Arizona Legislation and Statutes

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Introduction


The first issuance of an enacted law passed by the Arizona Legislature is a slip law.  At the end of each legislative session, the slip laws are consolidated and arranged chronologically into a permanent set of bound volumes called session laws. Codes are the subject arrangement of session laws. An annotated code provides citations to law reviews, and legal encyclopedias, as well as abstracts of cases decided on a particular point of law.

Arizona Slip Laws


Slip laws are published by the Secretary of State and are not widely distributed. None of the East Valley law libraries receive slips laws. To access slip laws, go to http://www.azleg.gov/sessionlaws.asp.

 

Arizona Session Laws


Session laws are an official publication of the Secretary of State’s office and are issued annually at the end of a legislative session. There is usually a six 6–12 month lag time from the end of the legislative session until the session laws are published.

Each enacted law is assigned a chapter number. At the beginning of each chapter is the title of the bill and the Senate or House bill number. Additions to the law are usually indicated by an underline, while repeals or removal of language are indicated by a strike through.

Session laws lack subject arrangement and are not cumulative, making it more difficult to locate laws on a particular subject.

Features:

  • The Order of Acts are listed by bill number and provide the session law chapter, short title of the law, and the page number at which it can be located.
  • Parallel conversion tables for Chapter-Bill and Bill-Chapter.
  • Index lists the 49 statute titles and is further subdivided into brief subject headings.

Aside from enacted legislation, session laws also contain:

  • Veto messages written by the Governor.
  • Election results for the year.
  • Listing of federal and state elected officials for Arizona.
  • The Governor’s Message to the legislators at the start of the legislative session.
  • Listings of memorials and proclamations.

Locations:

  • 1864–1909 KFA2425 .A2 Law Rare Collection. Incomplete collection (Available upon request).
  • 1912–present KFA 2425 .A212 Law State Collection (3rd Floor)

Citation:

  • [Year] Laws Ch. X, § X
    Example: 1973 Laws Ch. 103 § 3
  • Ariz. Sess. Laws Ch. X, § X (year)
    Example: Sess. Laws Ch. 103 § 3 (1973)

Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated (annotated code)


This is the official code for the State of Arizona. When issued in 1956, an enacting clause designated this set as the positive law (binding authoritative text of law) for Arizona. Arizona legislators also passed a statute repealing all prior session laws, revisions and compilations.

Annotated codes have history notes on statutes. History notes provide the session law cite for each section added and for any amendments since it has been in effect. There are also Historical and Statutory Notes, which provide brief descriptions of amendments.

Following the statutory and historical notes are citations to law reviews, legal forms, legal encyclopedias, treatises, and West Digest key numbers. Attorney General opinions and cross-references to the Arizona administrative code, the United States Code or, Uniform Laws may also be listed. Lastly are the notes of decisions. These provide brief synopses of cases decided on that point of law.

Features:

  • 2-volume softbound index for the entire set. The index is topical, descriptive, conceptual, and colloquial
  • Index at the end of each title
  • Popular Names Table
  • Parallel conversion tables for prior codes, session laws, and statute renumbering
  • Title outline

Aside from enacted legislation, the Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated also contains:

  • Annotated Rules of Court
  • Constitutions: Arizona and United States
  • Declaration of Independence
  • Treaties: Treaty of Guadeloupe, Hidalgo and Gadsden Treaty
  • Proclamation of Admission/Admission of the State of Arizona
  • State Anthems
  • Constitutional Convention
  • Election Ordinance no.2
  • Enabling Act

Location:

  • KFA 2430 1956 .A2 Law Core, Reserve Reading Room, Law State Collection, Law Reserve.
  • Superseded annotated codes are available on the third floor in the Law State Collection.

Citation:

  • Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § X (West year)
    Example: Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 33-1365 (West 2001)
  • A.R.S. § X
    Example: A.R.S. § 33-1365

Arizona Annotated Revised Statutes (annotated code)


This is an unofficial code for the State of Arizona. LexisNexis began publishing the AARS in 2004. It consists of 14 volumes which are replaced annually. The annotations include case law from all Arizona cases since 1983 and all federal cases since 1991.

Features:

  • Topical Index
  • Table of Sections Affected. This table indicates actions that affected the statutes during the last legislative session. Additions, amendments, or repeals are listed. It also provides the session law chapter, the bill number and the date it went into effect.

Location:

The Ross-Blakley Law Library does not own this set.
 

Arizona Historical Codes


The law library owns most of the historical Arizona and Arizona territorial codes. They are located in the LAW RARE and the LAW STATE collections. Please see Arizona Legal Research Guide, Kathy Shimpock and Marianne Alcorn, Buffalo, NY: Hein, 1992. KFA 2475 .S55 1992 LAW RESERVE for a listing of the historical codes.
 

Online or Electronic Resources


Arizona State Legislature

  • Contains full-text session laws from the 42nd Legislature (1995–1996) to the present
  • Arizona Revised Statutes (unannotated)

Westlaw Patron Access

Law Library Access only: For the following links to work, you must open Westlaw Patron Access first.

  • Arizona Statutes Annotated: AZ-ST-ANN
  • Arizona Statutes Unannotated: AZ-ST
  • Arizona Statutes Annotated (historical) 1988–last year: AZ-STANNYY (where yy is the year)
  • Arizona Legislative Service: AZ-LEGIS
  • Arizona Historical Legislative Service, 1988–last year: AZ-LEGIS-OLD

LexisNexis Academic

Available on campus computers; Remote access ASU students and faculty.

LexisNexis

Available to law students and law faculty only.

  • Arizona Code, Constitution and Current Advance Legislative Service: ARIZ; AZCODE
  • Arizona Statutes Archive (1991–last year): ARIZ; AZARCH
  • Arizona Advance Legislative Service (1988–present): ARIZ; AZALS
  • Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated: ARIZ; CODE

Westlaw

Available to law students and law faculty only.

  • Arizona Statutes Annotated: AZ-ST-ANN
  • Arizona Statutes Annotated (historical) 1988–last year: AZ-STANNYY (where yy is the year)
  • Arizona Statutes Unannotated: AZ-ST
  • Arizona Legislative Service: AZ-LEGIS
  • Arizona Historical Legislative Service, 1988–last year: AZ-LEGIS-OLD

By Connie Strittmatter; updated 10/07

  

JOHN J. ROSS - WILLIAM C. BLAKLEY LAW LIBRARY
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