LibGuides: North Carolina Legislative History: Introduction

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What Is in This Guide?

North Carolina Legislative History

This guide outlines some of the most important sources of information about North Carolina legislation and the legislative process, covering available materials from the period of 1789 to the present. A section at the end of this guide addresses research regarding prestatehood legislative materials. The guide covers the following:

Document Availability and Background
Contains general information on online sources for legislative documents and where to find background information on the N.C. legislative process.
Finding Session Laws and Codifications
Contains information about how to find N.C. statutes, whether in session law or code form.
Finding and Tracking Bills
Contains information about finding and tracking North Carolina bills.
House and Senate Proceedings
Contains information about finding North Carolina legislative journals as well as audio recordings for both the House and Senate.
Committee Deliberations
Contains information for finding North Carolina legislative committees deliberations.
Study Reports
Contains information about finding North Carolina legislative study reports.

Conducting NC Legislative History Research

The following steps will help you in your research of North Carolina legislative history:

Find the session law numbers.
Lookup and read the session laws.
Review the bill chronology and earlier versions of the bill using the North Carolina General Assembly website. For pre-1885 bills, create a chronology of events using the House and Senate Journals.
Read the committee minutes, if available.
Read the notes from the floor debate or actions in House and Senate Journals.
Read any available study reports.
Look at the Governor's signing statement or reported comments, if available.

Source: Brenda D. Gibson, Julie L. Kimbrough, Laura P. Graham, Nichelle J. Perry. North Carolina Legal Research, 3rd ed. Durham, N.C. : Carolina Academic Press, 2019. [KFN7475 .C48 2019].