New York State Library Legislative History Tutorial

Step 12. Court Decisions.

To Outline.
Decisions of appealed cases at the level of appellate courts, which involve difficult interpretations of the law, occasionally provide material useful in compiling a legislative history. See a section "Legislative Background" in the reports of these courts.

Specific court cases especially illustrating a law are found in the case notes often following sections of the consolidated law. See "Notes of Decisions" in McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York and New York Consolidated Laws Service (CLS). Also, the following references may provide examples of court cases involving your law:

Parties in a lawsuit have avenues for appealing a decision to an appellate court. In New York these courts are the Supreme Court Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals. The historical development of these courts from British colonial courts is described in Guide to Records in the New York Archives (Albany: The University of the State of New York, 1993), pp. 387-398.

Cases considered by the Supreme Court Appellate Division are reported in Appellate Division Reports; those considered by the Court of Appeals are reported in New York Reports. The official citation of a case refers to these volumes. For example, "50 AD2d 211" indicates volume 50 of the Appellate Division Reports, second series, beginning on p. 211. "26 NY2d 478" indicates volume 26, second series, of New York Reports. Several volumes are published in a calendar year.

To translate names of parties in a lawsuit to the corresponding official citation, use the "Table of Cases" in West's New York Digest, LAW/NYS. The Library has digests from 1794 under various titles.

The Library has the following appellate reports:

  1. Court of Appeals.

  2. Supreme Court Appellate Division.



Go to New York State Library Home Page
Go to Legislative History Outline