
regulation was published, follows the authority note.
The CFR is published each year in four installments as follows:
■ Title 1 through Title 16—through January 1
■ Title 17 through Title 27—through April 1
■ Title 28 through Title 41—through July 1
■ Title 42 through Title 50—through October 1
Because of these staggered dates, you must be careful to check the softbound cover of each title
to determine the date of revision.
All 50 titles constituting the current CFR are available on Westlaw in the Code of Federal
Regulations database (CFR).
42 Winning Research Skills