Session Laws (Statutes at Large)

When a legislature passes acts or bills, those acts and bills are collected in a hardbound set of books called Session Laws, or Statutes at Large, or some other similar term. Since most legislatures meet every year, each year has it’s own set of Session Laws for that year. The acts or bills will also be incorporated within the regular set of statutes for that state, which means that the researcher rarely needs to use Session Laws. Since they contain laws, however, they are considered primary authority.