Guide To Legal Citations

Federal Citations

Throughout this document, there are references to legal citations. Some are to federal laws (statutes) which are enacted by the United States government. These appear in the following form:

• 20 U.S.C. § 1232g (West 2001)

This means that this provision of law can be found in Title 20 of the United States Code at section 1232g. The name and date in parentheses tell the name of the publisher who printed the volume statutes and the date that it was printed. Since laws can be amended or repealed, the date identifies the language that was referred to when the material was written.

Another citation is to federal regulations. Regulations developed by a federal agency to implement federal laws passed. These appear in the following form:

• 34 C.F.R. § 99.31 (2001)

This means that this regulation can be found in Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 99, section 31. The date that appears in parentheses refers to the date of the volume of the Code of Federal Regulations. Since the wording of regulations can change from year to year, the date identifies the language that was referred to when the material was written.

Virginia Citations

Citations to laws passed in Virginia look like this:

• Va. Code Ann § 16.1-302 (Michie 1999)
• Va. Code Ann § 16.1- 300 (Michie Cum. Supp. 2001)

The first citation identifies that this provision of Virginia law can be found in section (§) 16.1-302 of the Virginia Annotated Code, which was published by Michie Law Publishers in a volume dated 1999.

The second citation identifies this as a provision that can be found in § 16.1-300 of the Virginia Annotated Code published by Michie Law Publishers, and is located in the 2001 Cumulative Supplement to the volume. This cumulative supplement is sometimes referred to as a pocket part.