After a legislative session, the library is often asked about legal citations to legislation. The following style formats are from The Greenbook: Texas Rules of Form, 12th edition, by the Texas Law Review. Please note that a different citation method is available in the Texas Legislative Council Drafting Manual.
Session Laws (rule 10.3):
Citations to session laws may be used if the statute has not yet appeared in the Vernon’s Texas Civil Statutes Annotated or Vernon’s Texas Codes Annotated, or when citing for the historical fact of enactment. There are five elements of a session law citation:
- Name of the statute: use the official short title or popular name, if available. Otherwise use “Act of [date of enactment].” The Greenbook specifies that “The date of enactment is the date of the final relevant legislative action on the bill, not the date of executive approval.”
- Legislature and session of enactment: use 83d for 83rd Legislature, use R.S. for Regular Session, use C.S. for Called Sessions and number as: 1st C.S., 2d C.S., 3d C.S.
- Chapter and section number of the session law: use lower case, i.e., "ch.” A session law may have many section numbers, which may be cited individually with a "§" symbol, or "§§" for more than one section.
- General and Special Laws of the State of Texas year and page number (or the Vernon’s Texas Session Law Service pamphlets prior to the publication of bound volumes).
- Future location in the code.
Examples:
Higher Education Outcomes-Based Funding Act, 82d Leg., R.S., ch. 1120, 2011 Tex. Gen. Laws 2882.
Act of May 26, 2013, 83d Leg., R.S., ch. 211, § 9, 2013 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. 903 (West) (to be codified at Tex. Educ. Code § 28.00222).
Act of May 27, 2011, 82d Leg., R.S., ch. 1087, §§ 1, 5, 2011 Tex. Gen. Laws 2822, 2823-24.
Unenacted Bills (rule 14.1.1):
Tex. S.B. 315, 83d Leg., R.S. (2013).
Tex. H.B. 8, 83d Leg., 2d C.S. (2013).
Concurrent and Joint Resolutions (rule 14.1.2):
Tex. S. Con. Res. 12, 83d Leg., R.S. (2013).
Tex. H.R. Con. Res. 33, 83d Leg., R.S. (2013).
Tex. H.R.J. Res. 133, 83d Leg., R.S. (2013).
Tex. S.J. Res. 1, 83d Leg., R.S. (2013).
When documenting legislative history, include citation to the General and Special Laws of the State of Texas:
Tex. S.J. Res. 14, 68th R.S., 1983 Tex. Gen. Laws 6683 (Veterans' Land Program and Veterans' Housing Assistance Program).
