Rules, Regulations & Agencies in General
Federal Regulations
State Regulations
Rules, Regulations & Agencies in General
In addition to statutes and case law, rules and regulations are also a primary source of law. Rules and regulations are promulgated by administrative agencies and have the force of law. In order to understand the function of rules and regulations and their relationship to the other two sources of primary law, it is helpful to have an idea of how administrative agencies work.
As mentioned in the Overview of Legal Research each of the three branches of government is able to create law. The Legislature does this through enacting statutes, the Judiciary hears cases and issues opinions which form the common law and the Executive branch (the president of the United States or the governor of an individual state) creates law through Administrative Agencies which promulgate rules and regulations.
Agency Expertise
Administrative Agencies are created to provide institutional expertise on which the Congress or state legislatures can rely to give effect to their legislative goals. For example, Congress may want to create laws that insure workplace safety in cement plants, but doesn't have the expertise to know what levels of dust particulate matter in the air is considered safe. OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) would then be charged with promulgating a regulation that sets out a level of particulate matter that is acceptable.
Administrative Procedure
Administrative Agencies are not free to create rules and regulations at will. They first must get the authority to create regulations from the legislature. The legislature will pass a very general act called an Enabling Act which delegates authority to an agency to create a rule or regulation. The agency must then publish a proposed regulation on which the public is has a chance to comment.. This is often referred to as the Notice and Comment period. The agency takes into account those comments and then promulgates a final rule which has the force of law.
Other Agency Functions
Administrative Agencies perform other functions in addition to creating rules and regulations. They are often in charge of enforcing their regulations. For example, if a cement plant is not conforming its operation to comply with the minimum standards for particulate matter in the air, an OSHA compliance officer might vist the plant and write up a citation. Some Agencies have a judical component as well. A person with a workman's compensation claim stemming from an OSHA violation in the cement plant may present his case before an Administrative Law Judge.
Return to the top
Federal Regulations
The Federal Register
On the Federal level rules and regulations are first published in the Federal Register. The Federal Register is a daily log of administrative agency actions. It contains proposed rules and regulations, some of the notice and comment information and final rules along with other miscellaneous agency documents. The Federal Register also includes Executive Orders and various Presidential documents as well.
Deciphering a Federal Register Citation
A citation to the Federal Register refers first to the volume of the particular issue which contains the citation and then to the page on which the rule or regulation falls. The citation for the proposed rule for aluminum levels in bottled water mentioned above is 60 FR 57132.
Using the Federal Register in Print
It is helpful to think of the Federal Register as the diary of the daily happenings within Administrative Agencies. It is organized chronologically (dating back to its inception in 1936) and has a very broad subject index that is published each month. There is also a cumulative index that is published at the end of each year. It should be noted that the subject index is very broad and can often be difficult to use. Doing a bit of preliminary research to find an exact citation to the Federal Register is often a much more efficient way to research a rule or regulation than trying to fumble with the index.
To see an example of a proposed regulation in the Federal Register click here. [As you can see the proposed rule concerns levels of aluminum in bottled mineral water. It was published in the November 13, 1995 volume of the Federal Register and asked for comments]
Where to Find the Federal Register at the Quinney Law Library
The Quinney Law Library has the Federal Register in Print going back to 1936. The Federal Register is bound in bright orange volumes and is located in the compact shelving in the forward left hand side of the library. The outside of the shelving unit is clearly marked.
There is also a limited selection of Federal Register volumes on microform. Volumes 1-46 are on microfilm and volumes 47-56 are on microfiche. These are located in the compact shelving directly next to the law student computing lab in the Reference Room.
To see a map of the Quinney Library click here. (Look the far left of the tree in the middle of the diagram).
Using the Federal Register On-line
The Federal Register is also available (but only as far back as 1994) on-line at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html It can be a daunting task to find a specific Federal Register citation on this database because is utilizes keyword searching. Here are a couple of tips to make your searching more efficient. As with all legal research, the better armed you are with preliminary imformation, you'll find you get more relevant results more quickly.
1) Use the field restrictions to narrow down the types of documents you will search. You can choose to limit your search to Final Rules, Proposed Rules, Comments or Presidential Documents.
2) Use the date restictions to narrow down the Volumes in which you want to search and the date ranges to pinpoint the search within a particular volume.
3) Use the table of contents feature. (This only goes as far back as 1998). If you know that you want to find worker safety in cement plant regulations. Go to the table of contents, look for Deptartment of Labor as the main heading, look for OSHA as a subheading and then look for a narrow topic dealing with cement plants. Beware: This can be time consuming if you don't have at least some rough dates to start with.
Click here to see helpful hints for searching the Federal Register on-line database
The Code of Federal Regulations
As you may have gathered from the discussion above, using the Federal Register to find rules and regulations can be a confusing and time consuming process. In order to make administrative rules and regulations more accessible and less daunting, Congress created the Code of Federal Regulations or as it is more commonly referred to, the CFR. The CFR republishes, on a yearly basis, the rules and regulations (including executive orders) that are in force.
