Law 

 LAW <==> ACT <==> STATUTE

     used interchangeably

United States Statutes At Large

The official source and permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress.

"The Statutes at Large is prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Every public and private law passed by Congress is published in the Statutes at Large, in order of the date it was enacted into law."
from: GPO Access website

United States Code 

Purpose is to present laws in a concise and usable form

"The official compilation of the current Federal statutes of a general and permanent nature. The Code is arranged according to subject matter under 50 subject headings ("titles"). " Published every six years.
from: U.S. House of Representatives website

• Constitution of the
  United States



• State Constitutions

Two important things to note:

• Laws are often referred to by 'common names' --- but would not necessarily be retrieved in formal databases by those names.
  LexisNexis® Congressional offers a nice table of  Major Laws that includes common names


• "An important note to remember is that laws get amended over the years, which means that the language of a law can be changed, added to, or deleted. If you want to read a law that is currently in force--that is, the amended version of the law--you will want to look at the United States Code."
  from: U.S. Senate website

LexisNexis® Academic  - info
All Federal laws from 1988 to the present

Westlaw's Campus Research ™ - info
Federal statutes published in the United States Code Annotated (USCA); permanent laws of the United States categorized by Title. West takes the United States Code based on the Statutes at Large (Public Laws) and adds annotations with references to court cases and regulations.

United States Statutes At Large
The United States Statutes at Large, typically referred to as the Statutes at Large, is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress. The Statutes at Large is prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Every public and private law passed by Congress is published in the Statutes at Large, in order of the date it was enacted into law.

United States Code
The United States Code is prepared and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives. This database contains the general and permanent laws of the United States.

LexisNexis® Academic  - info
Codes for all 50 states and territories, plus constitutions, court rules, and Attorneys General opinions

Westlaw's Campus Research ™ - info
State statutes