Statutes are legislation as passed by a governing body. At the California state level, this is the California State Legislature, which is comprised of two houses, the Assembly and Senate. Legislators introduce bills, which may be edited and amended by committees before they are passed. Bills passed by both houses of the Lesislature are then signed into law (or vetoed and do not become law) by the Governor. Statutes are “the law” as it is written.
If you have a citation to a law, you can type it directly into the search box in Westlaw. You can also use Nexis Uni, though you may have to also narrow your search with limits.
CalFresh for College Students Act (2022) example:
Because these standards are mainly for lawyers who are citing a particular point of law, for statutes and regulations, the best practice is to cite the codified (code) version of the law (e.g., the Cal. --- Code § xxx, etc.) unless the law is too new to have been codified, distributed across so many codes, no longer valid, being discussed in the context of its passage, or is otherwise impractical to cite this way. For policy research, you are often citing bills or regulations that have been introduced but not passed/finalized/enacted/enrolled, or else you are citing the final version of the legislation or regulation but not the code.
A bill is a legislative proposal that if passed by both the Assembly and the Senate and approved by the Governor becomes law. Each bill is assigned a bill number. A denotes bills that originate in the Assembly and S denotes bills that originate in the Senate. Note: older bills (1867 - 1994) are available at the San Diego County Public Law Library.
Called "chapters" in California, statutes are the session laws as they were written at the time of passage. (A bill is "chaptered" by the Secretary of State after it has passed through both houses of the Legislature and has been signed by the Governor or becomes law without the Governor's signature.) The Statutes of California is in chronological order as enacted, with no subject arrangement or indication whether a subsequent statute has amended or repealed a prior one.
The Code is the body of law still in force, arranged by subject (eg Health and Safety Code). California Law consists of 29 codes, covering various subject areas, the State Constitution and Statutes. Note: UCSD does not retain previous editions of the California Code
Final History
Includes detailed bill history information. Organized by bill number.
Also includes voice vote information. Earlier years (1893-1972) include
subject index.
Legislative Index
Detailed subject index to all bills. Does not include a list of bills
or bill history. For earlier years, see the Final History (1893-1972),
above.
Digest of Legislation
Detailed listing of all bills with basic subject indexing. Includes
summary of bill and later years include outcome (e.g. Vetoed by
Governor).
Summary Digest
Brief description of bills that became law with basic subject index.
Hearings / Reports
Note that most hearings and reports are not published or distributed. Those that are can be found in these indexes. Check UC Library Search to see if the Library owns a particular publication listed in these indexes.
California's Legislature - An introduction to the Legislature written for the general reader.
How a Bill becomes a law - Graphic illustration of the legislative process in California. Also see this text version of an overview of the legislative process.
A Guide for Accessing California Legislative Information on the Internet - This Public Access guide is designed to assist the general public in obtaining legislative information from the Public Access computer over the Internet.
California Legislative History Research Guide (UC Law, San Francisco) - "Details the seven steps involved in researching the legislative history of a California statute. It also lists additional sources to check for legislative history materials."
