Shift #62 - Editing & Orientation to Legal Research
Thursday, August 8, 2024 | 12-4 pm CST/1-5 pm EST (4 hrs)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of a live webinar with the Library of Congress. Although my blog posts don't have anything to do with federal regulations, I think it's good to know some basics about how the public can access the regulations that we citizens have to live by!
This presentation today was our last live webinar with the Law Library of Congress. Not too anticlimactic and still pretty interesting to learn about legal research, specifically figuring out federal regulations. I learned quite a bit today, like how rules and regulations are created by a federal body. Regulations affect our daily lives; for example, regulations from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) like the requirement of gluten-free labels and what gluten-free means or regulations from the DOT (Department of Transportation) dealing with portable electronic devices on an airplane. Regulations, whether people like them or not, help to run our lives in an ordered manner. Administrative bodies (agencies) in the regulatory process have subject matter expertise and provide the detailed rules and guidance that are needed in order to clarify and properly execute statutes. Agencies are bound by the Administrative Procedure Act, with its main purposes include requiring increased openness about agency organization, procedures and rules; allowing for increased public participation in the rulemaking process; and ensuring that agency procedures follow uniform standards.
In addition, the publication of regulations are made by administrative bodies. Publication is a critical part of the Notice & Comment Rulemaking process (I'm very thankful for this transparency!). Documents produced during the regulatory process can be found in two official publications: the Federal Register (FR or Fed. Reg.) and the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). In order to trace regulations (especially if you're doing it for research), you need a research strategy. Then you will need to locate the regulation in the CFR, find the statutory authority (located in the authority notes), find the regulatory history (in the source notes), find the final rule (or rules) in the FR, and use identifying numbers to find more related documents. Anyone can use the CFR for free and there is a capability to do advanced search. The structure of regulations is complicated but thankfully there are many librarians in the Library of Congress who can help answer questions as one looks for federal regulations.
Comments
Post a Comment