Statutes are laws enacted by legislative bodies - either
the legislature of one of the fifty states or the U.S.
Congress.
Checking to see whether controlling statutory law exists
is an important step in any research project. There are
several important points to remember in statutory research:
- Statutory language is frequently the product of political
negotiation and compromise, and may for that reason
be broad and/or ambiguous. This is why courts are frequently
confronted by disputes which turn upon questions of
statutory interpretation. It is always important for
the researcher to search for cases that have applied
and interpreted statutory language.
- Statute sections are rarely meant to be understood
in isolation from one another. Major pieces of legislation
are often divided into sections when they are drafted,
passed, and integrated into a statutory code. Thus,
in order to fully understand a statute section's application,
it must be read in conjunction with the rest of the
statute as passed.
- Code terms often carry meanings that are specific
to the piece of legislation. Never assume that a term
used in a statute section has its obvious or colloquial
meaning. The term may be defined within the section
in which it appears, or in a separate "definitions"
section enacted along with it. Always read through the
entire section, and examine the chapter or part of the
code in which it appears, in order to determine whether
a term has a special meaning for the purpose of the
statute.
- In state statutory research, the concepts of mandatory
and persuasive authority vary from their meanings in
the case research context. Obviously, statutes passed
by a state’s legislature are mandatory authority
in that state. The courts of that state may interpret
and apply the statutes, but in doing so, they must give
effect to the purpose of the legislative body in enacting
the statute. In a given state, statutes from other states
are not persuasive authority in the same sense that
cases may be. A nationwide trend toward enacting a certain
type of legislation may influence a state legislature
to follow suit. However, until that happens, a state
court will not consider statutes from other states as
any type of authority. Additionally, when using out-of-state
cases as persuasive authority, be certain that their
holdings are not dependent upon interpretations of statutory
language which is absent from, or which varies from,
the statutes of the controlling state.
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