UNDERSTANDING US CODES

In this article, we will briefly discuss an understanding of how the United States Codes are structured. Articles have been published on the same under different categories of this website.

The United States Codes are also shortly referred to as U.S., Code, U.S.C., or simply put USC as it is the representative codification of the general and permanent statutes of the USA. The US Codes is the only supreme authority which also makes it admissible in the Court of law as a “legal evidence”. “If a dispute arises as to the accuracy or completeness of the codification of an unenacted title, the courts will turn to the language in the United States Statutes at Large. In case of a conflict between the text of the Statutes at Large and the text of a provision of the United States Code that has not been enacted as positive law, the text of the Statutes at Large takes precedence.”[1]

The authorization of the US Codes comes from its enactment through the legislative process. “For example, the United States Code omitted 12 U.S.C. § 92. for decades, because it was thought to have been repealed.”[2] However, in a 1993 United States Supreme Court case,[3] it held that Section 92 was actually in fact valid. The US Codes are largely cited by the US Supreme Court and other federal courts as well.

How the Codes are split and referred to:

The Code is divided into 53 Titles. They deal with broad, logically organized areas of legislation. Titles may optionally be divided into subtitles, parts, subparts, chapters, and subchapters. All titles have sections (represented by a §) as their basic coherent units, and sections are numbered sequentially across the entire title without regard to the previously mentioned divisions of titles. “Sections are often divided into (from largest to smallest) subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, clauses, subclauses, items, and subitems.”[4]

Here the word “Title” is similar to Volume. “In addition to the sections themselves, the Code includes statutory provisions set out as statutory notes, the Constitution, several sets of Federal court rules, and certain Presidential documents, such as Executive orders, determinations, notices, and proclamations, that implement or relate to statutory provisions in the Code. The Code does not include treaties, agency regulations, State or District of Columbia laws and most Acts are temporary or special. The Code also contains editorially created source credits, notes, and tables that provide information about the source of Code sections, their arrangement, the references they contain, and their history.”[5]

Few Examples:

1. Public Law 108-347 set out under 22 U.S.C. 5811,
2. Section 401 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 601),
3. Civil Rights Act 1964 is actually coded in Title 42 of the United States Codes,
4. 12 U.S. Code § 92 – Acting as an insurance agent or broker,[6]

TITLES:

The following Titles have been enacted on basis of positive law,[7]

TITLE 1[8]	General Provisions
TITLE 2[9]	The Congress
TITLE 3[10]	The President
TITLE 4[11]	Flag, and Seal, Seat of Government, and the States
TITLE 5	Government Organization and Employees
TITLE 6	Domestic Security
TITLE 7	Agriculture
TITLE 8	Aliens and Nationality
TITLE 9	Arbitration
TITLE 10	Armed Forces
TITLE 11	Bankruptcy
TITLE 12	Banks and Banking
TITLE 13	Census
TITLE 14	Coast Guard
TITLE 15	Commerce and Trade
TITLE 16	Conservation
TITLE 17	Copyrights
TITLE 18	Crimes and Criminal Procedure
TITLE 19	Customs Duties
TITLE 20	Education
TITLE 21	Food and Drugs
TITLE 22	Foreign Relations and Intercourse
TITLE 23	Highways
TITLE 24	Hospitals and Asylums
TITLE 25	Indians
TITLE 26	Internal Revenue Code
TITLE 27	Intoxicating Liquors
TITLE 28	Judiciary and Judicial Procedure
TITLE 29	Labor
TITLE 30	Mineral Lands and Mining
TITLE 31	Money and Finance
TITLE 32	National Guard
TITLE 33	Navigating and Navigable Waters
TITLE 34	Crime Control and Law Enforcement
TITLE 35	Patents
TITLE 36	Patriotic Societies and Observances
TITLE 37	Pay and allowances of the Uniformed Services
TITLE 38	Veterans’ Benefits
TITLE 39	Postal Services
TITLE 40	Public Buildings, Properties, and Works
TITLE 41	Public Contracts
TITLE 42	The Public Health and Welfare
TITLE 43	Public Lands
TITLE 44	Public Printing and Documents
TITLE 45	Railroads
TITLE 46	Shipping
TITLE 47	Telecommunications
TITLE 48	Territories and Insular Possessions
TITLE 49	Transportation
TITLE 50	War and National Defense
TITLE 51	National and Commercial Space Programs
TITLE 52	Voting and Elections
TITLE 53	Reserved
TITLE 54	National Park Service and Related Programs

Conclusion: The laws declared in the United States Codes are the findings of hundred years of legislation. The Codes have especially gone through various changes, enactments, amendments and with years even the drafting and principles have transformed too. The same can be reflected in the Codes.

 

Also Read: https://laymanlitigation.com/usa-codes-on-infrinmgnment-of-intellectual-property-laws

 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Code

[2] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/92

[3] National Bank of Oregon v. Independent Insurance Agents of America, Inc., U.S. 439, 440 (1993).

[4] https://www.fjc.gov/content/overview-6

[5] https://uscode.house.gov/detailed_guide.xhtml

[6] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/92

[7] https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/uscode

[8] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/1/chapter-1

[9] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/chapter-2

[10] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/chapter-3

[11] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/chapter-4