Federal agencies are authorized by Congress (via statute) or by the President (via executive order) to engage in lawmaking activity by issuing regulations or decisions. Both are primary sources and have the force of law. As such, they can be an important part of your legal research.
Federal regulations are published first in a daily government journal called the Federal Register. They are then codified, or arranged by topic, in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). You may see rules from the two publications cited as follows:
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
You will often begin your research looking for a current rule in the CFR. The CFR contains 50 titles, each corresponding to a different topic.
In print, each title is updated once per year on a staggered schedule:
Official online versions of the CFR can be found in the following sources:
Unofficial online versions of the CFR are often more up to date than the official print version, whose publishing schedule is sometimes delayed. These unofficial CFR sources include:
Federal Register
New and proposed federal regulations are published in the daily Federal Register, which also includes agency notices and presidential documents.
Once you locate the text of a rule in the CFR, it is a good idea to update your research in the Federal Register to ensure that the rule is still current. Because the CFR is updated only once annually and the Federal Register is published daily, it's possible that the relevant agency has either proposed an amendment to your rule or published a new final rule in the meantime.
Versions of rules published in the Federal Register also contain background information that can be helpful for researching regulatory history and intent. This information can include summaries of new rules or proposed changes to existing rules; statements of reasons for the new rules or for amending rules; the history of prior amendments to a rule; and more.
Sources for the Federal Register include:
Federal agencies issue decisions or rulings that interpret federal agency rules. They often arise from contests of agency citations of individuals or entities for violating that agency's rules.
To locate these, try:
For more information or suggestions on researching federal administrative law, consult one of the following research guides:
