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 OneSearch, the agency’s website, Lexis & Westlaw, and other commercial publishing sources such as CCH and BNA.
For more information on Administrative law, check out our research guides:
See our Federal Administrative Law Guide for further details on researching Federal Administrative Law.
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is a subject arrangement of general and permanent regulations. A regulation will be published first in the Federal Register and later be codified in the CFR. The print CFR is revised yearly on a quarterly basis:
Use it to find regulations relating to a statute or presidential proclamation.
Sometimes when looking at a particular statute in the United States Code Annotated or United States Code Service you will find a reference to a related administrative regulation.
A good topical secondary source or loose-leaf service will refer to or reproduce regulations.
The Federal Register Act in 1935, required the Federal government to publish all the administrative rules and regulations, Presidential proclamations and executive orders and any other documents that have "general applicablity and legal effect" in the Federal Register. The Federal Register is published every business day.
Use advance searching and fields/segments where you can.
Agency decisions, orders, and opinions are much more difficult to find than statutes, cases, or regulations. The decision to publish is up to the individual agency. Generally, check OneSearch (the online catalog), the agency’s website, Lexis & Westlaw, and other commercial publishing sources such as VitalLaw and Bloomberg Law. Be aware that most agency decisions are not precedential.
A non-exclusive list of published agency decisions can be found in T1.2 of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (22d ed. 2025) and Appendix 7 of The ALWD Citation Manual (7th ed. 2021).
For more details on Ohio Administrative Law resources, see our Ohio Research Guide.
Regulations
Use Lexis, Westlaw, or go to the state government website.
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.
