A Guide To...Legal Research

Primary Sources for Regulations

In legal research, primary sources consist of "the official pronouncements of the governmental lawmakers." 

Before 1936, there was no formal or official publication of regulations or other materials produced by the Executive Branch. These sources exist now in large part because the Executive has expanded over time! 

You can generally find regulations in 3 formats: 

'Slip' Regulations. These are the first version of a regulation that has been published. These versions are valuable because they become available fairly immediately.  They are technically 'unofficial,' but generally match the official versions in all but one respect: 'slip' versions of regulations lack an effective date. Instead, slip versions of a regulation will include a more general note indicating that the regulation is effective "30 days after insertion in the Federal Register" (i.e., after its' official publication). 

Slip versions of Presidential documents are typically published on Whitehouse.gov (or, if from a past administration, the archived version of that administration's website; see for example Barack Obama's Executive Orders). 

Slip versions of agency regulations do not always exist, but when they do they are published on the individual agency's website. 

Federal Register. This is the most official version of a regulation, equivalent to legislative session law. The Federal Register is the official publication for both agency regulations and regulations produced by the White House. It is published continuously, Monday through Friday, in no particular order. 

The Federal Register is organized chronologically and is not updated.  It does not (necessarily) represent the regulations currently in force, nor does it give you any way to locate regulations on a specific topic! 

Citations from the Federal Register are cited by the volume of the Register, page number, and date published (ex - 76 Fed. Reg. 78798 (Dec 19, 2011), pg. 78798 of volume 76 of the Federal Register ).  Access the Federal Register via...

To find out which rules or proposed rules will soon be published in the Federal Register, visit or subscribe to the Federal Register's Public Inspection Desk. 

Code of Federal Regulations.  The Code of Federal Regulations compiles the regulations which are currently in force in a particular jurisdiction. It is updated and organized by subject. into Titles and subsections, and its citations reflect that organization (ex - 17 C.F.R §1.25, subsection 1.25 of Title 17). Note that these do not correlate to the Titles of the United States Code! 

The Code of Federal Regulations is published annually by the Office of the Federal Register, on a staggered basis.

Titles 1-16: updated Jan 1
Titles 17-27: updated Apr 1
Titles 28-41: updated Jul 1
Titles 42-50: updated Oct 1

It is available on the web through the federal government (as eCFR), and in research databases like HeinOnline and WestLaw. Online versions are updated more frequently, so it is important to note the ‘last updated’/ ‘current as of’ date on that version. Access the Code of Federal Regulations via...

If you want to find out where and by which regulations the Code of Federal Regulations was updated, the List of CFR Sections Affected tool is very helpful:

To cross-reference between the Code of Federal Regulations and related sections of the United States Code (or vice versa) use the Parallel Table of Authorities & Rules, published in...

Regulatory Histories

A regulatory history is the history of a particular regulation. 

Regulatory histories are generally less straight-forward than legislative histories, because of the way regulations are published. Additionally, there are no published regulatory histories similar to those available for legislation. 

Key Documents for Regulatory Histories

• The regulation itself (see the tab on Primary Sources for Regulations). 
   
• Unlike Congress, Federal Agencies are legally mandated to provide explanation/justification for their regulations. These explanations can be found in the preamble of a regulation. In most cases, the preamble is published with the original proposed rule in the Federal Register. If significant changes are made to the final rule based on public comment, further explanation may be found in the final rule (also in the Federal Register). 
   
• The comments on a regulation are key for understanding how public feedback influenced the final rule. Many comments are now received (and published!) at Regulations.gov. To find out where the comments for a particular proposed rule were received/published, check the instructions in the proposed rule in the Federal Register. 

Compiling a Regulatory History (from the CFR) 

1. Find the regulation in the Code of Federal Regulations. If using the eCFR, locate the PDF version.

• Check for a history note at the bottom of the section you are interested in. You will usually (but not always) see a list of citations to the Federal Register; these are the regulations which form the basis for this section of the CFR, in order of publication. 
  For example, 17 C.F.R. § 1.25 lists the following:  76 FR 78798, Dec. 19, 2011, as amended at 77 FR 66322, Nov. 2, 2012; 78 FR 68633, Nov. 14, 2013]
   
• If there is no history note for your section, check the beginning of the relevant Part of the CFR. 
  For example, for 17 C.F.R. § 1.25, you would check at the beginning of 17 C.F.R. § 1.
   

