Law - Statute Citations  

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Wayne Law offers a Juris Doctor (JD) program leading to the basic degree necessary to practice law; a Master of Laws (LLM) program, designed for practicing lawyers, which leads to an advanced degree in one of three specialized areas; and concurrent-degree programs combining a JD degree with a master’s degree in one of five other subject areas.

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Wayne State University Law School
471 West Palmer Street
Detroit, Michigan  48202
Tel: (313) 577-3933
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What is a Citation?

A legal citation is a reference to a legal authority where particular information, such as a case or statute, can be located.  Legal citations are often confusing to the uninitiated because they differ from references used in other types of research.  
 

A statute is "legislation enacted by any lawmaking body, including legislatures, administrative boards, and municipal courts." (Black's Law Dictionary, Eighth Edition, 2004). Statutes are often referred to as codes or acts.

Statute citations are generally comprised of two or three parts.

Three Part Statute Citations
The three part statute citations are made up of a TITLE number, an ABBREVIATION for the name of the code in which the statutes appear, and a SECTION number. Three part statute citations are interpreted in the following way:

Two Part Statute Citations
Some statute citations use only two parts: an ABBREVIATION for the name of the code in which the statute appears and a SECTION number. These two part statute citations are interpreted in the following way:

Some statutes appear in several different codes. The United States Code (U.S.C.) is the official, U.S. Government published code of federal legislation. U.S.C citations are also reproduced in two privately published codes: United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) and United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.). You only need to look at one of the three available versions of the federal code because each reports the same federal legislation.

Michigan's official statutory code is called Michigan Compiled Laws (M.C.L.), but legal researchers generally use the privately published versions of Michigan legislation: Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated (M.C.L.A.) or Michigan Compiled Laws Service (M.C.L.S.).

Unofficial, privately published versions of federal and state statutes are generally preferred by legal researchers because they are published much more quickly than their official counterparts, and, often include more research cross references than the official publications.

Finding Code Locations
The most frequently requested statutory codes are listed in alphabetical order by abbreviation in the table below.  If you have a citation to code, compare the abbreviation in it to the Statutory Code Table to find the WSU Law Library shelf location:

Statutory Code Location Table

The other States' statutory codifications are located in each state's particular collection on the First Level of the Law Library, Northern range.

Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations
Dictionary of legal abbreviations
Law Library Reserves, KF 246 .B46 2001

Basic Legal Research : Tools and Strategies
Legal Research Textbook
Law Library Reserves, KF 240 .S585 2006

Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citations
Citation manual
Law Library Reserves, KF 245 .U5 18th 2005