If you need to know the legislative history of an Oregon statute, please remember:
1) Prior to 1995, Legislative Minutes and Exhibits were microfilmed. The microfilm isn’t complete, and won’t include many other documents that are required when you need to compile a thorough legislative history, but it is still a very useful research resource.
In these opening days of the 2011 Oregon Legislative Session, a reminder is in order, especially for people who know they will likely have to compile a legislative history one of these days:
Public records laws, open secrets policies, public meetings laws are all well and good – and you can see Oregon’s Public Records and Public Meetings Manuals posted at the Department of Justice website – but what do you do if you need a legislative history of a law, including its public hearings?
People use their public law libraries and the State Archives (in Salem) every day to research legislative histories of Oregon laws.
I’ve blogged before about the very useful Oregon Council on Court Procedures website. For those who remember plowing through the print versions of these documents … this website is a miracle!
And if you want to know some history about the OCCP, this website a good place to begin. (As for why the ORCP is buried in the ORS, between Chapters 11 and 12, you’ll need to wait for another OLR blog post. I asked Legislative Counsel this question not long ago but have yet to write up the answer.)
Legislative vs. Administrative Histories:
1) It is not unusual for a legal researcher to ask for a “legislative” history of a statute, when in fact there was no legislature involved in the statute’s, or rule’s, enactment or promulgation.
The OJD December 10, 2009, Media Release gives a summary of this case (other Media Releases).
Read the full case:
State of Oregon v. Roy Lee McCullough, Jr. (SC S056910) (decided December 10, 2009)
The online legislative history “minutes” heretofore* on the Oregon State Archives web page, courtesy of the Oregon State Legislature and the Legislative Administrative Committee, will henceforth* not be available online; just the tape logs and audio files will be online.
Anyone who researches Oregon legislative history knows about the welcome transition several years ago to online records (from microfilm) at the Oregon State Archives, a division of the Secretary of State’s office. (Another statewide office up for election this year.) So, it’s full speed ahead to the past now, not back to the future.
This is likely a budgetary decision. But we haven’t yet found out why the “minutes” were chosen for cuts rather than something else. Law librarians weren’t asked is all I know so don’t blame me; you can try these instead if you want to know why.
Compiling a legislative history is not as dull as it sounds. Sure there is some slogging but the treasure troves are often off those beaten paths. If you want to research the history of an Oregon statute, here are some hints:
1) Don’t forget the beaten path: you still need to read through the legislative journals and calendars, minutes, exhibits, tracings, and in fact, all of these basic resources are incredibly useful preparation for searching further afield. I like the legislative history guides you can find at Oregon’s law school libraries and one of them might do the trick for you: University of Oregon, Lewis & Clark, and Willamette.
2) Be methodical: I’ve created my own Oregon legislative history checklist / cheat sheet (link also from our web page) that you can look at here. It has served me well. If you like it, but want to tweak it for your own needs, email me and I’ll send you a word processed version you can make your own.
Oregon Legal Research Blog