Legislation (a bill or joint resolution) which has passed both chambers of Congress in identical form, been signed into law by the President, or passed over his veto, thus becoming law. Technically, this term also refers to a bill that has been passed by one house and engrossed (prepared as an official copy).

The principal vehicle employed by lawmakers for introducing their proposals in the Senate.

The law as established in previous court decisions. A synonym for legal precedent.

Akin to common law, which springs from tradition and judicial decisions.

California Code of Regulations: The CCR contains the text of the regulations that have been formally adopted by state regulatory agency to implement, interpret, or make specific a law or to goven procedure. CCRs are reviewed and approved by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL), and filed with the Secretary of State.

Code of Federal Regulations: The CFR is the codification of the general and permanent rules and regulations published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government. It is published by the Office of the Federal Register, an agency of the National Archives and Records Administration.

A division of each title of the Code of Federal Regulations that deals with regulations for a specific agency.

Also, the statutory and administrative codes of some states are divided into chapters rather than titles.

Compilations of law organized by subject matter. The code sections to be added, amended, or repealed by a bill are identified in the title of the bill.

Laws or regulations that are codified are general and permanent laws or regulations that are arranged in subject-matter order by title or other major subdivision and section.

A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.

A rule or order issued by a federal or state executive-branch department or administrative agency, generally under authority granted by statute, that enforces or amplifies laws enacted by the legislature and has the force of law.

A law that has been enacted (passed by Congress or a state legislature and either signed by the chief executive [president or governor] or passed over the chief executive's veto).

Note: California Statutes are Chaptered Bills

The United States Statutes at Large, prepared by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration, provide a permanent collection of the laws of each session of Congress in bound volumes. A legislative history appears at the end of each law. There are also extensive marginal notes referring to laws in earlier volumes and to earlier and later matters in the same volume.

The Statutes at Large are a chronological arrangement of the laws exactly as they have been enacted. The laws are not arranged according to subject matter and do not reflect the present status of an earlier law that has been amended. The laws are organized in that manner in the code of laws.

A division of a code or other compilation of laws or regulations by subject matter.

Also, individual statutes may be divided by subject matter into titles. Usually, a title is the largest major division of a code or other compilation or of a bill or session law.

For instance, in the citation of a law from the United States Code, the title number precedes "U.S.C." and the section number follows it (e.g., 42 U.S.C. 1983).

(USC) The United States Code contains a consolidation and codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States arranged according to subject matter under 50 title headings, largely in alphabetical order. It sets out the current status of the laws, as amended, without repeating all the language of the amendatory acts except where necessary. The Code is declared to be prima facie evidence of those laws. Its purpose is to present the laws in a concise and usable form without requiring recourse to the many volumes of the Statutes at Large containing the individual amendments.