Acts and Resolves

Legislative Acts and Resolves

The process of legislation concludes with the enrollment and promulgation of acts and resolves enacted or passed by the Legislature. The entire process constitutes the "legislative history" of an act or resolve. The enrolled acts are the original engrossed copies of acts of the Legislature signed by the Speaker of the House, President of the Senate and the Governor. Acts are bound into volumes for each Legislature without regard to their classification as "public laws" or "private and special laws." These volumes form a continuous record series from 1820 to the present. Enrolled resolves are the original engrossed copies of resolves of the Legislature signed by the Speaker of the House, President of the Senate and the Governor. The resolves are bound into volumes for each Legislature and form a part of a continuous record series from 1820. Legislative histories of acts and resolves (background, history and purposes) may be found in the Journals of the House and Senate and in the Legislative Record which records the proceedings and debates on all legislation introduced during the session. The history and final disposition of bills and resolves considered by the Legislature during a regular session since 1947 is published in the Register of All Bills and Resolves issued following the session. The action taken by the House and Senate on each bill and resolve during a session is recorded by the Legislative Information Office for final compilation and publication. This information is available for the current session on request in the Legislative Information Office or through terminals of the legislative computer system.

Publication and Revision

Public laws, private and special laws and resolves of each Legislature from 1840 on have been published as separate divisions in the "session laws" printed from each regular session. Each of the divisions was published as a separate pamphlet from 1820 to 1840 before they were combined and published as the Acts and Resolves (or Laws) of Maine. Periodic revisions of the general and public laws of the State since 1821 were adopted by the Legislature in 1840, 1857, 1871,1883, 1903, 1916, 1930, 1944, 1954 and 1964. The immediate source for each revision is the preceding revision and the public laws amending it, which are incorporated into the new revision. Limited in Maine to the revision of form rather than substantive law, the process provides for the systematic classification, numbering and compilation of the statutory law, the elimination of obsolete language and the clarification of inconsistent provisions. The effect of the revision process is to bring the entire body of general and public laws of the State forward into a new statutory compilation and to give it effect as of the time of its enactment. Private and special laws and resolves are generally unaffected by a revision unless they have such a general character as to warrant their reallocation as public law.

Public Laws

Public laws, as amendments to the revised statutes, may generally be traced back to their enactment through the use of cross reference tables, indexes, and by means of successive history lines found under the appropriate sections of preceding revisions. Once the year and chapter of enactment is established, the search may be extended further to include the original papers for the particular act.

Private and Special Laws

Private and special laws and resolves are not generally incorporated into the revised statutes and must be located in the volumes of session laws of the Legislature which adopted them. A two-volume index to the private and special laws published by the Attorney General for the periods 1820-1944 and 1944-1957 greatly simplify the task of locating the year and chapter of enactment of these laws. Once in possession of this information, it is possible to locate the original papers in the same manner as the public laws.

Resolves

Research in the resolves requires the use of the individual indexes to each volume of session laws. Selected resolves from 1820 that were still in force were reprinted and indexed in the Digest of Resolvesfrom 1820-1862 published by the Secretary of State in 1862. The resolves are supported by original papers which may be located in the same manner as the public and private and special laws.

Indexes

Indexes to the volumes of session laws prior to 1951 are divided under each letter so that the references to public laws, private and special laws and resolves are grouped together. The indexes since 1933 are cumulative to the revisions of 1944, 1954 and 1964, so that checking the session laws of 1945, 1953 and 1963 eliminates the necessity for examining the indexes for the runs of session laws in between.

Value of Private and Special Laws, Resolves

The power of the Legislature to enact Private and Special Laws or to pass Resolves gives it great flexibility in responding to issues and needs of a temporary nature; in interposing the authority of the State for the resolution of local problems that do not affect the citizenry of the State as a whole; or in the creating by incorporation of institutions such as banks, academies and municipalities that affect certain segments of the population. Unlike the public laws which are enacted to administer permanent or long-term functions affecting all citizens, Private and Special Laws or Resolves generally reflect the State's assumption of responsibility for very specific and immediate or very localized needs and requirements. They thus provide a remarkable overview of the issues, concerns and needs that have confronted the people of Maine throughout the State's history.

Reports, Communications, Messages

Another important source which should not be overlooked are the various reports, communications and messages, both of the Governors and otherwise, published in the session laws from 1840 on, and between 1820-1840 in the printed pamphlets of resolves. The published revisions also include such informative material as the Note by the Commissioner on the Sources of Land Titles in Maine in the Revised Statutes of 1883, and the brief history of the first five revisions contained in the Commissioner's Prefatory Note to the 1903 revision. The reports of the various Commissioners to revise the general and public laws of the State should be consulted if there is difficulty in tracing the source of some particular statute, since the earlier revisions were, in fact, a great deal more substantive, and various changes were enacted by the revisions generally upon the basis of the recommendations made in these reports. Bibliographies which list Maine Session laws and revisions are noted in the History of Statutory Law in the State of Maine appearing in Volume 1 of the Maine Revised Statutes Annotated (1964).

Opinion of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General

The Senate, House of Representatives and Governor are empowered under the Constitution to ask the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court "to give their opinion upon solemn occasions." Such advisory opinions until 1965 were published in the State edition edition of the Maine Reports by the Reporter of Decisions, and since 1965, in the Maine Reporter which publishes the Maine cases reported in the Atlantic Reporter. The opinions from 1885 to present are also published in the Atlantic Reporter. The Attorney General is required by statute to give his "written opinion upon questions of law submitted to him by the Governor, by the head of State departments or any of the State agencies or by either branch of the Legislature or any members of the Legislature on legislative matters." Such opinions were selectively published in the biennial reports of the Attorney General through 1972. A reference set is maintained by the Attorney General of all opinions issued by that office which includes copies of those opinions not published in the biennial reports or which have been rendered since the discontinuance of the biennial report in 1972. Copies of the opinions are also available for consultation at the State Law Library.

Legislative Studies and Research

Research into the diverse problems undertaken by the Legislature or by its authority are generally made available in the form of written reports made available to the public through the State Law Library, Joint Standing Committees or Legislative Staff Offices. These reports and other non-current records are generally transferred to the Maine State Archives by the legislative service agencies as part of the records of the Legislature and are available for research use.

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Acts and Resolves