There are two main features that make the CFR much easier to use than the Federal Register. The first difference is that the CFR contains only the final rules, so you don't have to sort through all of the proposed rules and comments. The second difference is that the CFR does not group the regulations in chronological order, but rather groups them into fifty titles each corresponding with a particlular topic. The Titles are further broken down into Chapters under which each Administrative Agency's rules and regulations are grouped.
To see an example of where the Labor Department's OSHA regulations will fall in the CFR click here
To read more about the CFR in general click here
Deciphering a CFR citation
A citation to the Code of Federal Regulations refers first to the Title under which the regulation is categorized, further broken down to the part and finally pinpointed to a section. The regulation dealing with the amount of aluminum allowed in bottled mineral water which we looked at in the Federal Register section above becomes 21 CFR § 165.110 when it is published in the Code of Federal Regulations. Title 21 deals with the topic of Food and Drugs, Part 165 covers Beverages and Section 110 deals with Bottled Water.
Using the CFR in Print
Using the print edition of the Code of Federal Regulations is generally the fastest way to find a regulation if you do not already know the citation. The CFR in print has a fairly comprehensive index that is organized by subject matter. You'll want to start with broad search terms and then narrow them down.
Where to find the CFR at the Quinney Law Library
The Code of Federal Regulations is located in the same alcove as the United States Code. The CFR is a paper back set and the color of the spine changes every year. For example the 2001 version was purple and the 2002 version is green. This color coding is a convenient way to be sure you are looking at the current CFR.
Older versions of the CFR are in the compact shelving next to the Federal Register. You'll be able to distinguish the different years by the colors of the spines.
To see a map of the Quinney Library click here. (Look the far left of the tree in the middle of the diagram).
Using the CFR On-Line
The Code of Federal Regulations is available on-line through the Government Printing Office at http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/. You can search the current version or choose older versions going back to 1996. There are three options for performing searches in the Code of Federal Regulations database.
1) If you already have a citation to the rule or regulation you are interested in looking at, you can just type in the Title, Part and Section. Click here to see the citation search template
2) If you don't know the citation there is an option to use keyword searching. Beware, this can be a frustrating process unless you already have a fairly good idea of what you are looking for. A very general keyword search will often bring up many irrelevant hits and can miss your targeted regulation. Click here to see the keyword search template
3) A better option to keyword searching the entire Code of Federal Regulations is to browse the Title of the area of law you are interested in researching. That way you'll be more likely not to miss the regulation you are looking for. Click here to see the browse option
Return to the top
State Regulations
On the State level rules and regulations function much as they do on the Federal level. Administrative Agencies are under the authority of the Executive Branch (Governor's Office) and must have the authority to create rules and regulations delegated to them by the State legislatures.
Publication of State Rules and Regulations
Most states have a publication similar to the Code of Federal Regulations that displays the current rules and regulations in force. These publications are usually called Administrative Codes or Administrative Rules and in the print versions are accessed through a subject index.
Deciphering Administrative Citations
If, for example, you are looking for the administrative rules concerning the monitoring of fluoride in the water in Utah you could go to the Utah Administrative Code (or UAC for short) and look in the index under Water. It would refer you to R309-220-11. The R stands for Rule. The 390 refers to the Title which, in this case, is Environmental Quality. The 220 refers to the Chapter which in this case is Monitoring and Water Quality: Public Notification Requirements. The 11 refers you to the specific Section dealing with Fluoride.
Click here to see R309-220-11 from the on-line version Utah Administrative Code.
On-line versions of State Administrative Codes
Utah's Administrative Code is available on the Utah State Government website. There is no index or keyword searching available, you must browse the table of contents to find the general area under which your rule or regulation would fall and work from there.
To access Utah's Administrative Code http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code.htm click here.
More and more states are making their administrative codes available on-line. Click here to see the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's links to State Administrative Codes on their PrarieNet Website.
Updating State Administrative Codes
When using a print edition of a State Administrative Code, the first place you would look to update a rule or regulation is in the Print Supplement immediately following the volume you are using. If you are looking at an on-line version of the code, make sure you note the date the page was last updated.
After you've looked at the supplement, the next place you would look is the State's Register or Bulletin (also sometimes refered to as Journals). Think of this as the state equivalent to the Federal Register. This is where you would look to see if a State administrative rule or regulation has changed since the publication of the print code (and supplement) or if a new rule or regulation has been promulgated since the publication of the most recent Administrative Code or to see any proposed rules or regulations.
On-line versions of State Administrative Bulletins
Click here http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/bulletin.htm to see Utah's Administrative Bulletin.
The PrairieNet website also links to State Registers & Bulletins
Return to the top |
