The New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated (RSA) forms the
codified law of the state
subordinate
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
to the
New Hampshire State Constitution.
History
The RSA is a set of law books published by
Thomson West Thomson may refer to:
Names
* Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin
* Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson
Businesses and organizations
* SGS-Thomson Mic ...
. The work of updating the previous codification, the Revised Laws (RL) of 1942, was authorized by law in 1953 and was "not intended to change the meaning of the law as it existed on December 31, 1954." The work was done by a New Hampshire Revision Commission, which describes what it did at the start of each volume of the RSA, and was ratified in 1955 by statute.
A predecessor of Thomson West acquired the business of publishing the RSA from Equity Publishing Corp., founded by former governor
Meldrim Thomson Jr. It was a sore spot with some lawyers that, to purchase law books, they had to do business with the arch-conservative Thomson.
Contents
The RSA endeavors to collect all the current laws "of a public and general nature" in a single, numbered set. The
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
and of the
New Hampshire Constitution
The Constitution of the State of New Hampshire is the fundamental law of the State of New Hampshire, with which all statute laws must comply. The constitution became effective June 2, 1784, when it replaced the state's constitution of 1776.
The ...
are included in the RSA.
The RSA is structured as follows:
* Titles addressing a general topic;
* Chapters; and
* Sections, which may be one or more paragraphs.
Each section of the RSA includes annotations, such as a summary of court cases that were decided based on that section, a list of other cases that cited the section, cross-references to other parts of the RSA, and references to relevant legal publications.
The printed books are reissued occasionally. After each legislative session, pamphlets with cumulative changes to a given volume are issued, to be inserted in a pocket at the rear of the volume. A reissued volume incorporates all such changes.
Disposition tables appear in the printed set and in each set of pamphlets. They let the reader determine the disposition of the previous codification (the RL) and of each enactment of the New Hampshire legislature: where that text was placed in the RSA. In cases where source text was omitted from the RSA (for example, a law that is now obsolete or superseded by another), the disposition tables give the rationale.
Text of the law is the property of the state of New Hampshire, and can be read and searched without the annotations on the state web site.
The annotations are value added by
Thomson West Thomson may refer to:
Names
* Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin
* Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson
Businesses and organizations
* SGS-Thomson Mic ...
.
The numbering of laws becomes obsolete through subsequent work of the legislature. New chapters of law may be added; a new chapter to be located between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 is called Chapter 1-A. Repealed chapters are shown without their former text but with a note that they were repealed. Their chapter numbers will not be reused until the next complete recodification.
In some cases (see the list below), an entire title has been recodified. The chapters of the old title are repealed and new chapters are added at the end as a new title. Single chapters are often recodified and given a number with a suffix such as -A. They replace the entire old chapter. Either recodification technique makes it easier to see the current law in one place, without requiring recodification of parts of the RSA that are changed less frequently.
Titles in the RSA
*
Title I: The State and Its Government (RSA Chapters 1-21)
*
Title II
*
Title III: Towns, Cities, Villages and Municipal Places (RSA Chapters 31-53E)
*
Title IV: Elections(Old) (RSA Chapters 51-70)
*
Title V: Taxation (RSA Chapters 71-90)
*
Title VI
*
Title VII
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requir ...
*
Title VIII
*
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
*
Title X
The Title X Family Planning Program is the only federal grant program dedicated to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. It was enacted under President Richard Nixon in 1970 as part of th ...
*
Title XI
*
Title XII
*
Title XIII
*
Title XIV
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...
*
Title XV
*
Title XVI
*
Title XVII
*
Title XVIII Fish and Game (Chapter 206-215C)
*
Title XIX
*
Title XX Transportation (Chapter 228-240)
*
Title XXI
*
Title XXII
*
Title XXIII
*
Title XXIV
*
Title XXV
*
Title XXVI
*
Title XXVII
*
Title XXVIII
*
Title XXIX
*
Title XXX Occupations and Professions (Chapters 309-322I)
*
Title XXXI
*
Title XXXII
*
Title XXXIII
*
Title XXXIV
*
Title XXXV
*
Title XXXVI
*
Title XXXVII
*
Title XXXVIII
*
Title XXXIX
*
Title XL
*
Title XLI
*
Title XLII
*
Title XLIII
*
Title XLIV
*
Title XLV
*
Title XLVI
*
Title XLVII
*
Title XLVIII
*
Title XLIX
*
Title L
*
Title LI
*
Title LII
*
Title LIII
*
Title LIV
*
Title LV
*
Title LVI
*
Title LVII
*
Title LVIII
*
Title LIX
*
Title LX
*
Title LXI
*
Title LXII
*
Title LXIII:Elections (Current) (RSA Chapters 652-671)
*
Title LXIV
References
External links
NH RSAs Online
{{Legal codes of the United States by U.S. state
Revised
United States state legal codes