Federal Administrative Law

Executive Orders and Proclamations derive their legal authority either from existing statutes or from other constitutional authority given to the President. They do not have to be approved by Congress. Presidential Executive Orders and Proclamations are required to be published in the Federal Register unless there are National Security concerns.  They are then compiled in the annual volume of Title 3 of the CFR.

An Executive Order is generally addressed to government officials and agencies while a Proclamation is generally addressed to the entire nation and tends to be more ceremonial in nature.

A Presidential Signing Statement is a written comment issued by a President at the time of signing legislation. 

Proclamations and Executive Orders

• Federal Register
  • Current 2-years in print are available in the Federal Materials Room
  • FDSys: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=FR (back to 1994)
  • Federal Register 2.0: http://www.federalregister.gov/ (turns the Federal Register into a web friendly newspaper format)
  • HeinOnline: Federal Register Library (UC students & faculty only) ( back to 1936)
  • Lexis Advance: Go to Browse Sources > Search Sources > search for  FR- Federal Register (law students & faculty only) (back to 1980)
  • Westlaw: FedReg (law students & faculty only) (back to 1980)
  • Nexis Uni:  Federal Statutes, Codes & Regulations (UC students & faculty only - must authenticate if off-campus)
  • ProQuest Congressional (UC students & faculty only - must authenticate if off-campus) (back to 1977)
  • Justia: http://regulations.justia.com/regulations/fedreg ( back to 2005)
  • Microfiche (1936-1994) is available on the 4th floor Law Microforms area  AE 2.106:

• Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (See below)

• Title 3 of the  CFR
  • Print is available in the Federal Materials Room
  • E-CFR:  http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov (unofficial but very current)
  • FDSys: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionCfr.action?collectionCode=CFR (back to 1996)
  • HeinOnline:  Code of Federal Regulations Library (UC students & faculty only) (back to 1938)
  • Lexis: Browse Sources > Search Sources > search for  CFR- Code of Federal Regulations (law students & faculty only) (archived editions back to 1981)
  • Westlaw: CFR(law students & faculty only) (archived editions back to 1984)
  • Nexis Uni:  Federal Statutes, Codes & Regulations (UC students & faculty only - must authenticate if off-campus)
  • ProQuest Congressional (UC students & faculty only - must authenticate if off-campus)
  • Cornell Legal Information Institute: http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text

• United States Statutes at Large (Proclamations 1789 to present)
  • Available in print in the Federal Materials Room
  • FDSys: 
    • 2003 -- 2008 http://www.gpo.gov/searchwebapp/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=STATUTE
    • 1951 -- 2002 Additional Government Publications Collection
  • HeinOnline : U.S. Statutes at Large Library (UC students & faculty only)

• The White House Website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions
  • Contains Executive Orders, Proclamations, memoranda, speeches and remarks, the Presidents's weekly address, press briefings, and more.

• Westlaw Presidential Documents database (law students & faculty only)

• Executive Order Disposition Tables: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html
  • Published by the National Archive and Record Administration (NARA), the Disposition Tables list the status of executive orders from 1933 to date.

Messages and Papers of the Presidents

• 1789-1897
  • Available in print at Law Stacks  J81 .B96
  • Available online as individual volumes through Hathi Trust, Google Books, Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg etc. 
  • ProQuest Congressional (UC students & faculty only)

Public Papers of the Presidents (beginning with President Hoover)

• Each Public Papers volume contains the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were issued by the Office of the Press Secretary during the specified time period.
  • Print is available in the Law Stacks  J80 .A283
  • FDSys (back to 1991): http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=PPP
  • The National Archives and Records Administration: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/publications/presidential-papers.html 
  • HeinOnline (UC students and faculty only)
  • The  American Presidency Project: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu

The Compilation of Presidential Documents

• The Compilation of Presidential Documents collection is composed of the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents and its predecessor, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.  It includes speeches and press conferences,communications to Congress and Federal agencies statements regarding bill signings and vetoes,executive orders and proclamations, appointments and nominations, resignations and retirements, reorganization plans, acts approved by the President, nominations submitted to the Senate, and White House announcements and press releases.
  • Print (1965 -- 2005) is available in the Law Stacks J80 .A36 
  • FDSys (back to 1993): http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=CPD
  • The National Archives and Records Administration (back to 1993): http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/publications/presidential-compilation.html
  • HeinOnline (back to 1965) (UC students and faculty only)
  • The  American Presidency Project: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu

Other Documents

• The  American Presidency Project: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu
  • The project was established in 1999 as a collaboration between John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It now includes 100,832 documents related to the study of the Presidency.

• National Archives and Records Administration: http://www.archives.gov/