When a new regulation is revising an existing section of the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register will often reprint only selected sections, interspersed with the symbol * * indicating no change. Other times, however, that portion of the CFR will be reprinted in full, and when this happens, the regulatory "history," as far as these history notes are concerned, starts over! 
For example, the oldest citation listed by 17 C.F.R. § 1.25 is 76 FR 78798 (2011); however, 76 FR 78798 (2011) clearly indicates that it is revising 17 C.F.R. § 1.25, meaning that that part of the C.F.R. existed before 2011! 

2. To locate citations "erased" from C.F.R. history notes, use GovInfo.gov to search for the relevant C.F.R. section, then choose Historical Results. This will allow you to find your section in older editions of the Code of Federal Regulations. You can also consult older volumes in HeinOnline. 
    
3. Locate relevant regulation(s) in the Federal Register. Typically, the final rule (which will be the citation given in C.F.R.) will include some explanation of the agency's rationale as well as a summary of the rulemaking process -- how and when the rule was introduced, how and when comments were received, and the agency's response to comments. The final rule will also cite to the proposed rule (and any other important notices such as extensions of the comment period). 
    
4. Locate the proposed rule(s) in the Federal Register. The proposed rule will generally have background on the formulation of the rule and instructions indicating where you may read the public comments received. 
    
5. If available, locate comments received on the initial rule. These will often, but not always, be found on Regulations.gov. 

Agencies & Enforcement

Each Federal agency will usually have its own rulemaking processes and means of enforcement for their rules. It's very important to understand the workings of a particular agency, in order to understand their regulatory processes. 

Although they 'share' the Code of Federal Regulations, agencies all behave differently, especially in their internal actions! 

An agency's website is usually the best place to begin learning about their rulemaking procedures, and may include information such as...

• 'Slip' versions of regulations; 
• Information pertaining to internal and/or external enforcement, including briefs and other documents from legal proceedings (some agencies have internal databases!); 
• Guidance on compliance; 
• [For some agencies] comments on proposed rules; 
• A variety of other types of documents produced by the agency and relevant to their own processes; 

Ultimately, most important for the purposes of regulatory research are enforcement and compliance. 

Enforcement: 

Agencies can enforce their regulations in one of two ways: 

• Internally, i.e., through penalties. In this case, the agency and the offender will discuss the violation(s) and agree to settle. Documents might refer to stipulations or consent. Generally, the agency must be explicitly authorized to enforce regulations internally. 
   
• Externally, i.e., through judiciary/complaints. In this case, the Agency will turn to judicial processes. 

The best way to learn about a particular agency's means of enforcement is to look for documents pertaining to enforcement on their website. You can also look in the Code of Federal Regulations for any mention of practices, procedure, adjudication, etc. in relation to the particular agency or regulation. 

Enforcement actions will usually include information on the legal authority for the regulation/enforcement, e.g., in the form of citations to the C.F.R. or the U.S.C.  These authorities may also address relevant penalties. 

You can also find some actions / decisions issued by agencies in HeinOnline: 

Presidential Documents

As the head of the Executive Branch, the President can also issue documents which have the force of law. The American Bar Association has published a useful explanation of the different types of Presidential documents and their formats.

Important Presidential documents may include: 

• Executive Orders. Written and signed directives pertaining to the operation of the government -- for example, instructions on implementing a specific piece of legislation. Executive orders are numbered, and published in the Federal Register. 
  
  
• Proclamations. Also written and signed directives, but they tend to be more ceremonial in nature e.g. pertaining to holidays or other commemorations. Presidential proclamations are also numbered and published in the Federal Register. 
   
• Administrative orders. Written and signed documents pertaining to administrative functions of the government. These are not numbered, but certain orders are still published in the Federal Register. 
   
• Other documents, which are not published in the Federal Register but can typically be obtained from GovInfo.gov among other sources. 

'Slip' versions of Presidential documents are generally published on Whitehouse.gov (or, if from a past administration, the archived version of that administration's website; see for example Barack Obama's Executive Orders). 

Official versions of Presidential documents are published chronologically in the Federal Register, just as for other other regulations. 

Code versions of Presidential documents are published in Title III of the Code of Federal Regulations.