Legislative history can be extraordinarily useful for determining the intent behind a law, whether you're trying to determine why the law was changed or what Congress meant by a specific phrase. Legislative history is typically found in documents created during the legislative process, including reports, hearings, records of debates, and different versions of the bill.
A 50-State Survey is, at minimum, a listing of the laws on a particular topic in all states. Some surveys are only a list of the different state code sections, while others can contain detailed information on the content of the law, sometimes organized into charts that allow you to compare the laws of different states easily.
If you need to find information on cases, statutes, or regulations from another state and have no idea where to start, check out one of these sources:
The Law Library also has a print research guide for every state in the country. These print guides often include information not available in other sources, such as sources for historical information. For more information, stop by the Reference Desk.
