Law and Capitalism in America

Administrative codes are the subject organization of regulations. A register is usually a chronological publication and includes notices and proposed regulations as well as final regulations.

Agency decisions, orders, and opinions are much more difficult to find than statutes, cases, or regulations.  Generally, check UCLID, the agency’s website, Lexis & Westlaw, and other commercial publishing sources such as CCH and BNA.

See our Federal Administrative Law Guide for further details on researching Federal Administrative Law.

CFR

• Print is available in the Federal Materials Room
• E-CFR:  http://www.ecfr.gov (unofficial but very current)
• GovInfo.gov  (back to 1996)
• HeinOnline:  Code of Federal Regulations Library (back to 1938)
• Nexis Uni CFR (current)
• Lexis CFR (current)
  • archived editions back to 1981
• Westlaw: CFR (archived editions back to 1984)
• ProQuest Congressional
• Cornell Legal Information Institute:

Federal Register

• Current year in print available in the Federal Materials Room
• GovInfo:  (back to 1936)
• Federal Register 2.0: (turns the Federal Register into a web friendly newspaper format)
• HeinOnline: Federal Register Library ( back to 1936)
• Lexis (current)
• Westlaw: FedReg (back to 1980)
• ProQuest Congressional (back to 1977)
• Justia: http://regulations.justia.com/regulations/fedreg ( back to 2005)

Adjudications

• Published Decisions in Print
  • A non-exclusive list of published agency decisions can be found in T1.2 of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (19th ed. 2010) (available in Law Reserves KF245 .M68 2010) and Appendix 8 of The ALWD Citation Manual (4th ed. 2010) (available in Law Reserves  KF245 .A45 2010).
  • Use UCLID (the online catalog) to search for print agency reporters.
• Decisions Online
  • Bloomberg Law (Law students & faculty only)
    • Major BNA loose-leafs in the areas of antitrust, banking, bankruptcy, corporations, food & drugs, energy, environment, health care, intellectual property, labor & employment, securities, tax, and transportation are available through the online subscription to BNA materials.
  • Wolters Kluwer VitalLaw
    • Major Wolters Kluwer publications in the areas of antitrust, banking, bankruptcy, food & drugs, energy, environment, health care, intellectual property, labor & employment, securities and tax.
  • Nexis Uni Federal Administrative Materials
  • Lexis Federal Administrative Materials
  • Westlaw
    • Go to Directory > U.S. Federal Materials > Federal Agency Decisions
  • University of Virginia Library, Administrative Decisions & Other Actions – by Agency

You can Shepardize and KeyCite administrative regulations.  This will help you find proposed regulations, judicial treatment and interpretation of regulations; and locate secondary sources citing regulations.

Ohio

For more details on Ohio Administrative Law resources, see our Ohio Research Guide.

Regulations

• Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) 
  • Print: Ohio 1 KFO440 .O37 1994
  • Lexis Advance:  Browse Sources > Jurisdiction: Ohio > OH - Ohio Administrative Code
  • Westlaw database OH-ADC
  • Lawriter:  http://codes.ohio.gov/oac
• Ohio Monthly Record (OMR)
  • Gives notice to the public of repealed rules and proposed rules and publishes new and amended rules in chronological order on a monthly basis. 
  • Print Only:  Ohio 1 KFO36.O45
•  Register of Ohio
  • Gives agency notice of intent to adopt a rule.  
  • http://www.registerofohio.state.oh.us/
  • Lexis Advance:  Browse Sources > Jurisdiction: Ohio > OH - The Register of Ohio
  • WestlawNext
    • Database Identifier (OH-REGTRK)

Adjudications

• State of Ohio Agencies, http://ohio.gov/agencies/

Other States

Regulations

Use Lexis, Westlaw, or go to the state government website.  A good listing of Administrative Codes and Registers is at the Administrative Codes and Registers Section of the National Association of Secretaries of State, http://www.administrativerules.org (click on Administrative Rules).

Adjudications

• Visit the appropriate state government portal and look for a list of state agencies.  Go to the agency in which you are interested and look for decisions, opinions, or orders.
• Lexis & Westlaw
  • Go to the appropriate state and look for the category agency materials (it will be called something slightly different in each service).  Find the decisions, opinions or orders for the agency in which you are interested.

Federal

• RegInfo.gov (back to Fall 1995)
  • Contains the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.  The Unified Agenda, published every spring and fall, includes regulatory agendas from all Federal entities that currently have regulations under development or review. Agencies of the United States Congress are not included. Fall editions of the Unified Agenda include The Regulatory Plan, which presents agency statements of regulatory priorities and additional information about the most significant regulatory activities planned for the coming year.
  • Also provides various breakdowns of pending agency action, allowing users to view pending actions by rule stage or by agency.

• Regulations.Gov
  • A centralized site for online access to proposed and final regulations, and submission and review of public comments.
  • Users can sign up for e-mail alerts on a specific regulation or subscribe to RSS feeds for agency notices.

• Justia's Regulation Tracker: http://regulations.justia.com/ (back to 2005)
  • Search or browse regulations
  • Subscribe to an RSS feed
• Lexis Advance:  Browse Sources > U.S. Federal > Federal Regulation Tracking
• Westlaw: Database Identifier US-REGTRK

States

• Lexis & Westlaw – just as Lexis & Westlaw have bill tracking for Federal material, they also have it for the states.  Locate the appropriate jurisdiction to find the appropriate database.
• State websites – some state websites have regulation tracking capabilities.