United States Code

The United States Code (USC, officially known as the Code of Laws of the United States of America ) is the collection and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States.

Structure

The code is divided into 50 titles, each dealing with a wide field. Title can be divided into subtitles, part, sub- parts, chapters and sub-chapters in turn. All items paragraphs as the basic unit, this can however be divided into sub- paragraphs, paragraphs and sentences. Not all titles use the same structure above the paragraph level. So ( the control laws) used the 26 titles the scheme " title - subtitle - Chapter - Subchapter - Part - lower part - Paragraph - Under Paragraph - section - subsection - Set - Coaster". In the 38th title ( veterans' benefits ), however, the scheme " title -part chapter subchapter paragraph" used. In other words, the title is always the coarsest division within the code and the paragraph (except the sub- paragraphs, sections, sentences ) is the smallest in the middle levels of the structure but differs from title to title.

Each title is about one printed volume, although some titles also span several volumes. Equally no particular length is connected with the other units. A paragraph may extend over several pages or consist of only one short sentence. Some elements of certain items are also known for their systematic names. For example, " Chapter 11" ( Chapter 11 ) has been in the American concept of naturalized for a type of insolvency.

An example of a reference in the code is 5 USC § 552a, the Privacy Act of 1974. A lawyer would read this as " Title Five, United States, paragraph five hundred fifty-two A".

If paragraphs are hereby repealed, and their content is removed from the code and the location provided with a footnote that summarizes what was once there. Accordingly, there are areas in the code that consist only of empty chapters with footnotes. Has the 7th chapter in Title 8, the term " exclusion of Chinese people " and contains references to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which is no longer in force but.

Kodifikationsprozedur

The official text of a federal statute is the text of the printed final bill, as it will be submitted for signature and rejection of the president. After the law is final, it is transmitted to the Archivist of the United States and the print service of the Government (United States Government Printing Office ) published in loose form. The Archivist collects each year from adoption of laws and publish it in context in the United States Statutes at Large (about " laws on the whole "); a remotely similar function in Germany fulfill the references of the evidence of the course of the past year of the Federal Law Journal.

The Statutes at Large, however, are not sufficiently usable for legal research, as they are organized in strict chronological order. This law may be scattered within a topic area over several volumes. Since new laws often change or repeal old laws, it is then also necessary, between the volumes back and herzuverweisen to understand what provisions are currently in force.

The United States Code is an attempt to facilitate the retrieval of relevant and valid laws by grouped by subject and obsolete provisions be removed. The code is constantly being updated by the Office of the Law Revision Council ( LRC), an arm of the House of Representatives. The LRC determines which laws are codified and which old laws need are removed or modified accordingly.

However, only laws of a general and persistent nature to be codified. So the code contains no laws that apply only to a few people or only for a short time have meaning, such as all domestic laws that apply only to a financial year. If these limited statutory provisions, however, are of greater importance, they are inserted as footnotes in the relevant sections of the code. Normally, the individual sections of the law are taken literally in the code, but sometimes also editorielle subject to change ( as the term " the day of the enactment of this Act " is replaced by the actual date this day ).

Due to the Kodifikiationssystematik it may be that a single bill in the code is contiguous or is but broken. If Congress passed a great law package, the design often contains provisions that touches on many different subject areas. These provisions fall then according to different sections of the code. A law that simple farmers attributing financial assistance could, 7 (Agriculture), 26 ( taxes) and 43 ( Public Land) affect title. With this a find in the draft law related passages in the code on the different volumes redistributed.

Under U.S. federal law is the code of evidence to prima facie of the currently valid law. However, the Statutes at Large have the ultimate authority. When a conflict occurs, in which the courts must decide on the actual wording of the law, they will always have access to the text of the law as it was passed by Congress.

The LRC updated and revised the code continuously and sometimes puts the newly codified version before Congress for a new resolution. The advantage here is that after such a decision this part of the code replaces all previous laws on the subject.

Expenditure and History

The first attempts to codify the federal laws were taken over by private publishers. The result was often a great help in the search. Since these publications but officially were not, they could be used is limited. The Congress took the first official codification of all existing laws on December 1, 1873. The result was the Revised Statutes, which were adopted by Congress on June 22, 1874. A revised version was adopted five years later by Congress. While the Revised Statutes at the time of publication were current, the following laws were not later included. Thus, the codification was far away in a short time by the legal reality, so that the search in the Statutues at Large had to be done. In the 1920s, some members of Congress took the Kodifikationsgedanken on again, which in 1926 led to the emergence of the United States Code.

The official version of the code is published by the LRC as a series of printed volumes. The first edition could fit into a single volume. Today, the code for several long volumes distributed. Although the official version only every six years is completely reprinted, updated the LRC using the code appendices and footnotes as soon as a new law is promulgated. Both the LRC and the GPO offer electronic versions of the code. Although this lags behind the legislative process around 18 months, but is always the current official version.

Lawyers in the United States often use privately issued editions with lush comments instead of the officially distributed version. These versions include statements after each paragraph, summarize as appropriate court cases and important trade item. Some of these models also contain laws that are not codified by LCR. These issues are constantly renewed and are the legal reality usually dar. faster than the official versions

Other relevant codifications

The code usually contains only laws that were adopted by Congress in the ordinary legislative procedure ( although the footnotes sometimes also contain excerpts from an executive order or other documents of the President ). The code contains no private laws ( laws that are enacted by Congress for individual persons) and no management regulations adopted by the federal authorities as well. These are in chronological order published in the Federal Register and once summarized in the Code of Federal Regulations ( German code about the federal guidelines ). This code also provides a significant source of federal law dar.

Interesting sections

The 26th title contains the tax laws, describing the work of the American Internal Revenue Service ( tax office at the federal level ). This title is one of the largest sections of the code, since it sets out the guidelines for several major federal benefits such as Social Security and Medicare.

The 18th title deals with offenses that are prosecuted under federal law.

Another fairly well known in the 10th section title is known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice and lays the legal system established within the military.

Some of the different types of bankruptcy are contained in Title 11. These are usually named only by number ( "Chapter 7 " " chapter 11 ", "Chapter 13").

A now famous paragraph (42 USC § 1983) is often used to sue fundamental rights. It provides the basis for a multitude of actions for compliance with civil rights in federal court ( federal courts ) dar. He is the codification of the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Many different kinds of court cases have relied on these paragraphs, including cases of excessive police violence complaints because of the First Amendment against schools to maintain the separation of church and state. The actual article text is relatively short, however, may footnotes and comments run over several volumes in some exceptions because of the extensive number of significant cases.

Title in code

Title adopted again by congress as positive law, are highlighted in blue.

Seat of government, and the states

* Includes an appendix of rules that have not yet been incorporated into positive law.