Law & Legislative Research

Annapolis - Sunset over State House, Creative Commons
License, Wikimedia Commons

Statutory laws are those passed by the federal or state Congress (or other legislative body) and signed by the President or Governor.  These resources pertain to all steps of the legislative process, allowing one to track a bill during all steps of its process through the legislature in question.

The two major categories of administrative law are:

1. Laws made by the legislature giving power to agencies and/or establishing rules and procedures these agencies must follow.
2. The regulations passed by agencies.  Often, regulations must be made to execute statutory law.

My Trusty Gavel, Creative Commons, Wikimedia.

Case law is comprised of decisions made by federal or state judges, or by the Supreme Court.

Finding Court Decisions

The Lexis-Nexis Academic database, then the "Legal" tab leads to searches for state, Federal, and Supreme Court decisions; links to Shepard's Citations for further information. (Researchers who are not FSU students, faculty, or staff will need to access this database from a library computer.)

State Case Law—Maryland

Court of Special Appeals
Court of Appeals
Circuit Courts