LibGuides: Administrative Law: Federal Regulations

Federal Regulations

Administrative Law Rulemaking Flowchart

Federal Register Sources

Subscription Databases

Search Bloomberg Law's Federal Register by clicking the link above and navigating to the highlighted section.

HeinOnline - Federal Register Library (1936 - current)
Contains scanned image of print version.
Congressional (Proquest) - Federal Register (1980 - current)

Internet Sources

GPO's GovInfo website - Federal Register (1994 - current)
Considered an official version.
Regulations.gov - Federal Register (current)
Allows public to submit comments on proposed federal regulations. Search for proposed regulations by agency, topic, or keyword.
FederalRegister.gov - Federal Register (current)
Public site from the U.S. government designed to make it easier to access and read Federal Register documents. Not considered an official source.

Code of Federal Regulations

Sources

Westlaw Edge - CFR (1984 - current)
Lexis+ - CFR (1981 - current)
Bloomberg Law - CFR (current)
HeinOnline - CFR (1938 - 2015)
Congressional (Proquest) - CFR (1981 - current)
Click Regulations on top navigation tab.
GPO's GovInfo website - CFR (1996 - current)
Considered an official version.
Cornell's Legal Information Institute - CFR (current)
Find your section, and click the "Updates" tab to see if the section is current. The "Rulemaking" tab shows all rules, notices, proposed rules, published in the Federal Register since your section was last updated.

Finding Aids

To find regulations currently in force for your topic, start your research in the Code of Federal Regulations. Use the official index published with the current year's CFR, or West's detailed index to identify where regulations on your topic are located.

Official CFR Index and Finding Aids - HeinOnline
West Index to the CFR
This link takes you to the CFR on Westlaw Edge. Select "CFR Index" under Tools & Resources on the right.
e-CFR
Internet source from the GPO. It's unofficial, but remains the most current version of the CFR. New amendments are incorporated within 1-2 days.

Updating

Bloomberg Law, LexisNexis and Westlaw Edge CFR databases incorporate changes within seven days. To update regulations, search each vendor's Federal Register database for revisions issued since that date. Westlaw Edge links to pending changes in the Federal Register using KeyCite.

The fastest and most cost-effective way to update regulations is to use GPO's GovInfo website. GovInfo has the same quarterly publication schedule for the printed CFR volumes, and is considered an official source. To update your regulation, note the date when the current CFR volume containing your section was revised/published. Then consult the next two items in this box to complete your updating.

List of Sections Affected (LSA) in GovInfo
Use the LSA to look for changes impacting your regulation since the CFR volume containing the section was last revised. Typically, you will only need to consult the most recent edition of the LSA.
CFR Parts Affected from the Federal Register in GovInfo
Since the LSA is a monthly publication, its coverage often stops at the end of the previous month. To check for more recent changes, use the "CFR Parts Affected from the Federal Register" updating tool and enter a date range to ensure your research is current through today's date.
United States Code Service - Lexis+
If you have a reference to a statutory code section for your topic, locate the full text of the section in an annotated code and see if references to relevant regulations are provided in the editorial enhancements following the statutory text. USCS contains more extensive regulatory annotations than the USCA.

Citators

Use a citator service to discover if there are any decisions or secondary sources discussing a CFR section. Try more than one citator as you may get different results.