Legal Research

Kentucky's Official Statutory Laws can be found in Baldwin's Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) 

The Law Library has current volumes of Baldwin's Kentucky Revised.

The federal government Official Statutory Laws can be found in either the United States Code (U.S.C.) or the United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.)

The Law Library has the current volumes of the United States Code Annotated.  The United States Code is not current.

What is statutory law? 

Law derived from statutes rather than from constitutions or judicial decisions.  Laws created by state legislatures or Congress.

• Statutory laws follow the usual process of legislation.
• A bill is proposed in the legislature and voted upon. If approved, it passes to the executive branch (either a governor at the state level or the president at the federal level).
• If the executive signs the bill it passes into law as a statute.
• If the executive fails or refuses to sign the bill, it can be vetoed and sent back to the legislature. In most instances, if the legislature again passes the bill by a set margin it becomes a statute.
• Statutes are also recorded, or codified, in writing and published. Statutory law usually becomes effective on a set date written into the bill. Statutes can be overturned by a later legislative enactment or if found unconstitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction.