Legal Resources for Non-Law Students: State/Local Laws/Regs

The Texas Legislature meets biennially. During a legislative session, bills are introduced and some become laws. As the laws are enacted, they are published in slip form. Eventually, all the laws for a session are published in volumes entitled General and Special Laws of the State of Texas. 

Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated is a subject listing of laws (somewhat analagous to the U.S. Code for federal laws). Laws used to be codified in volumes entitled Texas Revised Civil Statutes, but there is an ongoing project to transfer all of the laws into the Vernon's subject listing.

The Blume Library does not have printed sources for either Texas bills or laws, but the Law Library does. If you need to do detailed research into Texas law, consultation with a Law Librarian is recommended, especially since the state of organization of Texas statutes is in flux.

However, there are some online sources of legislative information:

Guides to the Texas Legislative Process:

The Texas Administrative Code (TAC)  is the state equivalent to the Code of Federal Regulations. It contains the codification of rules made by Texas state agencies to enforce the laws passed by the Legislature.

The TAC is divided into 16 subject areas, or titles.

Before rules go into force, they are published in the weekly Texas Register. The Register also includes news of gubernatorial appointments, Attorney General opinions, and other matters related to agency rule-making.