The Massachusetts General Laws is a
codification of many of the statutes of the
. The Commonwealth's laws are promulgated by an elected
bicameral
Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
("two-chamber")
legislative body
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...
, the
Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...
. The resulting laws—both Session Laws and General Laws—together make up the statutory law of the Commonwealth.
Each bill that becomes law is given a chapter number, assigned sequentially in the chronological order of its adoption – these are the ''Session Laws''. The official publication of Session Laws for any given year is called the ''Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts'', and is compiled and published annually by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The vast majority of Session Laws are ''Acts''. A ''Resolve'' is most typically used to establish a special commission to investigate a certain issue.
''General Laws'' are Session Laws (or sections of Session Laws) that are permanent in nature and of general application. They are codified according to subject matter into a multi-volume publication entitled the ''General Laws of Massachusetts''. The General Court amends the General Laws by enacting Session Laws which may effect modifications and additions to the General Laws.
Not all Session Laws, which apply equally to codified law, are entered into the General Laws. Session Laws that are not codified into the General Laws are called ''Special Acts'', and might include matters affecting an individual or a particular city or town.
In legal citations, Massachusetts General Laws are abbreviated as M.G.L. or G.L. Provisions in the General Laws are identified by chapter and section, e.g., . Chapters are grouped topically by ''part'' and ''title''.
The ''parts'' of the General Laws are as follows:
:
The unannotated official version of the ''General Laws'' is published every two years. Two widely used annotated collections are ''Massachusetts General Laws Annotated'' (M.G.L.A.) from
West Publishing
West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West ha ...
, and ''Annotated Laws of Massachusetts'' (A.L.M.) published by
LexisNexis
LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer informa ...
. Both are available as bound collections and by subscription online.
The General Laws replaced the General Statutes, which are abbreviated as G.S. when cited in lists of local-option statutes accepted by cities and towns.
The
Massachusetts Constitution
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. As a member of the Massachuset ...
expressly grants to the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...
the power to review and interpret these laws.
See also
*
Code of Massachusetts Regulations The Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) is the canonical collection of regulations promulgated by various agencies of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the state counterpart to the national Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
Regulatio ...
*
Law of Massachusetts The law of Massachusetts consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory, case law, and local ordinances. The '' General Laws of Massachusetts'' form the general statutory law.
Sources
The Constitution of Massachuse ...
*
List of U.S. state statutory codes
This is an incomplete list of statutory codes from the U.S. states, territories, and the one federal district.
Most states use a single official code divided into numbered titles. Pennsylvania's official codification is still in progress.
Califor ...
References
External links
The General Laws of Massachusetts- unofficial copy on the Massachusetts legislature website
The General Laws of Massachusetts- a third-party, unofficial, searchable database on Massachusetts General Laws
Massachusetts General Lawsfrom
FindLaw
FindLaw is a business of Thomson Reuters that provides online legal information and online marketing services for law firms. FindLaw was created by Stacy Stern, Martin Roscheisen, and Tim Stanley in 1995, and was acquired by Thomson West in 2001. ...
Massachusetts Legislative Procedure- an overview of legislative procedure in Massachusetts
- an overview of legislative history in Massachusetts
Acts and Resolves (Session Laws), 1996 and later- Massachusetts legislature website
Acts and Resolves (Session Laws), prior to 1996- Massachusetts State Library archives
Socratek Massachusetts Online Law Reference
{{Legal codes of the United States by U.S. state
Massachusetts General Court
Massachusetts statutes