Self-Help Research - Statutes, Court Rules, and More

The Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) is the subject organization of the federal administrative regulations.

The C.F.R. is available online from a variety of institutions, including the following:

• U.S. Government Publishing Office (Annual Edition, 1996-present.)
• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) (Updated on a daily basis. Not an official edition of the CFR.)
• Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School (Updated concurrently with updates to the GPO’s Federal Digital System data on which it is based.)
• Some government agency websites link to or list relevant C.F.R. sections.

The Office of the Federal Register revises the C.F.R. on a quarterly basis as follows:

• Titles 1-16 -- contain regulations in force as of January 1 of the cover year
• Titles 17-27 -- contain regulations in force as of April 1 of the cover year
• Titles 28-41 -- contain regulations in force as of July 1 of the cover year
• Titles 42-50 -- contain regulations in force as of October 1 of the cover year

Use the Federal Register (F.R.) to see if a regulation has been revised. The Federal Register publishes proposed and final administrative rules and regulations before they are printed in the C.F.R.

The Federal Register is available online from a variety of institutions, including the following:

• U.S. Government Publishing Office (Vol. 59 (1994) - present. Updated daily.)
• FederalRegister.gov (Contains the unofficial, HTML (XML-based) edition of the daily Federal Register.)
• Regulations.gov

For other ways to access the C.F.R. and Federal Register, including in print as well as on subscription legal databases like Lexis and Westlaw, see the Code of Federal Regulations and Federal Register guides.